U S Grant on the Disbanding of the Iraqi Army I heard thunder in the mountains witnessed soft amber lightening in the…
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New Fiction from “Still Come Home” by Katey Schultz
The following is an excerpt from Still Come Home, Katey’s novel set in Afghanistan. A few weeks ago, it wasn’t …
On the Subject of Walls
While it’s fallen off the news somewhat, one of Donald Trump’s most conspicuous campaign-trail promises was to build …
Poetry: “Last Night I Prayed for Rain” by Mary Carroll Hackett
solstice moon rising early, joining me to wait for the short night, long sun. Last night I prayed for love, for what …
New Fiction: “The List” by Andria Williams
Author’s note: I began this story in 2013, but eventually set it aside because I feared it would seem unrealistic, or…
In Defense of Writing Modern Epic
At some point during my education, I developed a powerful sense of skepticism toward the Epic. Every literary or cine…
New Poetry by Yael Hacohen
Fortitude Seven times I’ve been to the Wall to scribble my prayers and fold them into the seams in the yellow s…
Arms Sales, Cash, and Losing Your Religion
The lucrative Arms Sales market exists in the exact place where rational self-interest intersects with humanist ideal…
John Berger, Max Sebald, Teju Cole: International Men of Culture
I think it was Ousmane Sembene, the Senegalese author and filmmaker, who talked of the writer being the voice of the …
New Fiction: “Old Wounds” by Therese Cox
The YouTube walkthroughs have names, like action movies or episodes of a serial TV show. Judgment Day. Suffer With Me…
New Poetry by J.J. Starr
Concerning whether or not I am a horse I strap torso & press arms to diaphragm with breath deep the distressed vo…
Tomorrow Ever After: A Kinder Future
Here on Wrath-Bearing Tree we write a lot about ways in which things are imperfect—culturally, politically, instituti…
Resistance Dispatches: Foreign and Domestic
Every American soldier takes an oath to support and defend the Constitution against all enemies. Since I left the ser…
Fiction: “Float” by Teresa Fazio
What I really want to say, Alma, is how Remy looked on the beach that first night, his teeth perfect in the glow of t…
Dispatch: Istanbul, Spring 2017
I found myself in Istanbul late March on a 17-hour layover; my ultimate destination being a small island off the coas…
Poetry: “Departure” & “Respite” by Justice Castaneda
Departure Once upon a time, I know I had a plan. Going to come back, finish the conversation. Keep all of the …
The Dictator Novel in the Age of Trump
“Storytellers are a threat. They threaten all champions of control, they frighten usurpers of the right-to-fr…
New Fiction from “The Midnight Man” by David Eric Tomlinson
The sousetrap north of the courthouse is one of those expensive, contrived places doing its best to look like a dive—…
Such Modest Proposals, And So Many
Most schoolchildren in the English-speaking West read Jonathan Swift’s A Modest Proposal in high school or college. S…
Noble Accounts: American War Stories, American Mothers, and Failed American Dreams
In the social history of our country, the current cultural moment may seem particularly conducive to division, denial…
Poetry: “Nostos” by T. Mazzara
i. the deadweight of a crooked hook we crossed any strange boundary in our youths. all amongst some hitch in what aug…
New Poetry by Randy Brown
Toward an understanding of war and poetry, told (mostly) in aphorisms Poetry is the long war of narrative. Poetry, li…
New Fiction – “Iqbal” by Dan Murphy
Across the eight-lane roadway from the observation post was a gas station where Iraqis waited for days, siblings and …
J.M. Coetzee: The Master of Cape Town
South African-born writer John Coetzee is one of the most decorated and celebrated living writers. He has won the Nob…
1917: Ukraine’s First Bid to be Independent
This February marks the 100 year anniversary of an event that transformed Europe, brought the US into WWI, and nearly…
Sebastian Junger with WBT’s Drew Pham on “Tribe”
How can a society so disconnected from its wars welcome back its fighting women and men? What do we lose when we priv…
Hierarchy and Americans, A Long Love Affair
We have leaders, in the USA, it's always been that way. I don’t believe in some magical, fairyland communal…
The Long March Ahead: A Veteran’s Place in Resistance
The day after the election felt all too familiar. It felt like 9/11. Then, as now, that day only promised a long road…
The Sellout by Paul Beatty: A Review
Shortly after Bob Dylan won the Nobel Prize in Literature, the Booker Prize was awarded to fellow American Paul Beatt…
Against NATO: The Other Side of the Argument
Since 1989-1991 when every country in the USSR or the Warsaw Pact (save Russia) jumped ship at the earliest oppo…
Why Does the Universe Exist and Other Things We Cannot Know
Philosophy used to be the king of science. Hard to imagine now, but it’s true. Over the last few centuries, how…
Last Week This Week 9-25-16
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The Italian Front in WWI: Bad Tactics, Worse Leadership, and Pointless Sacrifice
During this ongoing centenary of the First World War, interest in “The War to End All Wars” has returned, especially …
Punk! Last Week This Week: 9/11 Music Edition
On 9/11–Punk, Protest, and Witness: WBT Editors Choose Their Jams There was a chance, in 1991, for the US to ta…
Crazy Horse and the Legacy of the American Indian Genocide
Recent news articles about coal pollution in the Powder River Basin in Montana and Wyoming, and protests against new …
Last Week This Week 8-28-16
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World War Two Never Ended
World War Two never ended. It sounds like the plot of a dystopian science fiction novel, right? Either the bad guys w…
Dunkirk: the Bravest British Retreat
Whatever one might think about the United Kingdom’s recent behavior toward Europe—its antagonism toward the European …
Last Week This Week 6-7-16
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Last Week This Week 7-24-16: Donald Trump Edition
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On Plato, Donald Trump, and the Ship of State
Plato’s most famous work and the foundational text of political philosophy is the Republic. Written in the form…
Last Week This Week: 7-17-16
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E.O. Wilson on Biology as Politics, Culture, and Human Nature
One of the most illustrious living scientists, E.O. Wilson, is still active and writing great books well into his ninth …
Each Soldier a Thread
The violence that reached our shores left me at a loss—every attempt to conceptualize these tragedies failed to…
The Dangerous Rise and Impending Collapse of Homo Sapiens
“If all the insects were to disappear from the earth, within 50 years all life on earth would end. If all human…
Last Week This Week: 6-26-16 (Brexit and Michael Herr)
Since the last time we conducted a wrapup, the following has occurred: NATO finished the largest joint exercises in o…
In Laurent Bécue-Renard’s Of Men and War War Is Not Tragic But Embarrassing
In The Great War and Modern Memory, Paul Fussell argued that every war is ironic because every war is worse than…
Republican Senator’s Ill-Conceived Plan to Block Vegetarian Options in the Military
Across the United States and most of the developed world, there is a growing awareness of the problems caused by over…
Scrabble Can Build or Break Friendship
My Sunday morning began with a Wall Street Journal article about Scrabble. The story, which featured scrappy young Ni…
Last Week This Week 6-5-16
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