Big thanks to the LA Progressive for reprinting my Weatherman piece www.laprogressive.com/progressive-...
How the FBI and Mainstream Media Made Weather Underground Famous
The Weathermen’s campaign of political violence failed to build a revolution, but COINTELPRO, television coverage and decades of cultural fascination turned the group into an enduring radical brand.
laprogressive.com
Some background on SDS, Weathermen, RYM II, etc., on reading Zayad Dohrn Ayers memoir. aaronjleonard.substack.com/p/you-dont-n...
You Don’t Need the Weathermen
He wants to be the synthesis—he is a composite error.
aaronjleonard.substack.com
This seemed a good day to repost this one....happy 85th Bob! truthout.org/articles/new...
Newly Uncovered Documents Reveal the FBI’s Campaign Against Bob Dylan
The US impulse toward repression didn’t die with the Cold War, as current attempts to suppress support for Gaza show.
truthout.org
What I wrote about Country Joe (et al) in my book, Whole World in an Uproar.
Worth a second look (IMHO) Listening to the Clash After the Election open.substack.com/pub/aaronjle...
Listening to the Clash After the Election
Listening to the Clash After the Election
open.substack.com
www.instagram.com/p/DT-fgrdjPNa/
Freakout Bookshelf on Instagram: "Whole World in an Uproar: Music, Rebellion and Repression – 1955-1972 by Aaron J Leonard @repeaterbooks This book is not a nostalgic trip through 60s music, it’s a d...
155 likes, 6 comments - freakout_bookshelf on January 26, 2026: "Whole World in an Uproar: Music, Rebellion and Repression – 1955-1972 by Aaron J Leonard @repeaterbooks This book is not a nostalgic t...
instagram.com
My latest Substack entry: open.substack.com/pub/aaronjle...
Capitalism, the infernal machine: An interview with Fredric Jameson
Some years back, I had the privilege of interviewing Fredric Jameson for the Canadian newssite, Rabble.ca. Given the current intoxication with AI among the billionaire class, proceeding side by side w...
open.substack.com
I had a great talk with Brian Becker on the Socialist Program Podcast. open.spotify.com/episode/2S31...
From the Palmer Raids to COINTELPRO: The War Against American Socialism and Communism
open.spotify.com
Over the next period I will be posting on my Substack page my writing for Truthout on music and musicians – with a particular focus on those of whom I’ve obtained FBI files. _______ Newly Unearthed FBI File Exposes Targeting of Folk Singer Dave Van Ronk open.substack.com/pub/aaronjle...
Newly Unearthed FBI File Exposes Targeting of Folk Singer Dave Van Ronk
Files on the late musician offer a disturbing window into the US’s long tradition of political suppression.
open.substack.com
Nebraska, and the Disintegration of the American Dream open.substack.com/pub/aaronjle...
Nebraska, and the Disintegration of the American Dream
They don’t have much consideration for human miseries.
open.substack.com
This is Woody talking to "Weaver's" Fred Hellerman and Lee Hayes, who asked how he was doing -- while being hospitalized for Huntington's Chorea during the Second Red Scare. (From my book Folksingers & the Bureau)
A great review from Ron Jacobs at CounterPunch: www.counterpunch.org/2025/09/09/t...
The Communists Defended Free Speech, Not the Feds
The Communist Party of the United States (CPUSA) has been oft-maligned by those to its left and to its right. To the casual observer the attacks from the
counterpunch.org
Aaron Libson, a closeted gay communist was a target of the FBI’s COINTELPRO-CPUSA. When they facilitated publicizing his arrest on sodomy charges, he tried to kill himself but was thankfully unsuccessful. For the FBI... it was a win, he was driven out of the CP, and the group was “embarrassed.”
[From my upcoming book].The period of imminent revolution the Comintern declared in 1928 ended abruptly when Adolf Hitler assumed power in 1933. To their peril, the communists & social democrats of Germany held to the idea that the Nazis were a temporary phenomenon... #stopfacsism #resist #handsoff
A generous endorsement from Professor Roberts: "The sordid story of the intense and prolonged repression of American communists has never been told better. Aaron J. Leonard’s compelling and highly illuminating book is a must-read for everyone interested in US political history."
Pasadena high school students walking out to protest deportations
Rutgers just sent me the cover for the new book—coming September 9, 2025.
I've not yet seen the Dylan film, though Elijah Wald's book, which it is somewhat based on was helpful in working through my own analysis. For a sample you can see the Literary Hub excerpt.https://lithub.com/how-bob-dylan-became-a-counterculture-icon/
How Bob Dylan Became a Counterculture Icon
“A song satirizing the John Birch Society was barred from Ed Sullivan’s television show on Sunday night by the Columbia Broadcasting System, which said it was controversial.” –New York Times, May 1…
lithub.com
In "Meltdown Expected" I write, that while Jimmy Carter came into office as a champion of human rights, by the end of 1979 he had begun funding Islamist guerillas in Afghanistan, developed the MX missile, embraced the despised Shah of Iran, and tacitly supported the Pol Pot regime against Vietnam.
I have just been given a publication date from Rutgers University Press for my next book, Menace of Our Time: The Long War Against American Communism. It will be on the streets starting September 9, 2025. Get ready! @rutgersupress.bsky.social
If the new Dylan movie (A Complete Unknown) has your interest - personally I find biopix problematic, they project a twisted view of things, that the uninformed then internalize as the truth- I found some pretty fascinating stuff in the FBI files on him last year. truthout.org/articles/new...
Newly Uncovered Documents Reveal the FBI’s Campaign Against Bob Dylan
The US impulse toward repression didn’t die with the Cold War, as current attempts to suppress support for Gaza show.
truthout.org
