History As It Happens

3 Years of War: Ukraine's Story Feb 28, 2025

This is the final episode in a 3-part series marking the third anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022.

The origins of Ukrainian nationalism; the famine caused by Stalin’s forced collectivization of agriculture; the millions more who died during the Nazi occupation during the Second World War -- Ukraine witnessed some of the darkest chapters of the Holocaust -- and the following decades of Soviet domination until the USSR vanished in 1991 and Ukraine declared its independence: Ukraine's history is often lost or overlooked when talking about the origins of today’s war in Eastern Europe. It's as if Ukraine, the country being invaded, is only a supporting character in the great drama playing out between the United States and Russia. In this episode, The Wall Street Journal's chief foreign affairs correspondent Yaroslav Trofimov sheds light on Ukraine's past through the lens of his new novel No Country For Love, which is loosely modeled on the life of Trofimov's grandmother, a Ukrainian Jew who survived the horrors of the 20th century.

Recommended reading:

No Country For Love by Yaroslav Trofimov

3 Years of War: Russia in the World Feb 25, 2025

This is the second episode in a 3-part series marking the third anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022.

Thirty-five years ago, a better world seemed possible. The Cold War ended, Soviet Communism collapsed, and Russia seemed on its way to free markets and democracy. It did not work out. Today, Vladimir Putin’s Russia is an authoritarian police state at war with its neighbors. Russia, as a result of missteps on either side of Europe's new dividing line, is left out of the "Western club" it once tried and failed to join. It may be hard to recall now, but after the Cold War, throughout the 1990s, and even into the first years of Putin’s rule, the U.S. and Russia tried to link arms to create some kind of new European security order based on trust and cooperation. In this episode, historian Vladislav Zubok unpacks the complexities of Russia's recent past and its fraught relationship with its neighbors.

Recommended reading:

Collapse: The Fall of the Soviet Union by Vladislav Zubok

Chronology of U.S.-Russia Summits by U.S. State Department

3 Years of War: Origins Feb 21, 2025

This is the first episode in a 3-part series marking the third anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022.

The Trump administration's overtures to the Kremlin will spur negotiations to end Europe's largest war since 1945. The early signs do not bode well for Ukraine's interests. President Trump seems to believe Ukraine started the war and that its president Volodymyr Zelensky is a dictator. American leaders may be confused, but the guests in this episode understand the deep historical origins of today's conflict. Historians Michael Kimmage and Serhii Plokhy delve into the continuum of Russian imperialism from the days of the tsars to the USSR to the Putin autocracy. They also consider the role of contingency and the agency of Ukrainians, who since 1991 have sought to escape Moscow's shadow.

Recommended reading:

Collisions: The Origins of the War in Ukraine and the New Global Instability by Michael Kimmage

The Russo-Ukrainian War: The Return of History by Serhii Plokhy

On Virtue Feb 18, 2025

The minds of America's 18th-century founders concentrated on what was necessary to sustain a new republic after breaking with monarchy. The republic required civic virtue and disinterestedness on the part of its public officials. Republican virtue was an elitist idea that did not trust ordinary people with the reins of power, but it still has something to teach us. The new Trump administration is testing the boundaries of the law and challenging the separation of powers. In this episode, the eminent historian Joseph Ellis explains why the concept of virtue was integral to the American founding and whether the republic can survive today when so many citizens turn a blind eye to official corruption while subscribing to outrageous conspiracy theories.

Smoot-Hawley Redux Feb 14, 2025

With President Donald Trump bent on initiating a trade war by hiking tariffs on imports from major trading partners such as China, Mexico, and Canada, an infamous piece of legislation passed in 1930 is piquing Americans' curiosity. The Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act imposed the highest duties in U.S. history on roughly one-fourth of all imports. It contributed to a steep falloff in global trade and exacerbated the Great Depression. Just when world commerce needed stimulation, many countries erected tariff barriers, often in retaliation for Smoot-Hawley. In this episode, economic historian Phillip Magness of the Independent Institute delves into the reasons why U.S. leaders once believed high tariffs were beneficial and how the executive branch obtained broad power to manipulate tariffs in the decades since.

