Departments

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military history

  • 10/24/2021

    The Women Who Won the Vietnam War

    by Sherry Buchanan

    Fifty years on, the history of the women who defeated a superpower, while celebrated in Vietnam, remains largely unrecognized and undocumented in our history of the war.

  • SOURCE: TomDispatch
    10/7/2021

    Never Having to Say You're Sorry

    by Karen J. Greenberg

    Numerous players with large and small roles in creating the expansive War on Terror have issued mea culpas; the major architects and the interests who profit from war have not. 

  • SOURCE: New York Times
    10/1/2021

    Army Base Names Are Changing. But to What?

    “There is a lesson here,” said Wade Fowler, who was born and raised here and now runs a small barbecue joint. “Don’t name things after people.”

  • SOURCE: The Conversation
    9/29/2021

    Autonomous Robot Weapons Could be More Destabilizing than Nukes

    by James Dawes

    "Imagine a world in which militaries, insurgent groups and international and domestic terrorists can deploy theoretically unlimited lethal force at theoretically zero risk at times and places of their choosing, with no resulting legal accountability."

  • SOURCE: TomDispatch
    9/30/2021

    "A Horrible Mistake": Time to Ditch CENTCOM

    by Andrew Bacevich

    Created by military reorganization undertaken by the Reagan administration, CENTCOM assumes control of potential military operations in 20 nations, where a half-billion people live. In the decades of its existence, it has overseen the decline and imminent collapse of American empire. 

  • SOURCE: TomDispatch
    9/19/2021

    After Afghanistan: Will Peace Get a Chance?

    by William Astore

    "Here’s the rest of my message to my fellow citizens. Stop rewarding the Pentagon and its failed generals and admirals with yet more money."

  • SOURCE: Inside Higher Ed
    9/21/2021

    Military Historians Divided over Boycotting Texas for Conference

    The Society for Military History has planned its annual conference for Texas next spring. The state's radical new abortion law has prompted some members to call for moving the event, and sparked debate over what constitutes political neutrality for the organization. 

  • SOURCE: New York Times
    9/10/2021

    Buffalo Soldiers Statue Unveiled at West Point

    The Buffalo Soldiers held a confounding position in the military, teaching cavalry skills to white cadets at West Point while housed in segregated barracks, and fighting white supremacy within the army while also taking part in the military campaign of conquest against Native Americans. 

  • SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
    9/14/2021

    The History that Shaped Memorials to Fallen Service Members

    by Jeffrey Smith

    The emergence of industrial-scale slaughter in the battles of the Civil War pushed the military to establish national cemeteries and created the background for today's ritualized ceremonies of remembrance. 

  • SOURCE: War on the Rocks
    9/7/2021

    There's More War in the Classroom Than You Think

    by William Hitchcock and Meghan Herwig

    Whatever the causes of the decline in history enrollments, it's not because history departments have rejected the study of war and military history. 

  • SOURCE: WBUR
    8/31/2021

    How Previous Presidents have Ended American Wars

    With the U.S.'s longest war coming to an end, Here & Now's Scott Tong speaks with Julian Zelizer, professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University, to look back at how other U.S. presidents have handled ending conflicts.

  • SOURCE: New York Times
    8/30/2021

    America's Military is Too Big

    by Jeremy Suri

    The war in Afghanistan is much more than a failed intervention. It is stark evidence of how counterproductive global military dominance is to American interests.

  • SOURCE: TomDispatch
    8/22/2021

    The Endless Shadow of the War on Terror

    by Karen J. Greenberg

    The US withdrawal from Afghanistan doesn't necessarily signal an end to the War on Terror; the 2001 Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF) remains in place, as does much of the architecture of forever war.

  • SOURCE: New York Times
    8/20/2021

    Felix Hall Remembered 80 Years After Ft. Benning Lynching

    "This month — more than eight decades after Private Hall’s death — a plaque at Fort Benning was dedicated in his memory. But major details about his death remain unclear. Officials have been accused of failing to fully investigate what happened, and no one was ever charged."

  • SOURCE: TomDispatch
    8/19/2021

    The All-American Base World

    by Patterson Deppen

    Despite the withdrawal from Afghanistan, there are still 750 US military bases around the world, showing that America's "forever wars" may only be briefly paused. 

  • SOURCE: Sydney Morning Herald
    7/9/2021

    Review: The Bomber Mafia

    by Paul Ham

    If Curtis LeMay's firebombing broke the will of the Japanese public, nobody remembered to tell the Japanese. Malcolm Gladwell's praise of LeMay suffers from overlooking the Japanese side of the bombing campaign.