Alan McPherson
Alan McPherson is Thomas J. Freaney, Jr., Professor of History at Temple University, where he also directs the Center for the Study of Force and Diplomacy. A historian by training, he is the author of The Invaded: How Latin Americans and their Allies Fought and Ended U.S. Occupations (2014), winner of the OAH Ellis W. Hawley Prize, the William LeoGrande Prize, and the Murdo MacLeod Prize; Yankee No! Anti-Americanism in U.S.-Latin American Relations (2003), winner of the Southeastern Council on Latin American Studies' A. B. Thomas Award; Intimate Ties, Bitter Struggles: The United States and Latin America since 1945 (2006); The World and U2: One Band's Remaking of Global Activism (2015); and A Short History of U.S. Interventions in Latin America and the Caribbean (2016). He is also the editor of Anti-Americanism in Latin America and the Caribbean (2006); The Anti-American Century (2007), with Ivan Krastev; The Encyclopedia of U.S. Military Interventions in Latin America (2013); Beyond Geopolitics: New Histories of Latin America at the League of Nations (2015), with Yannick Wehrli; and The SHAFR Guide Online (2017). He has appeared as a television and radio commentator, has published op-ed pieces, and has given over 100 talks nationally and internationally. His latest book is Ghosts of Sheridan Circle: How a Washington Assassination Brought Pinochet's Terror State to Justice (2019).
OAH Lectures by Alan McPherson
In this lecture, McPherson uses the case of the Orlando Letelier assassination in 1976 Washington to explore the broader clash between the forces of fascism and champions of human rights in Chile and Latin America's Cold War.
Based on McPherson's book "The World and US: One Band's Remaking of Global Activism," this talk argues that the band evolved decade after decade into the force for global activism that it became in the 2000s. From consciousness-raising to fund-raising to direct action to mega-philanthropy and courting legislators, the band showed the many ways artists and activists can effect real change in the world.