Notes: The Washington Spectator has posted online the transcript of a African American Policy Forum panel on “Why Authoritarians and Their Allies Scheme So Relentlessly to Undermine Multi-Racial Democracy,” hosted by Kimberlé Crenshaw and including historians Carol Anderson and Nancy MacLean along with attorney Janai Nelson…. The United States Foreign Policy History & Resource Guide website, sponsored by H-PAD and the Peace History Society, has added a 47,000-word essay, “The Founding of the United States of America,” by Roger Peace. Among other topics the author explores the context and meanings of the idealistic statements in the Declaration of Independence and the recent political controversy over the nation’s heritage.
Links to Recent Articles of Interest
“The Normality of Evil: Reflections on the ‘NAZA’ Documentary”
By Yakov M. Rabkin, Informed Comment, posted October 19
A chilling commentary on the new documentary film on genocide in Gaza. “The twenty-four perpetrators interviewed in the film belong to elite intelligence units that harness the power of AI and total surveillance to destroy Gaza. They are not ‘Arab haters,’ remarks one of the interviewees. Yet he believes he killed more women and children than the fiercest Arab hater.” The author is a professor emeritus of history at the University of Montreal. Among his books is A Threat from Within: A Century of Jewish Opposition to Zionism (Bloomsbury, 2006).
“When FDR Warned Us About Trump”
By Alan Singer, Daily Kos, posted October 14
An annotated account of a speech by President Franklin Roosevelt to a White House Correspondents Association dinner in 1941 on the rising tide of fascism in Europe, with notes on the resemblance of Trump administration actions to the dangers cited in the speech. The author is a historian and former high school social studies teacher who teaches in the Department of Teaching, Literacy and Technology at Hofstra University.
“Navi Pillay’s Nobel Peace Prize Is a Vote of Confidence in a Global Legal Order Under Fire”
By Frans Viljoen, The Conversation, posted October 10
Uses the career of Nobel Peace Prize winner Navi Pillay to depict the growth of institutions of international justice. “Her Nobel Prize does not suggest that international justice has triumphed. But it reminds us that the structures built to advance it remain worth defending. Recognising Pillay is an affirmation of what has been achieved, but also about what must not be lost.” The author teaches Human Rights Law at the University of Pretoria.
“The Strait of Hormuz in World History & the Present Crisis”
By Brian Ulrich, Informed Comment, posted October 10
Offers long-term historical perspective on the ways to which powers controlling the Strait of Hormuz have sought to control trade between the Persian Gulf and the wider world. The author teaches history at Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania and is the author of The Medieval Persian Gulf (Cambridge U. Press, 2023).
“The International Criminal Court Is Under Attack”
By Lawrence Wittner, Common Dreams, posted October 10
A concise history of the International Criminal Court since its launching in 2002 and, especially, the actions of the US and Russian governments to limit it (and now, under Trump, to cripple it). The author is a professor emeritus of history at SUNY Albany.
“Cubana Flight 455: An Act of Aviation Terrorism 50 Years Later”
By the National Security Archive, posted October 8 (edited by Peter Kornbluh)
A posting of CIA and FBI documents regarding the bombing by CIA-connected Cuban exiles of a civilian Cuban jetliner on October 8, 1976, killing all 73 persons aboard. “This infamous act of aviation terrorism, one of the worst in the Western Hemisphere before 9/11, must never be forgotten.” Peter Kornbluh, the editor, is a senior analyst at the National Security Archive, where one of his roles is as director of the Cuba Information Project.
“Two Decades of Murderous Lies and Stupidity”
By Stephen Zunes, Substack, posted October 2
Revisits the 2002 Congressional resolution under which the US invaded Iraq in 2003 and began a military presence in that country that lasted until a few weeks ago. The article stresses the bipartisan nature of the vote, with emphasis on prominent Democrats who supported it and went on to hold high government positions. The author teaches at the University of San Francisco and has written widely on Middle East politics, US foreign policy, and strategic nonviolent action.
By Kim Phillips-Fein, The Atlantic, October issue
A review essay on American Scoundrel: Roy Cohn’s Dark Journey from Joe McCarthy to Donald Trump by Kai Bird and Susan Goldmark (Scribner, 2026). The author teaches US history at Columbia University. Among her books is Fear City: New York’s Fiscal Crisis and the Rise of Austerity Politics (MacMillan, 2018).
“Vietnamese Press: US Military Withdrawal from Iraq a Victory for Tehran”
By Juan Cole, ScheerPost, posted September 30
Compares the final US withdrawal from Vietnam in 1975 to the withdrawal of the last remaining US troops in Iraq in September of this year. “This American withdrawal from Iraq is an ignominious end to Bush’s Iraq War…. While the defeat was not as dramatic as in Vietnam, it too was a major defeat for the US. Bush brought a pro-Iran Shiite majority to power in Iraq.” The author teaches Middle East history at the University of Michigan.
“How Trump Became Mob Boss of the United States”
By Sean Wilentz, Reader Supported News, posted September 29 (from Rolling Stone)
A lengthy sampling of the forms of corruption which characterize the second Trump administration, rooted in the Brooklyn machine politics that had boosted Trump’s father but taken much further. The author teaches US history at Princeton University.
Thanks to Rusti Eisenberg and an anonymous reader for suggesting articles included in the above list, and to Roger Peace for valuable consulting. Suggestions can be sent to jimobrien48@gmail.com.