This Week in People’s History, Aug 6–12, 2025

Panoramic view of Hiroshima's ruins
A Bomb Unlike Any Other (1945), When the K.K.K. Came to D.C. (1925), An Authoritarian Racist in the White House (1835), Getting Rid of a Brutal Occupation for 12 Years (1680), Rebellion in Watts, 60 Years Later (1965)

Give Us Equality or Give Us Death?

An epic analysis of 5,000 years of civilisation argues that a global collapse is coming unless inequality is vanquished. “It is not about human nature. It is about .. competing for profit and power and covering [the risks] up."

Netanyahu Ministers Vote Dismiss Israeli AG

In a letter to ministers ahead of the vote, Gali Baharav-Miara said the move effectively removes the chief prosecutor in the prime minister's trial. She won't be dismissed until the High Court rules on petitions against it.

The GOP’s New War Against Americans' Voting Rights

Why 51 Texas lawmakers fled the State to stop a power grab, and what it means for us all…

Sanctions Cost 38 Million Lives

A study by the Center of Economic and Policy Research has revealed that, between 1971 and 2021, US and EU sanctions killed 38 million people around the world.

Physicists Disagree on What Quantum Mechanics Says

First major attempt to chart researchers’ views finds interpretations in conflict.

Trump Can’t Stop This Guy

Steven Colbert is joined by friends.

The Premature Guide To Post-Trump Reform

American history offers three general strategies of repair and renewal.

Court Might Declare Trump Order Unconstitutional

Judges express deep skepticism about a key piece of the US president’s hardline immigration agenda

How NASA Engineered Its Own Decline

The agency once projected America’s loftiest ideals. Then it ceded its ambitions to Elon Musk.
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Culture

tv

Hulk Hogan Was a Very Bad Man

Carl Beijer Jacobin
Hulk Hogan, who died this week at age 71, was the most important professional wrestler who ever lived. He was also a terrible human being.

poetry

In a Time of Peace

Ilya Kaminsky
Ukanian-American poet Ilya Kaminsky examines the way complicity with an authoritarian regime can corrupt a whole society.

books

Playing With Academic Fire

Hatim Kanaaneh Jadaliyya
This study of three late 1940s kibbutzim, writes reviewer Kanaaneh, “analyzes how these so-called leftist settlements” related to their Palestinian neighbors in “the land and the farming villages that were then wiped out of existence.”

film

The Undeniable Greatness of Jaws

Eileen Jones Jacobin
Jaws is rightly celebrated as a landmark, generation-defining hit. But it’s not sufficiently recognized as a great 1970s film, exemplifying that rocky decade’s political ire, acerbic social critique, and the lingering practices of realist cinema movi

Labor

labor

Deporting Immigrants Kills Native Jobs Too

Doug Henwood LBO News
Deporting immigrants will lead to job loss for immigrants - but as Ben Zipperer shows in work for the Economic Policy Institute, almost as many native-born workers could lose their jobs as deported immigrants as industries contract.

labor

Immigrant Workers in Italy Strike for a 40-Hour Week

An interview with Sarah Caudiero Jacobin
Italy’s small textile firms have long been considered nearly impossible to organize. But a recent wave of successful simultaneous strikes is expanding possibilities for Italy’s hyperexploited immigrant workforce.

labor

Mamdani Returns From Uganda and Visits Slain Officer’s Family

Emma G. Fitzsimmons The New York Times
Mr. Mamdani will address the shooting at a news conference with two groups whose members had been killed in the attack: 32BJ SEIU and the Bangladeshi American Police Association. The press conference will be held at the 32BJ headquarters.

Friday nite video

video

Gang Databases | John Oliver

The massive problems caused by gang databases, how people wind up on them, and why nobody looks good in lime green.

video

South Park: What To Expect in Episode 2

Don't expect Trey Parker and Matt Stone to hold back. Cartman, the Devil and his little orange worshiper, and the Power Christian Principal are at it again.

video

Why Children Get so Many Vaccines

Children get a lot of shots in the first few years of life. Here’s why they get them and why they get them when they do.