sunriseThe following is a list of topics proposed for investigation by the History Commons community. Please use the list as a starting point for your own investigative choices. The list is by no means all-inclusive. Propose your own investigative topics on our blog or contact us via email, Facebook, or Twitter.

Journalism is just a gun. It only has one bullet. But if you aim it right, that’s all you need. Aim it right and you can blow a kneecap off the world. — Warren Ellis

Topics Proposed by the History Commons Community

Listed alphabetically, some with subtopics.

2004 elections and election fraud allegations
add to 2004 Elections; see Mark Crispin Miller’s Fooled Again and Greg Palast’s Armed Madhouse, among other possible sources
2012 elections
add to 2012 Elections
9/11-related info re: JFIC military intel
add to Complete 911 Timeline
Abramoff lobbying scandal
not sure: new project or subproject of existing timeline
American Nazis’ proposed march in Skokie, Illinois
add to Loss of Civil Liberties and/or Domestic Propaganda; see When the Nazis Came to Skokie
“Anonymous” cyberhackers and their impact on civil liberties
add to Loss of Civil Liberties and/or Domestic Propaganda; see Anonymous 101: Introduction to the Lulz, Anonymous 101 Part Deux: Morals Triumph Over Lulz, and Anonymous 101: Part 3
Anti-abortion violence and rhetoric
add to Abortion-Based Rhetoric and Actions
Blackwater and the rise of private security/mercenary firms
new project, though some entries already exist and lots of overlap among existing projects; see Jeremy Scahill’s Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army
Civil liberties depredations
add to Loss of Civil Liberties
Erosion of civil liberties for convicted drug offenders (see Drug Offenders and Federal Benefits)
Militarization of US police forces
Citizens United court decision and the influence of corporate money in American politics
add to either Loss of Civil Liberties or US Electoral Politics
Elite/corporate influence on society and politics
new project, lots of subprojects and connections
Eurasian Organized Crime
new project
FBI’s counterintelligence (CONINTELPRO) program
new project
Global warming/climate change
add to existing project
Keystone XL.
Gulf BP oil spill.
Other man-made disasters (see Greg Palast’s Vulture's Picnic).
Guantanamo violations, depredations
add to existing material in Torture, Rendition, and other Abuses against Captives in US Custody
History of the CIA
new project, see Tim Weiner’s Legacy of Ashes
Relationship between the intelligence services and the media (see Carl Bernstein’s 1977 article “The CIA and the Media”).
International Narcotics Trade
new project
Mind control experiments by US government, such as MK-ULTRA
new project; see H.P. Albarelli’s A Terrible Mistake: The Murder of Frank Olson and the CIA’s Secret Cold War Experiments
Murdoch/News of the World hacking scandal
probably a sub-project of Domestic Propaganda or Loss of Civil Liberties
Operation Gladio and NATO’s secret armies in Western Europe
new project; see Daniele Ganser’s NATO’s Secret Armies
Political assassinations in the US
either a new project or subproject of US Domestic Terrorism
John F. Kennedy
Martin Luther King, Jr
Robert F. Kennedy
Failed attempts: Reagan, Ford, Wallace, others
other prominent political figures
Post-Soviet Union Russia
new project
Social movements
huge new project
The anti-Vietnam movement of the 1960s
The civil rights movement, from the Pullman porters to the present
The LGBT rights movement
The Occupy movement
The women's rights movement
SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and PIPA (Protect IP Act)
add to Loss of Civil Liberties
US Attorney scandal and resignation of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales
either new project or subproject of Loss of Civil Liberties
Violence against women in the military
(either a new project or a category of US Military). Some sources include: Sexual assault in the United States military, Stop Military Rape, Rape rampant in US military, Military sexual assault and rape ‘epidemic’, and Sexual Assaults on Female Soldiers: Don't Ask, Don't Tell
Whitewater/Lewinsky scandal
either a new project or a category of Domestic Propaganda, certainly much overlap; see Conason and Lyons’s The Hunting of the President
Wikileaks and Bradley Manning
add to Loss of Civil Liberties

Sources listed are merely suggestions for starting places, not the centerpiece or be-all end-all of a particular project proposal.

Recent Updates

December 31, 2011
Added Anonymous cyberhacking.
December 30, 2011
Added SOPA/PIPA.
December 23, 2011
Added Wikileaks/Manning.
December 6, 2011
Added Abramoff lobbying scandal.
December 4, 2011
Added American Nazis’ planned march through Skokie, Illinois and Citizens United/corporate money in US politics.
December 3, 2011
Added Post-Soviet Union Russia, Eurasian Organized Crime, and International Narcotics Trade.
November 30, 2011
Added 9/11, Guantanamo additions, Murdoch/NOTW project proposal.
November 26, 2011
Added Blackwater, Political Assassinations proposals.
November 25, 2011
Added new info to existing topics and three new proposals, anti-abortion violence, violence against women in the military, and US attorney scandal.
November 23, 2011
Several topics combined under “social movements” umbrella. Added Civil Liberties addition.
November 21, 2011
Initial listing.