military history

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• SOURCE: Made
  7/16/2021
  

  A Hitler-Style Seizure of Power Was Never in Trump's Reach

  by Waitman Wade Beorn

  A historian of the German military under Nazism argues that Trump lacked the ability to recruit the military to his side the way that Hitler did, and the US faces greater danger from extremist paramilitaries or civil attempts to subvert democracy than from a military coup.

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• 7/11/2021
  

  Reflecting on the 80th Anniversary of the Nazi Invasion of Russia

  by Rick Halperin

  The Nazi invasion of Russia unleashed unprecedented brutality against civilians along the eastern front; those horrors should reinforce a commitment to human rights.

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• SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
  6/29/2021
  

  Racism has Long Undermined Military Cohesion, Just as Gen. Milley Testified

  by Natalie Shibley

  Right-wing attacks on Gen. Mark Milley's support for military education about racism ignore the long history of similar training in the military and the persistence of the racial inequalities it has tried to address. 

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• 7/4/2021
  

  A Faulty Court Precedent on Selective Service Leaves the Last Legal Sex Discrimination in Place

  by Kara Dixon Vuic

  Since 1981, the Supreme Court has allowed the exclusion of women from Selective Service registration on the grounds that they were excluded from combat and thus not liable to be drafted. This position is out of date with the reality of women's military service, yet the current court declined to correct its error. 

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• 7/4/2021
  

  Could Wilson have Ended the Great War Two Years Earlier? Zelikow's "Road Less Traveled" Reviewed

  by James Thornton Harris

  Philip Zelikow's book is a provocative and contrarian argument that Woodrow Wilson missed a chance to end the first world war in 1916. 

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• 6/27/2021
  

  Ambitious for War: How German-Soviet Collaboration Set the Course for WWII

  by Ian Ona Johnson

  After the Treaty of Versailles and the Bolshevik Revolution, Germany and the Soviet Union forged a partnership of pariah governments to industrialize and arm their nations, and making inevitable the slaughter that unfolded in the eastern front of the second world war.

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• SOURCE: Hawaii Public Radio
  6/7/2021
  

  USPS Unveils Stamp Honoring Japanese American WWII Veterans

  “A picture is worth a thousand words,” said Lynn Heirakuji, president of the Nisei Veterans Legacy and co-chair of the Stamp Our Story Hawaii Organizing Committee.

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• 6/6/2021
  

  The Legacy of Same-Sex Love in Ancient Thebes

  by James Romm

  The story of the Sacred Band of Thebes – a fighting force of pairs of male lovers – was discovered in time to provide inspiration to gay rights struggles from the Victorian era to the present. James Romm's new book tells the story. 

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• SOURCE: The Conversation
  5/27/2021
  

  Japanese American Soldiers in World War II Fought the Axis Abroad and Racial Prejudice at Home

  by Susan H. Kamei

  The USPS has just released a stamp commemorating the service of the Japanese-American 100th/442nd combat unit in Europe during World War II. It's equally important to remember the way that veterans of that unit fought remaining racial prejudice after the war. 

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• 5/30/2021
  

  The Enduring Fascination – And Challenge – Of World War II

  by Earl Ofari Hutchinson

  This Memorial Day offers the chance to read about and reflect on World War II, particularly the stories of ordinary people trying to understand world-changing events, and consider our time's connections to past and future. 

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• SOURCE: War on the Rocks
  5/25/2021
  

  Missile Defense is Not a Substitute for Arms Control

  by John Tierney and Samuel M. Hickey

  A former Congressman and an arms control analyst argue that the key goal of upcoming meetings between Biden and Putin is nuclear arms control; the United States can afford to use its technological superiority in missile defense as a chip to ensure this greater goal. 

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• SOURCE: KRDO
  5/25/2021
  

  We Bought a World War II Ship on EBay

  A Welsh couple has undertaken the repair and refurbishment of a 72-foot Royal Navy harbor defense vessel. 

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• SOURCE: Associated Press
  5/27/2021
  

  Deep-Rooted Racism, Discrimination Permeate US Military

  Since desegregating after World War II, the military has cultivated an image of meritocracy. Personnel have always charged that that image masks discrimination and a climate of hostility to servicemembers of color. Military justice procedures make measuring the problem difficult. 

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• 5/30/2021
  

  Preserving the Stories of the Second World War

  by Colin Heaton

  Colin Heaton's latest book of oral history (with Anne-Marie Lewis) is based on oral histories he conducted with five significant Allied Airmen from World War II. Here, he discusses his work collecting veterans' stories from all sides of the airborne war and why those stories matter. 

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• SOURCE: TomDispatch
  5/23/2021
  

  Andrea Mazzarino, A Pandemic of Sexual Assault in the Military?

  Is it time to remove juridsiction for sexual assaults on military bases from the military? Military Health advocate Andrea Mazzarino argues that this is an overdue check on the militarization of American society. 

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• SOURCE: The Baffler
  5/17/2021
  

  Narrative Napalm: Malcolm Gladwell's Apologia for American Butchery

  by Noah Kulwin

  Reviewer Noah Kulwin argues Malcolm Gladwell's book on the rise of American air power misrepresents the military history of World War II, wrongly elevates Curtis LeMay to the status of a heroic genius, and blithely passes over the vast carnage of incendiary and atomic bombings. 

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• SOURCE: History.com
  5/17/2021
  

  How the Shocking Use of Gas in World War I Led Nations to Ban It

  "In 1925, the League of Nations adopted the Geneva Protocol, which prohibited the use of chemical and biological agents in war, but did not stop nations from continuing to develop and stockpile such weapons."

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• SOURCE: The New Yorker
  4/30/2021
  

  How the Pentagon Started Taking U.F.O.s Seriously

  In 2017, the New York Times revealed that the Pentagon had been conducting a secret research program on UFOs for ten years, upending more than a half-century of conspiratorial thinking about what the government was allegedly hiding. 

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  4/23/2021
  

  Tribes Want Medals Awarded for Wounded Knee Massacre Rescinded

  "To date, the nation has awarded more than 3,500 Medals of Honor, including about 400 to soldiers who fought during campaigns against Native Americans.... no medals awarded for service in the Indian campaigns have been revoked."

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  4/25/2021
  

  Malcolm Gladwell on the Hard Decisions of War

  by Thomas E. Ricks

  Malcolm Gladwell's new study of the US Air Force unexpectedly rehabilitates the image of General Curtis LeMay.