The anniversaries of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki present an opportunity to demolish a cornerstone myth of American history—that those twin acts of mass civilian slaughter were necessary to bring about Japan’s surrender, and spare a half-million U.S....
History
Enemies Above: The FBI and the Creation of the Brown Scare Myth
by Brandan P. Buck | Jul 19, 2023 | Featured Articles, Foreign Policy, History
"Today's threat to our national security is not a matter of military weapons alone. We know of new methods of attack. The Trojan Horse. The Fifth Column that betrays a nation unprepared for treachery." Such were the remarks from President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's...
Conversation on Bro History Podcast
by Sheldon Richman | Apr 6, 2023 | Blog, Foreign Policy, History
I had a great conversation on Zionism, antisemitism, and the Palestine question with Henry Szamota and Danny Abdeljabbar on the Bro History podcast, which you can find in all the usual podcast places. Or listen here. I hope you enjoy it.
TGIF: Beware of All Tribalism
by Sheldon Richman | Mar 17, 2023 | Featured Articles, History, Justice, Libertarianism, Politics, Sheldon Richman, TGIF
Tribalism is bad. Sensible people will know what I mean by tribe. It's not a club based on some common preference like stamp collecting or bowling or cooking. It's more than that. It involves a judgment-suspending commitment. Nationalism is a good example. Tribalism...
TGIF: Hear, O Israel — Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death
by Sheldon Richman | Mar 10, 2023 | Featured Articles, Foreign Policy, History, Justice, Libertarianism, Politics, Sheldon Richman, TGIF
An older generation of Americans, including Jewish Americans, admire the colonists who resisted the British king and parliament in the late 1700s. Jewish Americans go further and admire the Judeans who revolted against the Greeks and Romans (twice) in antiquity. So...
Black History Month?
by Sheldon Richman | Feb 8, 2023 | Blog, History, Justice, Politics
If a Martian social scientist were to visit America, he surely would assume that Black History Month had been concocted by racists. And he'd be right -- for a racist qua racist need not bear ill will toward a particular group. What makes someone a racist is the very...
TGIF: Where Socialists Go Wrong
by Sheldon Richman | Jan 13, 2023 | Featured Articles, History, Libertarianism, Sheldon Richman, TGIF
Since socialism is "in" today -- even though many people who say they favor it have no idea what it is -- F. A. Hayek's last book, The Fatal Conceit: The Errors of Socialism (1988), is worth checking out. Hayek, the late great Nobel-laureate economist of the Austrian...