Empire, Resistance, and the War in Iraq
A Conference for Historians and Activists

Keynote speakers Howard Zinn & Andrea Smith

Empire, Resistance, and the War in Iraq
A Conference for Historians and Activists
University of Texas, Austin
February 17-19, 2006

Papers and photos from the conference.

The February 17-19 Austin conference sponsored by Historians Against the War was the first scholarly conference in the U.S. to examine the origins of and opposition to the war in Iraq in historical perspective.  About two hundred people attended the conference itself, while nearly a thousand additional people came just for the Friday evening plenary, featuring keynoters Howard Zinn and Andrea Smith. 

Responses from attendees have been highly favorable.  At the end of the closing session on Sunday, which featured a town-meeting-style sharing of ideas, it was clear that the conference had exerted an emerging effect on many who came.  Judy Atkins commented in her article for Portside that “Living up to its subtitle, 'A Conference for Historians and Activists,' this conference brought together historians from many U.S. campuses and local activists, but it was also about historians as activists, which was what I thought made it unique.”

Some of the papers from the conference have already been linked to the conference schedule; more will be added as the presenters make them available.  (In some cases, the papers were condensed for purposes of the presentation.)

Three audio CDs (including Howard Zinn's keynote address) from the conference are available for $5 each.

These are articles written about the conference:

Judy Atkins, Historians against the War "HAW" Sponsors Unique Academic Conference (February 20, 2006, the most extensive account)

Jim O'Brien, Historians Target Iraq War (from The Nation on-line, February 13, 2006, written before the conference)

Adarsh Bagrodia, Anti-war forum discusses history (The Daily Texan, 2/20/06)

Historians Against the War is a network of history teachers, scholars, and activists seeking to bring historical analysis to bear on U.S. foreign policy and its social/political impact. To find out more, visit the HAW website at www.historiansagainstwar.org