Gabriel Kuhn speaks about the recent “From Hash Rebels to Urban Guerrillas: A Documentary History of the 2nd of June Movement” (PM / Kersplebedeb) about the West German group active in the 1970s
Cold War
Jewish opposition to Israel, so visible recently through the spectacular actions of groups like Jewish Voice for Peace, is not a recent phenomenon. Historian Marjorie Feld argues that what may seem like unprecedented criticism of Israel by U.S. Jews is part of a long tradition of dissent, which has been repressed by establishment Jewish organizations … Continued
As the plight of the Palestinians, many of them refugees in their native lands, dominates world headlines, a look at the ways that international policy, though entities like the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, has not been driven by altruistic motives. Instead, as historian Laura Robson argues, much of what takes place under the … Continued
How did term gender take on the meaning that it has today? How was it developed as a social pairing to the purportedly fixed notion of sex? Surprisingly, historian Sandra Eder traces its origins to a Pediatric Endocrinology Clinic at Johns Hopkins University in the 1940s. She discusses the significance of the introduction of the … Continued
Advancements in science are seen as symbols of human progress, but science has frequently served deadly ends. Historian Clifford Conner discusses how scientific research in the United States is deeply enmeshed with the military, and considers the purpose of trillions of dollars of spending on the military. Resources: Clifford D. Conner, The Tragedy of American … Continued
What can our fantasies about space tell us about life on earth? Fred Scharman discusses competing visions for long-term space occupancy over the last century and a half, many of them emanating from Russia and the United States even before the Cold War, and now monopolized by billionaires like Elon Musk. Resources: Fred Scharmen, Space … Continued
The Old Left, we’re told, was narrowly focused on issues of class to the detriment of other struggles, such as those of queer people. But Aaron Lecklider argues that there has long been an affinity between political and sexual dissidents. He suggests that McCarthyism and the Cold War obscured history that was an open secret … Continued
US-China Relations
U.S.-China relations are crucial to the global response to climate change. But instead of cooperation, they appear headed into Cold War, says Michael Klare. Hosted by Kris Welch.
Are children inherently creative? What might be taken as a given is actually a relatively new notion. And, as Amy Ogata argues, it took hold in the United States under particular circumstances: driven in part by Cold War anxieties about the health of the nation, along with the desire by toy manufacturers to sell products … Continued
Brilliant theorist of non-violent social change or Cold War defense intellectual and strategist? Gene Sharp has had a tremendous influence on progressive ideas and activism since the early 1970s and his ideas are so pervasive that at times they appear to be without a history, just part of the air we breath on the left. … Continued