History

The rhapsodic public reception that Star Wars received 40 years ago in America, even as it was originally banned in the Soviet Union, was part of a larger, slowly emerging renewal of American confidence in its democratic principles and in its global responsibilities.

Nigel Hamilton’s Commander in Chief reveals Franklin Roosevelt formulated at a very early phase a clear vision for how a liberal international order should look post-World War II.

In the city of Mosul, gasping through its fifth month of urban warfare, two histories of the world are crossing.

Drawdown: The American Way of Postwar is a fascinating analysis not of how the U.S. fights wars, but what it does in their aftermath.

As public attention shifts to the anniversaries of the two World Wars, the War of 1812 is becoming forgotten again, and now seems an ideal time to survey the landscape of new books written in the (roughly) decade surrounding its sesquicentennial.

Leading French National Front presidential candidate Marine Le Pen has sparked controversy by claiming France bears no responsibility for French police collaboration in the 1942 Vél d’Hiv arrest of 13,000 Jews, who were shipped to their demise at Auschwitz.

It’s been widely noted that the U.S. missile strikes on a Syrian airbase seem at odds with Donald Trump’s electioneering opposition to American intervention. But there should be little surprise.

The Great War, which America entered a century ago this month, offers lessons for us today on democracy, trade, and arms races.

Here, in the middle of the centennial anniversary period of World War I, we still find ourselves in the shadows of the Great War—and still have much to learn from it.