Nan Levinson, Author at ZNetwork
https://znetwork.org/author/nanlevinson/
Independent Left News, Analysis, Vision and StrategyWed, 17 Dec 2025 19:42:51 +0000en-US
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1 https://znetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/cropped-Z_logo_512-32x32.pngNan Levinson, Author at ZNetwork
https://znetwork.org/author/nanlevinson/
3232Who’s Responsible When a Military Order is Illegal?
https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/whos-responsible-when-a-military-order-is-illegal/
https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/whos-responsible-when-a-military-order-is-illegal/#respondWed, 17 Dec 2025 18:09:00 +0000https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1292455Any story about resistance within the military must begin by recognizing that it’s not an easy thing to do. Apparently, that’s true even for a much-decorated retired Navy commander, former astronaut, and sitting United States senator. I’m talking about Arizona Senator Mark Kelly. He was one of six Democratic legislators, all military veterans or former intelligence [...]]]>https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/whos-responsible-when-a-military-order-is-illegal/feed/0Alliance, Defiance, Noncompliance
https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/alliance-defiance-noncompliance/
https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/alliance-defiance-noncompliance/#respondMon, 29 Sep 2025 13:00:00 +0000https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1289235On July 17th, I joined a group of Vermonters for a Good Trouble Lives On action in a village near where we were staying that month. Over the past 161 straight days, a small but determined contingent of mostly White, mostly grey-haired, mostly too-polite-to-make-much-trouble residents had been gathering at noon to protest Donald Trump’s policies on a little [...]]]>https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/alliance-defiance-noncompliance/feed/0A Democracy of Voices (If We Can Keep It)
https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/a-democracy-of-voices-if-we-can-keep-it/
https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/a-democracy-of-voices-if-we-can-keep-it/#respondThu, 14 Nov 2024 16:55:00 +0000https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1275346I thought I was done with free speech. For nearly two decades, I reported on it for the international magazine Index on Censorship. I wrote a book, Outspoken: Free Speech Stories, about controversies over it. I even sang “I Like to Be in America” at the top of my lungs at an around-the-clock banned-book event organized by the [...]]]>https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/a-democracy-of-voices-if-we-can-keep-it/feed/0When Too Much Is Not Enough
https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/when-too-much-is-not-enough/
https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/when-too-much-is-not-enough/#respondTue, 16 Jul 2024 16:30:00 +0000https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1269389It began with Aaron Bushnell and a visceral response of mine: Why would anyone do such a thing? Bushnell was the 25-year-old active-duty airman who set himself ablaze on February 25th in front of the Israeli embassy in Washington, D.C., to protest that country’s brutal war in Gaza. The first question was tough enough, but [...]]]>https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/when-too-much-is-not-enough/feed/0Is There a Journalism That Doesn’t Love a War?
https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/is-there-a-journalism-that-doesnt-love-a-war/
https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/is-there-a-journalism-that-doesnt-love-a-war/#respondSun, 10 Mar 2024 13:18:59 +0000https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1263386War, what is it good for? Well, the media for starters. Shortly after the Biden administration responded to the killing of three American soldiers in a drone attack on a base in Jordan by bombing 85 Iran-connected targets in Iraq and Syria, the Columbia Journalism Review (CJR) asked in a headline: “Is the press dragging America to war [...]]]>https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/is-there-a-journalism-that-doesnt-love-a-war/feed/0Power, Protest, and All That’s News
https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/power-protest-and-all-thats-news/
https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/power-protest-and-all-thats-news/#respondTue, 12 Dec 2023 17:30:00 +0000https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1259231What a world! For eight weeks now, events in Israel and Gaza have been the story of the hour, day, week. And what exactly are we to make of that? Let’s start with the obvious: American media coverage of the horrors there has been nonstop since the Hamas slaughter of October 7th. In fact, it’s knocked [...]]]>https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/power-protest-and-all-thats-news/feed/0Hunting the Military Extremist
https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/hunting-the-military-extremist/
https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/hunting-the-military-extremist/#respondMon, 17 Jul 2023 13:44:55 +0000https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1249550In April, when Jack Teixeira, a 21-year-old Massachusetts Air National Guardsman with a top-secret clearance, was arrested for posting a trove of classified documents about the Russia-Ukraine war online, the question most often asked was: How did such a young, inexperienced, low-level technician have access to such sensitive material? What I wanted to know was: [...]]]>https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/hunting-the-military-extremist/feed/0Give Peace a Chance
https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/give-peace-a-chance/
