Journal Articles
“An Alternative to Revolution: Marcus Raskin’s Theory of Social Reconstruction,” Journal for the Study of Radicalism 13 (Spring 2019):43-74.
As the New Left imploded under the weight of internal and external pressures, many of the activists seeking change turned to revolutionary ideology and violence. At the same time, America’s political system turned rightward, becoming more conservative and less open to radical ideas. In the midst of this transformation, a radical liberal think tank, the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS), mainly through the writings of co-founder Marcus Raskin, attempted to keep the radical dream alive, by forging an alternative to revolution. Raskin’s theory of social reconstruction advocated a profound reorientation of Americans’ consciousness through a transformation of knowledge, which would create society anew and open the door for non-violent revolutionary change through traditional political channels. This article complicates the story of post-1960s America by offering evidence of a group of thinkers who attempted to keep alive New Left ideals in conservative America.
“Confronting America’s National Security State: The Institute for Policy Studies and the Vietnam War,” Diplomatic History 41 (September 2017): 694-718.
This article examines the efforts undertaken by the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) to dismantle the national security state that led America into the deadly quagmire in Southeast Asia. Invoking the Nuremberg Trials, IPS claimed that the United States had waged an illegal war in Vietnam. Investigating war crimes committed by U.S. officials during the conflict, IPS sought to prosecute the “national security managers” responsible for such horrendous acts. Looking to weaken the national security state that fostered such criminal enterprises, IPS intellectuals turned to Congress and the citizenry as a means to help the United States reclaim its humanity.
“Waging Peace in a Disarmed World: Arthur Waskow’s Vision of a Nonlethal Cold War,” Peace & Change: A Journal of Peace Research 40 (July 2015): 339-367.
This paper explores the writings of Arthur Waskow, who epitomized what the historian Charles DeBenedetti has termed the “Cold War peace opposition.” Writing on topics that included disarmament, civil defense, an international police force, and “nonlethal equivalents of war,” Waskow offered a nuanced critique of the Cold War. Far from being a utopian idealist, Waskow, as this paper shows, offered a series of pragmatic proposals to end the nuclear arms race and prevent an atomic war. Waskow’s involvement with the Peace Research Institute, furthermore, sheds light on the often ignored peace research movement that developed in the 1950s and early 1960s as an alternative to the think tanks occupied by defense intellectuals. Despite his best efforts, Waskow could convince neither pacifists nor Cold Warriors of the benefits of a nonlethal Cold War.