O'Rourke casts his ever-shrewd and mordant eye on America's latest adventures in warfare. He is both incisive reporter and absurdist, relevant and irreverent, with a clear eye for everyone's confusion, including his own. O'Rourke understands that peace is sometimes one of the most troubling aspects of war.

Politicians of every stripe frequently invoke the Marshall Plan in support of programs aimed at using American wealth to extend the nation's power and influence, solve intractable third-world economic problems, and combat world hunger and disease. Do any of these impassioned advocates understand why the Marshall Plan succeeded where so many subsequent aid plans have not? Historian Nicolaus Mills explores the Marshall Plan in all its dimensions to provide valuable lessons from the past about what America can and cannot do as a superpower.

A historically-grounded examination of United States foreign policy that interrogates the ideological assumptions--whether explicit or tacit--that drive it.

A dramatic account of the Americans who tried to stop their nation from fighting in the First World War—and came close to succeeding. In this “fascinating” (Los Angeles Times) narrative, Michael Kazin brings us into the ranks of one of the largest, most diverse, and most sophisticated peace coalitions in US history. The activists came from a variety of backgrounds: wealthy, middle, and working class; urban and rural; white and black; Christian and Jewish and atheist. They mounted street demonstrations and popular exhibitions, attracted prominent leaders from the labor and suffrage movements, ran peace candidates for local and federal office, met with President Woodrow Wilson to make their case, and founded new organizations that endured beyond the cause. For almost three years, they helped prevent Congress from authorizing a massive increase in the size of the US army—a step advocated by ex-president Theodore Roosevelt. When the Great War’s bitter legacy led to the next world war, the warnings of these peace activists turned into a tragic prophecy—and the beginning of a surveillance state that still endures today. Peopled with unforgettable characters and written with riveting moral urgency, War Against War is a “fine, sorrowful history” (The New York Times) and “a timely reminder of how easily the will of the majority can be thwarted in even the mightiest of democracies” (The New York Times Book Review).

Written with the sweep of an epic novel and grounded in extensive research into contemporary documents, Savage Peace is a striking portrait of American democracy under stress. It is the surprising story of America in the year 1919. In the aftermath of an unprecedented worldwide war and a flu pandemic, Americans began the year full of hope, expecting to reap the benefits of peace. But instead, the fear of terrorism filled their days. Bolshevism was the new menace, and the federal government, utilizing a vast network of domestic spies, began to watch anyone deemed suspicious. A young lawyer named J. Edgar Hoover headed a brand-new intelligence division of the Bureau of Investigation (later to become the FBI). Bombs exploded on the doorstep of the attorney general's home in Washington, D.C., and thirty-six parcels containing bombs were discovered at post offices across the country. Poet and journalist Carl Sandburg, recently returned from abroad with a trunk full of Bolshevik literature, was detained in New York, his trunk seized. A twenty-one-year-old Russian girl living in New York was sentenced to fifteen years in prison for protesting U.S. intervention in Arctic Russia, where thousands of American soldiers remained after the Armistice, ostensibly to guard supplies but in reality to join a British force meant to be a warning to the new Bolshevik government. In 1919, wartime legislation intended to curb criticism of the government was extended and even strengthened. Labor strife was a daily occurrence. And decorated African-American soldiers, returning home to claim the democracy for which they had risked their lives, were badly disappointed. Lynchings continued, race riots would erupt in twenty-six cities before the year ended, and secret agents from the government's "Negro Subversion" unit routinely shadowed outspoken African-Americans. Adding a vivid human drama to the greater historical narrative, Savage Peace brings 1919 alive through the people who played a major role in making the year so remarkable. Among them are William Monroe Trotter, who tried to put democracy for African-Americans on the agenda at the Paris peace talks; Supreme Court associate justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., who struggled to find a balance between free speech and legitimate government restrictions for reasons of national security, producing a memorable decision for the future of free speech in America; and journalist Ray Stannard Baker, confidant of President Woodrow Wilson, who watched carefully as Wilson's idealism crumbled and wrote the best accounts we have of the president's frustration and disappointment. Weaving together the stories of a panoramic cast of characters, from Albert Einstein to Helen Keller, Ann Hagedorn brilliantly illuminates America at a pivotal moment.

The U.S. has bombed no less than thirty countries since the end of World War II, killing millions of people, maiming tens of millions more, disrupting and destroying education, healthcare, housing, businesses, infrastructure, the environment, and creating untold numbers of refugees. The US Peace Memorial Foundation honors, and is dedicated to, U.S. citizens/residents who work to end war. ENDING U.S. WARS documents the activities of these role models for peace in hopes of inspiring other Americans. It should unite the peace movement and help it to be more successful at ending wars. Chapters include:THE US PEACE PRIZE. Every year since 2009, the US Peace Memorial Foundation has honored a peace activist with the US Peace Prize. Recipients include Chelsea Manning, Medea Benjamin, Noam Chomsky, Ajamu Baraka, Dennis Kucinich, and Cindy Sheehan. In 2020 the US Peace Prize went to Christine Ahn, "for bold activism to end the Korean War, heal its wounds, and promote women's roles in building peace."THE US PEACE REGISTRY. 189 Americans and 80 organizations who work for peace and are role models for a broad range of peace and antiwar actions and activities. The Registry appears in print for the first time in ENDING U.S. WARS.COMING SOON: THE US PEACE MEMORIAL. The US Peace Memorial Foundation's most ambitious goal is to establish a monument to peace on the National Mall. Currently, plans include an inspiring and creative design that features a peace sign that can only be seen aerially and aims to serve as a reminder to government officials who fly over the Mall. As the US Peace Memorial is currently envisioned, twelve walls, or facets, will contain engraved peace quotes from famous Americans such as Jane Addams, Muhammad Ali, Albert Einstein, Benjamin Franklin, Ernest Hemingway, Helen Keller, Martin Luther King Jr., and Margaret Mead, in addition to a variety of U.S. presidents who are not widely known for their antiwar statements. One day a peace memorial will stand on the National Mall. Until then, there is this book.