Radical History Blog

The story of the Mexican president who fought off right-wing rebels and imperial invaders.

Mexico has often led the way in the radical history of the Americas.

The story of the first all-black infantry regiment in the American Civil War, founded on this day in 1863...

More than 200,000 African Americans served in the Union military during the Civil War. Almost 40,000 gave their lives fighting for abolition.

The story of Crispus Attucks, the escaped slave who became the first person to die for American independence...

The first person to die for American independence was a mixed-race sailor and escaped slave called Crispus Attucks.

The story of Olof Palme, Sweden's social democratic Prime Minister assassinated on this day in 1986.

The Cold War pressured smaller countries to ‘pick a side’ between the rival superpowers.

The story of how constitutional democracy eventually overcame Ottoman imperialism...

After the last of Napoleon’s armies were defeated in 1815, the crowned heads of Old Europe thought they were at last done with revolution.

120 years ago, a different kind of trade union sought to remake the US The IWW Headquarters in Chicago in 1917 The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) was founded on this day in 1905.

It was a labour union like no other.

Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were killed on this day, after what Jean-Paul Sartre called a 'legal lynching' Ethel and Julius Rosenberg in 1951, after being found guilty by a jury. Their sons, Michael and Robert, later established a foundation to support the children of targeted liberal activists.

The Cuban tradition of anticolonialism came late, but strong Lieutenant Maceo's cavalry charge during the Battle of Ceja del Negro Cuba was exceptional during the 1890s.

At a time when imperialism and racism were widely accepted, Cubans fashioned a different form of politics that was both anticolonial and egalitarian.

The founding organisation of British Marxism suffered from ego and factionalism but was an important step for socialism in Britain The Social Democratic Federation (SDF) was created on this day in 1881.

And it was... a bit messy.

A prosperous black community was destroyed in Oklahoma today barely a century ago. On 31 May 1921, the Black citizens of Tulsa, Oklahoma, were besieged. For two days, a white mob launched an anti-Black pogrom in the city.