Author: Tom Engelhardt

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In this century, Memorial Day, a civic holiday, has gained an almost religious tinge. That last Monday in May is meant, of course, to honor the dead of this country’s wars and has a history that goes back to the period read more

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Let’s face it: right now, we Americans know something about dystopias, up close and personal. And here, I’m not just thinking of the almost 600,000 (or is it read more

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A World at the Edge What Planet Will Our Children and Grandchildren Inherit? By Tom Engelhardt

Let me start with my friend and the boat. Admittedly, they might not seem to have anything to do with each other. The boat, a guided-missile destroyer named the USS Curtis Wilbur, reportedly passed read more

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Let me do something I’ve seldom done in one of these introductions and quote at length from a book. In this case, the initial paragraph of the preface to Nina Burleigh’s striking new work, Virus: Vaccinations, the CDC, and the Hijacking of America’s Response to the Pandemic:

“One of my first instincts in the surreal early days of lockdown in March 2020 was to hunt down read more

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I’ve thought about my situation more than once (who hasn’t?) in these pandemic months. As it happens, I was in the equivalent of a work lockdown for years before Covid-19 hit our shores. I deserted an office setting early in this century and I’ve been running TomDispatch, while editing books from the small office in my apartment in New York City, ever since.

Nonetheless, read more

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I’ve always had a complicated relationship with tennis and here’s why. In the late 1950s, when I was in my early teens, my father insisted that I get a pass to the New York City public tennis courts and learn how to play. Let’s just say that it was not my game. I’m no speed demon and serving into the sun… well, I thought it was hell. I just wasn’t (and it was clear read more

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Think about this: on Saturday, May 12th, with barely an hour’s notice, Israel took out the al-Jalaa Tower, a high-rise building in Gaza City that housed the Associated Press, al-Jazeera, and other media outlets. That act of destruction, among so many others, caused shock globally and protests not just by read more

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From the dawn of recorded history, humans have been making war and rape has been part of it.

In ancient Greece, the rape of a woman was considered a property crime; that is, a crime against her father, husband, or master. But in war, rape was read more

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These days in Washington, it’s competition with and hostility to China all the way to the bank. The political class in Congress and the Biden White House, as read more

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“A United States Coast Guard cutter fired 30 warning shots after 13 Iranian fast patrol boats menaced a group of American Navy ships sailing in the Strait of Hormuz, the Pentagon said on Monday…” — so began a minor read more