Julia Harte, '14 M.S., discusses her new book with Sheila Coronel, director of the Stabile Center for Investigative Journalism.
Inspired by the story of the author's distant cousin, Americans Without Borders: The Radical Activists Who Fought for US Ideals Abroad While Facing Political Persecution at Home explores the rich and hidden history of American citizens who fought against imperialism and dictatorship abroad, only to be excoriated at home.
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, '14 M.S., the quest to uncover the truth about Sheldon–her father’s second cousin–was just the beginning of discovering a wider, hidden history of Americans who traveled abroad to join revolutionary liberation movements–and in return were labeled radicals by the U.S. government.
From Americans who fought in the 19th-century Greek revolution to modern-day solidarity volunteers in Palestine, Harte chronicles two centuries of Americans whose support for international causes at odds with U.S. geopolitical interests put them in their own government’s crosshairs. The surprising characters she profiles include African American volunteers in the Spanish Civil War who battled bigotry and McCarthyism upon returning home; a Jewish American woman who helped the Black Panthers establish an international wing in post-independence Algeria; a teenage activist who organized Filipinos against the repressive Marcos regime; the forgotten Native American contingent in Nicaragua’s Sandinista-Contra conflict; and many more. These figures held various ideologies and beliefs, yet each in their own way sought to fight oppression and saw their actions as grounded in American ideals of equality, self-government, and human rights. Meanwhile, U.S. officials responded to them with surveillance, blacklists, travel bans, and prosecution.
Harte will be joined in conversation by Sheila Coronel, who has said of Americans Without Borders: "Through finely drawn portraits and strong reporting, Julia Harte chronicles these American citizens' journeys to risk their lives in the struggles of faraway peoples—and reveals how the United States policed their idealism more than the tyrannies they resisted."
Monday, November 9, 2026, 6:00 - 8:00pm
Registration required
Columbia Journalism School, World Room, 3rd Floor, Pulitzer Hall, 2950 Broadway, New York, NY 10027
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Bios:
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.
Sheila Coronel is director of the Stabile Center for Investigative Journalism and Stabile professor of professional practice at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. She began her reporting career in the Philippines and was co-founder of the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism. She is the author and editor of more than a dozen books on Philippine politics and society, and on investigative reporting and freedom of information.