Radical Histories: Waging Peace in the Pages of ‘The Nation’

Radical Histories: Waging Peace in the Pages of ‘The Nation’

Radical Histories: Waging Peace in the Pages of ‘The Nation’

For 150 years The Nation has refused to join the war party, instead urging skepticism, sobriety and pragmatism in the use of force for political ends.

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Since its founding in 1865, The Nation has consistently acted as a brake on the train that certain social malefactors regularly try to hijack and point toward the nearest war. We have held fast to our “Nation Ideals”— from racial justice to feminism, from environmentalism to civil liberties—throughout our 150-year history. This month, we’re resurfacing material from the archives on the subject of “waging peace.” Above, you’ll find a multimedia timeline that presents that history, complete with archival photographs and video.

Research by Richard Kreitner and Stacie Williams
Design by Stacie Williams

Check out all of our timelines! 

On a fair economy for all:

Radical Histories: A Fair Economy For All, 1865 – 2011.

On environmentalism:

Radical Histories: The Fight for a Sustainable Future, 1872 – 2014.

On feminism, sex, and gender:
Part I, From Sojourner Truth’s ‘Ain’t I A Woman?’ in 1851 to FDA approval of the birth control pill in 1960.
Part II, From Helen Gurley Brown in 1960 to the criminalization of pregnancy in 2014.

On race and civil rights:
Part I, From the Memphis riots of 1866 to the first anti-lynching conference, in New York City, in 1919.
Part II, From the “Red Summer” of racial violence in Chicago, in 1919, to Rosa Parks’s bus protest, in 1955.
Part III, From the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1957 to the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., in 1968.
Part IV, From the ban on segregation in housing, in 1968, to freedom for Nelson Mandela, in 1990.
Part V, From the LA riots of 1992 to the release of Selma, in 2015.

Support independent journalism that does not fall in line

Even before February 28, the reasons for Donald Trump’s imploding approval rating were abundantly clear: untrammeled corruption and personal enrichment to the tune of billions of dollars during an affordability crisis, a foreign policy guided only by his own derelict sense of morality, and the deployment of a murderous campaign of occupation, detention, and deportation on American streets. 

Now an undeclared, unauthorized, unpopular, and unconstitutional war of aggression against Iran has spread like wildfire through the region and into Europe. A new “forever war”—with an ever-increasing likelihood of American troops on the ground—may very well be upon us.  

As we’ve seen over and over, this administration uses lies, misdirection, and attempts to flood the zone to justify its abuses of power at home and abroad. Just as Trump, Marco Rubio, and Pete Hegseth offer erratic and contradictory rationales for the attacks on Iran, the administration is also spreading the lie that the upcoming midterm elections are under threat from noncitizens on voter rolls. When these lies go unchecked, they become the basis for further authoritarian encroachment and war. 

In these dark times, independent journalism is uniquely able to uncover the falsehoods that threaten our republic—and civilians around the world—and shine a bright light on the truth. 

The Nation’s experienced team of writers, editors, and fact-checkers understands the scale of what we’re up against and the urgency with which we have to act. That’s why we’re publishing critical reporting and analysis of the war on Iran, ICE violence at home, new forms of voter suppression emerging in the courts, and much more. 

But this journalism is possible only with your support.

This March, The Nation needs to raise $50,000 to ensure that we have the resources for reporting and analysis that sets the record straight and empowers people of conscience to organize. Will you donate today?

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