Links to Recent Articles of Interest
“A Scholarly Association’s Secretive Washington Playbook”
By Adam Rzepka, Chronicle of Higher Education, posted August 25
A long, detailed critique of the role of a DC lobbying firm in the American Historical Association leadership’s strategizing against resolutions criticizing Israeli actions in Gaza. The author teaches in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at Montclair State University and was one of the authors of the “Resolution Opposing Attacks on Core Principles of Higher Education” vetoed by the AHA Council in January.
By Stephen Kinzer, Boston Globe, posted August 17
Challenges Marco Rubio’s contention that anti-imperialism is a far-left phenomenon by evoking American statesmen from George Washington to Robert Taft and, in particular, the broad-based opposition to the US adoption of a worldwide empire in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The author is a historian and former New York Times correspondent and a Senior Fellow of the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University.
By Amy Qin, The Guardian, posted August 14
Highlights the work of hundreds of volunteers who have taken more than 17,000 photographs of historical signs in more than 400 national parks and monuments, preserving the history told by the signs before the Trump administration moves to erase it. The author is a national correspondent for the New York Times.
By Beth English and Christopher Sellers, Dissent, posted August 4
On the Trump administration’s multi-front attack on historians and historical institutions. “Seen together, these actions constitute a single project of moving the authority to decide what counts as history out of the hands of history professionals and into those of the president and his political appointees.” Beth English is Executive Director of the Organization of American Historians; Chritopher Sellers teaches history at Stony Brook University.
“The Rulers of the Nuclear Powers Are Slow Learners”
By Lawrence Wittner, CounterPunch, posted August 4
A short account of the advance and ebb of anti-nuclear activism. “Today, most rulers of the nuclear powers are nationalistic, militaristic, and authoritarian, with no interest in nuclear disarmament. Instead, they are busy readying their nations for a disastrous nuclear war.” The author is a professor emeritus of history at SUNY Albany.
By Kai Bird and Susan Goldmark, The New Yorker, posted August 3
Traces the ascent of Donald Trump as a New York real estate developer, shaped in large measure by his close relationship in the 1970s and early ’80s with the lawyer and fixer Roy Cohn. “Trump’s father had taught him to have cutthroat ambition. But Cohn taught him tactics.” Kai Bird is a columnist and historian whose biography of J. Robert Oppenheimer won a Pulitzer Prize; Susan Goldmark is a retired development economist at the World Bank.
“America’s Most Divisive Historian Gets a New Biography”
By Adam Hochschild, New York Times, posted August 3
An even-handed review of People’s Historian (Penguin Random House, 2026), Dave Zirin’s new biography of Howard Zinn, whose A People’s History of the United States has sold over four million copies since its 1980 publication. “The immense popularity of ‘A People’s History’ revealed an embarrassing vacuum in the way American history has long been taught.” The author has written several best-selling history books, most recently American Midnight: The Great War, a Violent Peace, and Democracy’s Forgotten Crisis (HarperCollins, 2022).
“The Pro-Israel Lobby Has Swayed US Presidents Since Truman. It Must End with Trump”
By Ian Lustik and Eli Clifton, The Guardian, posted August 2
Argues that a long train of US presidents, starting with HarryTruman in 1948, have bowed to fear of political repercussions when considering Mideast policies independently of Israeli interests. Eli Clifton is a co-founder and senior adviser at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft; Ian Lustick is a profesor emeritus of political science at the University of Pennsylvania, specializing in Arab-Israeli relations and US foreign policy.
“Pete Hegseth’s Crisis of Masculinity”
By Nick Turse, The Intercept, posted July 25
Likens the Defense secretary’s much lampooned concern with testosterone to the overwrought concern with masculinity that was prevalent in the US around the start of the last century and was embodied by Hegseth’s idol Theodore Roosevelt. The author is an investigative journalist and historian. Among his books is Kill Anything That Moves: The Real American War in Vietnam (Metropolitan Books, 2013).
“After ‘Political Terrorism Summit,” U.S. Names 43 Americans + Groups”
By Ken Klippenstein, Substack, posted July 24
An annotated listing of individuals and groups named in the State Department’s report on Cuba’s ‘campaign of subversion against the United States.’ “The implication is clear: Secretary of State Marco Rubio thinks there should be a modern-day blacklist of the political left in America.” The author is an independent journalist who has written for The Nation and The Intercept among other publications.
“I’m a Scholar of Genocide. We’re Entering a Terrifying New Era”
By Omer Bartov, New York Times, posted July 21
“If the plans that are currently being elaborated for Gaza [by the “Board of Peace”] go forward, genocide may come to be seen by some nations as the legitimate and lucrative extension of politics by other means.” The author is an Israeli-American historian who teaches Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Brown University. His latest book is Israel: What Went Wrong? (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2026).
“How Biden Enabled Israel’s Aggression Toward Gaza – and Iran”
By David D. Kirkpatrick, The New Yorker, posted July 20
A chronological account of the complex internal discussions that led President Biden, time and again, to hold off from enforcing US laws that could have resulted in blocking military aid to Israel amid its assault on the population of Gaza.The author is a writer for The New Yorker and formerly the New York Times, where he was part of teams that won three Pulitzer Prizes for Journalism.
Thanks to Rusti Eisenberg, Margaret Power, and an anonymous reader for flagging articles included in the above list, and to Roger Peace for his always-insightful consulting. Suggestions can be sent to jimobrien48@gmail.com.