US History
Chicago’s Hull House closes after 120 years of service
By Shane Feratu and Scott Martin, February 8, 2012
The Jane Addams Hull House Association, one of the largest non-profit social service organizations in Chicago, abruptly shut down on Friday, January 27, after 120 years.
Forty years since the Attica uprising
Nixon-Rockefeller tapes praise bloodbath—“A beautiful operation”
By Nancy Hanover, September 26, 2011
This month marks the 40th anniversary of the 1971 uprising by prisoners at the Attica Correctional Facility in upstate New York and its bloody suppression by state police called in by New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller.
Thirty years since the PATCO strike
Part one
By Tom Mackaman, August 3, 2011
This is the first installment of a series of articles marking the 30th anniversary of the PATCO air traffic controllers’ strike in the US.
The Conspirator: Film on Lincoln assassination trial misses the mark
By Shannon Jones, May 2, 2011
The Conspirator, directed by Robert Redford, examines the trial by military commission of Mary Surratt.
One hundred and fifty years since the US Civil War
By Tom Eley and David North, April 13, 2011
This week marks the 150th anniversary of the Confederate attack on federal soldiers at Fort Sumter, in South Carolina, which began the Civil War between the Union and the Confederacy—an epochal event in American and world history.
100 years since the historic workplace tragedy in New York City
HBO’s Triangle: Remember the Fire
By Charles Bogle, March 25, 2011
The excellent production values of Triangle: Remember the Fire leave an indelible visual memory of one of the greatest tragedies in American workplace. Sadly, the documentary’s limited perspective dishonors the legacy of the tragedy.
150 years ago: The election of Abraham Lincoln touches off secession crisis
By Shannon Jones, December 24, 2010
On December 20, 1860, six weeks after voters of the United States elected Abraham Lincoln as the 16th president, South Carolina seceded from the union. Other Southern states soon followed, leading within little over five months to the outbreak of the American Civil War, the bloodiest conflict in US history,
Leon Trotsky’s Analysis of the Emerging Global Role of US Capitalism
By Nick Beams, November 24, 2010
The WSWS organized a panel on “The Cultural, Economic and Geo-strategic Thought of Leon Trotsky: A Retrospective Analysis 70 years after His Assassination,” at the 42nd annual convention of the Association for Slavic, East European, & Eurasian Studies (formerly the American Association for the Advanceme
The Story of Us on History channel—an attempt to revive the myths of American capitalism
By William Moore and Fred Mazelis, June 28, 2010
History (the cable television channel) recently presented a 12-hour series entitled “America: The Story of Us.” The ambitious project spanned the history of the United States from the first European settlements of North America until the present day.
US: Forty years since the national postal strike
By Hector Cordon, April 24, 2010
Forty years ago postal workers defied their unions, anti-strike laws, and the Nixon administration’s deployment of the military in New York City to carry out the first national strike against the US government in history.
Howard Zinn, 1922-2010
An assessment of A People’s History of the United States
By Tom Eley, February 15, 2010
Howard Zinn died on January 28 at the age of 87. Any serious evaluation of Zinn requires consideration be given his book, A People’s History of the United States.
150 years since the execution of John Brown
By Fred Mazelis, December 4, 2009
One hundred and fifty years after his execution for the failed raid he led on the Federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, the legacy of John Brown continues to generate controversy and disquiet.
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