Historians Against the War 

Historians Against the War (HAW) was formed at the January 2003 American Historical Association meeting in response to the Bush administration’s threats against Iraq. Over 2,200 historians signed a hastily circulated petition against the impending invasion. In September of that year, six months after the invasion, HAW decided to become an ongoing organization calling for an end to the occupation of Iraq and a restoration of civil liberties in the U.S. itself.

During the following years, HAW collected more than 2,600 signatures on its revised statement; stimulated dozens of campus teach-ins; held three national conferences (2006 in Austin, 2008 in Atlanta, and 2013 in Baltimore); and gained passage by the American Historical Association of the first anti-war resolution in the AHA’s history. In 2017 HAW decided to expand its focus and, in doing so, to re-launch itself as Historians for Peace and Democracy (H-PAD).

Throughout its history, HAW maintained a website which constitute a running record of its activities. You are at the home page of that website now. Links on the left-hand side of the page lead to a great variety of documents from the 2003-2017 period.

For a periodized history of HAW from 2003 to 2017, click here.