Links to Recent Articles of Interest

“Trump’s Iran Deal: A Peace Activist’s Perspective”

By Medea Benjamin, CODEPINK, posted June 18

“Trump and Netanyahu should never have started the war on Iran, and Congress should have stopped it. But now it has to end. There is an agreement on the table, and we should do everything we can to make it work. The priority has to be ending the bloodshed – not finding new excuses to prolong it.” The author is a longtime political activist who co-founded Global Exchange in 1988 and CODEPINK – Women for Peace in 2002.

“Trump, the Democrats and the Courage to End a Failed War”

By Trita Parsi, Substack, posted June 18

“Trump owns this failed war, but if Democrats help torpedo the [Memorandum of Understanding] and war resumes, then they will co-own the next war.” The author is an Iranian-Swedish political analyst who has written several books on US-Iran relations.

“Meet the New Bosses, Worse than the Old Bosses”

By Paul Krugman, Substack, posted June 16

Uses statistics to argue that the concentration of wealth at the very top is much greater today than in the “Gilded Age” of the late nineteenth century and that its consequences in political corruption are greater as well. The author, a Nobel Prize winner in economics, teaches at the CUNY Graduate Center and writes regularly on economic issues on Substack.

“Andrew Johnson: Institutions Are Only as Strong as Their Occupants”

By Annette Gordon-Reed, Pursuit, posted June 9

A short essay on Andrew Johnson, whose “ferocious opposition to Reconstruction” as president after Abraham Lincoln’s death gave racist white southerners hope of eventually reversing the nation’s steps toward racial progress. The author is a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian who teaches at Harvard University. Among her many US history books is a biography of Johnson (Times Books, 2011) in the American Presidents series .

“US Indictment of Raul Castro Comes amid a Long History of American Aggression against Cuba”

By Kevin A. Young, The Conversation, posted June 8

A capsule history of US government efforts, over six and a half decades, to destroy the Cuban revolution. The author teaches Latin American and US history at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and is a member of the H-PAD steering committee.

“Who Will Account for Another Foreign Policy Failure?”

By Peter Beinart, New York Times, posted June 7

What happens when a US war of choice goes disastrously wrong, as happened in Iraq and now in Iran? In the case of Iraq, politicians and think-tank analysts who supported the Iraq war were subsequently appointed to high positions or listened to respectfully with no need to account for their past actions. The author teaches journalism and political science at the graduate school of journalism of the City University of New York and is a former editor of The New Republic.

“After America: The Causes and Consequences of U.S. Global Decline”

By Alfred McCoy, TomDispatch, posted June 2

Analyzes the factors, sped-up but not caused by Trump policies, of what the author calls the end of an 80-year period of US hegemony. The author teaches US history at the University of Wisconsin and has written, among other books, War on Five Continents: A Global History of Empire and Espionage (Haymarket Books, 2025).

“Around the World, Global Solidarity and Cooperation Are Remarkably Popular”

By Lawrence S. Wittner, Z, posted June 1

On survey results, worldwide and specifically in the US, showing strong majority support for international cooperation. The author is a professor emeritus of history at SUNY Albany and is the author of Confronting the Bomb: A Short History of the World Nuclear Disarmament Movement (Stanford U. Press, 2009) .

“South Lebanon’s History of Resistance”

By Juan Cole, Informed Comment, posted May 31

A brief history of predominantly Shia south Lebanon under Ottoman and French rule and as a neighbor to an expansionist Israel. “The Israelis created Hezbollah [formed in 1984] by their brutal occupation. It became a thorn in their side, but also a pretext for further attempts to weaken Lebanese society and annex parts of the country, which they attempted unsuccessfully in 1986.” The author teaches Middle East history at the University of Michigan.

“Iran War Triggers a ‘Suez Moment.’ Also a “Cuban Missile Crisis’ Moment”

By Max Elbaum, Convergence, posted May 28

Argues that the Iran War “offers a wake-up call” – that global changes since the Cuban missile crisis of 1962 have brought new sources of potential worldwide catastrophe – and suggests elements of a strategy to respond. The author, a longtime activist and commentator on left movements in the US, co-edited, with Linda Burnham and Maria Poblet, Power Concedes Nothing: How Grassroots Organizing Wins Elections (OR Books, 2022).

“Birthright Citizenship Existed Before the Fourteenth Amendment”

By Van Gosse, History News Network, posted May 29

Argues that the 1857 Dred Scott decision, in which the Supreme Court majority held that the Constitution excluded Black people from citizenship, “sparked outrage precisely because it was radically new. The Fourteenth Amendment, on the other hand, “had precedents stretching back to the Founding” for its affirmation that everyone born on US soil is a citizen. The author is a professor emeritus of US history at Franklin and Marshall College and a co-chair of H-PAD.

“The Frightful Cost of War and a Bubble Gum Card”

By Charles Howlett, CounterPunch, posted May 28

On an unusual but enormously popular series of bubble gum cards marketed in the US for a brief time in the late 1930s under the label “The Frightful Cost of War.” Each card, of which a hundred million were produced, featured a scene depicting the brutality of warfare. The author is a professor emeritus of education at Molloy University and a student of peace movements in the US.

“The Education of Pope Leo XIV”

By Greg Grandin, New York Review of Books, posted May 24

“As a young missionary in Peru, the pope witnessed a war on liberation theology – and was indelibly stamped by the movement’s commitment to the poor.” The author teaches US history at Yale University. The most recent of his books is America, America: A New History of the New World (Penguin Random House, 2025).

Thanks to Rusti Eisenberg, Steve Gosch, and an anonymous reader for suggesting articles included in the above list, and to Roger Peace (creator of the United States Foreign Policy History & Resource Guide) for valuable consulting. Suggestions can be sent to jimobrien48@gmail.com.