https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/give-peace-a-chance/#respondFri, 20 Jan 2023 16:31:08 +0000https://znetwork.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1237410I like to sing and what I like best is to do so at the top of my lungs when I’m all alone. Last summer, taking a walk through the corn fields in New York’s Hudson River Valley with no one around but the barn swallows, I found myself belting out a medley of tunes [...]]]>https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/give-peace-a-chance/feed/0Ukraine
https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/ukraine/
https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/ukraine/#respondWed, 18 May 2022 11:40:18 +0000https://zcomm.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1058334https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/ukraine/feed/0The Antiwar Movement That Wasn’t Enough
https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-antiwar-movement-that-wasnt-enough/
https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-antiwar-movement-that-wasnt-enough/#respondMon, 07 Feb 2022 12:57:29 +0000https://zcomm.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1054718https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-antiwar-movement-that-wasnt-enough/feed/0The Far Right in Uniform
https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-far-right-in-uniform/
https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-far-right-in-uniform/#respondWed, 07 Apr 2021 09:02:38 +0000https://zcomm.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1045381https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-far-right-in-uniform/feed/0Veterans Go to Washington
https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/veterans-go-to-washington/
https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/veterans-go-to-washington/#respondMon, 13 Jul 2020 09:02:36 +0000https://zcomm.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=1036300https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/veterans-go-to-washington/feed/0Veterans lead fight against sexual assault in the military
https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/veterans-lead-fight-against-sexual-assault-in-the-military/
https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/veterans-lead-fight-against-sexual-assault-in-the-military/#respondSat, 02 Jul 2016 09:01:14 +0000https://zcomm.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=988046https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/veterans-lead-fight-against-sexual-assault-in-the-military/feed/0The Big Dick School of American Patriotism
https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-big-dick-school-of-american-patriotism/
https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-big-dick-school-of-american-patriotism/#commentsWed, 18 Mar 2015 09:01:46 +0000https://zcomm.org/?post_type=znetarticle&p=971058https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-big-dick-school-of-american-patriotism/feed/1Mad, Bad, Sad
https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/mad-bad-sad-by-nan-levinson/
https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/mad-bad-sad-by-nan-levinson/#respondThu, 28 Jun 2012 23:27:45 +0000https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/mad-bad-sad-by-nan-levinson/feed/0
Any story about resistance within the military must begin by recognizing that it’s not an easy thing to do. Apparently, that’s true even for a much-decorated retired Navy commander, former astronaut, and sitting United States senator. I’m talking about Arizona Senator Mark Kelly. He was one of six Democratic legislators, all military veterans or former intelligence [...]]]>
On July 17th, I joined a group of Vermonters for a Good Trouble Lives On action in a village near where we were staying that month. Over the past 161 straight days, a small but determined contingent of mostly White, mostly grey-haired, mostly too-polite-to-make-much-trouble residents had been gathering at noon to protest Donald Trump’s policies on a little [...]]]>
I thought I was done with free speech. For nearly two decades, I reported on it for the international magazine Index on Censorship. I wrote a book, Outspoken: Free Speech Stories, about controversies over it. I even sang “I Like to Be in America” at the top of my lungs at an around-the-clock banned-book event organized by the [...]]]>
It began with Aaron Bushnell and a visceral response of mine: Why would anyone do such a thing? Bushnell was the 25-year-old active-duty airman who set himself ablaze on February 25th in front of the Israeli embassy in Washington, D.C., to protest that country’s brutal war in Gaza. The first question was tough enough, but [...]]]>
War, what is it good for? Well, the media for starters. Shortly after the Biden administration responded to the killing of three American soldiers in a drone attack on a base in Jordan by bombing 85 Iran-connected targets in Iraq and Syria, the Columbia Journalism Review (CJR) asked in a headline: “Is the press dragging America to war [...]]]>
What a world! For eight weeks now, events in Israel and Gaza have been the story of the hour, day, week. And what exactly are we to make of that? Let’s start with the obvious: American media coverage of the horrors there has been nonstop since the Hamas slaughter of October 7th. In fact, it’s knocked [...]]]>
In April, when Jack Teixeira, a 21-year-old Massachusetts Air National Guardsman with a top-secret clearance, was arrested for posting a trove of classified documents about the Russia-Ukraine war online, the question most often asked was: How did such a young, inexperienced, low-level technician have access to such sensitive material? What I wanted to know was: [...]]]>
I like to sing and what I like best is to do so at the top of my lungs when I’m all alone. Last summer, taking a walk through the corn fields in New York’s Hudson River Valley with no one around but the barn swallows, I found myself belting out a medley of tunes [...]]]>