Americans Without Borders

One night in 1940, a group of Stalinists opened fire on Leon Trotsky’s compound in Mexico City. In the end, the victim was not Trotsky, but his bodyguard: a young American named Sheldon Harte. For investigative journalist Julia Harte, the quest to uncover the truth about Sheldon—her father’s second cousin—was just the beginning of her discovery. Her new book, Americans Without Borders: The Radical Activists Who Fought for US Ideals Abroad While Facing Political Persecution at Home reveals the hidden two-hundred-year history of Americans who traveled abroad to join revolutionary liberation movements—and in return were labeled radicals by the U.S. government.

The surprising stories Harte uncovers include those of Black veterans of the Spanish Civil War who helped launch the civil rights movement; the forgotten Native American contingent in Nicaragua’s Sandinista/Contra conflict; Elaine Mokhtefi’s work with the Algerian National Liberation Front; Melinda Paras and her organization of Filipinos against the repressive US-backed Marcos regime; and many more. Through meticulous research and on-the-ground reporting, Harte brings her subjects to life in deeply personal detail, exploring not only their heroic sides but also the tensions between their actions and ideals. Interrogating how and why activists were branded as threats by an expanding security state, Americans Without Borders asks what makes a ‘radical’.

Join author Julia Harte for a conversation about the long history of transnational radicalism as an irrepressibly American tradition. She’ll be joined by journalist, writer, and producer Sonia Paul. 

Julia Harte is an investigative reporter in New York City. For the past decade, she has covered U.S. national affairs and the Justice Department for Reuters. Her writing has also appeared in publications including Harper's Magazine, The Nation, Slate, National Geographic, The Center for Public Integrity, and Lapham's Quarterly.

Sonia Paul is an award-winning independent journalist, writer and producer who specializes in investigating how power hierarchies and transnational issues impact state systems and individual and community identities. Her stories have been published widely, in outlets like WIRED, Mother Jones, Harper’s Magazine, NPR, 99% Invisible and BBC World Service. She is also the host of a new podcast from Berkeley Social Sciences and a forthcoming podcast based on her reporting. Sonia is a Bay Area native and lives in Oakland. She is on Instagram @sonipaul.