Further reading:

FDR's Speech To Congress on Foreign Trade (1934)

Trump, Gaza, and the Palestinians Feb 11, 2025

President Donald Trump is threatening to cut off aid to Jordan and Egypt if they do not submit to his outrageous demand to take in the Palestinians he hopes to forcibly displace from Gaza. Forced population transfers and denying people the right to return to their land are violations of international law. The president's idea of emptying Gaza of Palestinians, so the U.S. can take over the Gaza Strip and redevelop it, ignores important history. Palestinians who were once driven into Jordan after 1967 turned that country into a base to attack Israel, leading to a civil war in Amman in 1970. Trump is also repeating the mistake of the Abraham Accords, the diplomatic breakthrough of his first term. In this episode, scholar Khaled Elgindy breaks down Trump's Gaza proposal and delves into the origins of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Further reading:

The Fallacy of the Abraham Accords by Khaled Elgindy in Foreign Affairs.

Blindspot: America and the Palestinians, from Balfour to Trump by Khaled Elgindy

Hamas' Victory, Gaza's Defeat by Ihab Hassan in Liberties

Jordan on the Edge: Pressures From the War in Gaza by Annelle Sheline (Quincy Institute)

The Day of the Dictator (Is Not Over) Feb 07, 2025

In his inaugural address in Jan. 1989, President George Bush said, "For a new breeze is blowing, and a world refreshed by freedom seems reborn; for in man's heart, if not in fact, the day of the dictator is over." Indeed, with the Cold War winding down, it seemed the world was entering a new era. Within a generation, the number of democratic states would surpass the number of authoritarian regimes for the first time. However, the freedom spring did not last very long, and today democracy is in retreat. What happened? No statesman today would declare dictatorship a thing of the past. In this episode, historian Jeffrey Engel takes us back to the optimism of '89 and discusses the challenges that were immediately ahead of the U.S. when Bush heralded the end of the totalitarian era.

Further reading:

When the World Seemed New: George H. W. Bush and the End of the Cold War by Jeffrey Engel

How Do Dictatorships Survive in the 21st Century? by the Carnegie Corporation

What Happened to Worker Solidarity? Feb 04, 2025

Both major political parties claim to be the true champions of the working class at a time when excessive concentrations of wealth and power are eroding the foundations of American democracy. Unions are not a reality for most workers, especially in the private sector where the unionization rate is about 6 percent. So it is no surprise that worker solidarity -- a collective sense that working-class people have a shared interest in fighting for a greater share of the wealth and more control over their working lives -- is at a low point. In this episode, Georgetown University historian Michael Kazin traces the rise and fall of worker solidarity in America.

Further reading:

What It Took To Win: A History of the Democratic Party by Michael Kazin

Structure and Solidarity by Leo Casey in Dissent (article)

Trump and Birthright Citizenship Jan 31, 2025

President Trump wants to end birthright citizenship as part of his multifront campaign to close American society to foreigners. A federal judge has temporarily blocked his executive order attempting to abolish part of the Constitution -- Section 1 of the Fourteenth Amendment. The case may ultimately reach the Supreme Court, more than 150 years after the states ratified the transformative amendment that "transcended race and region, it challenged legal discrimination throughout the nation, and changed and broadened the meaning of freedom for all Americans," in the words of eminent historian Eric Foner. In this episode, Foner delves into the origins of this enduring American conflict over rights and citizenship.

Recommended reading:

Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution 1863-1877 by Eric Foner (book)

A Look Back at the Wong Kim Ark Decision by Scott Bomboy of the National Constitution Center (article)

The Question of Genocide, Revisited Jan 28, 2025

Israel's destruction of Gaza has caused a rift among Holocaust historians and genocide scholars. They're at odds with one another over what to call it. Is it genocide? Another category of war crime? Or are Israel's actions justified under international law? In this episode, historian Dirk Moses, an expert on genocide studies and international relations, delves into the history of the genocide concept and why over the past 80 years it's been unhelpful in defining, preventing, or punishing the destruction of nations.

Further reading:

dirkmoses.com for relevant articles and reviews

The Problems of Genocide: Permanent Security and the Language of Transgression by Dirk Moses (book)

The Gaza Genocide in Five Crises By Ernesto Verdeja (article)

Jimmy Carter, the Shah, and the Ayatollah Jan 24, 2025

Jimmy Carter (1924-2024) was hailed as an exemplary leader on human rights whose presidency was ruined by crises outside his control, none worse than the hostage crisis in Iran. This favorable view elides critical events that took place during the years before the U.S. embassy was seized in Tehran in Nov. 1979. President Carter acted like the previous presidents he had criticized. He embraced the brutal Shah of Iran, sold him weapons, and stuck with him to the very end. Then the Carter administration avoided making contact with Iran's new revolutionary, Islamist leaders headed by the Ayatollah Khomeini. What if Carter had made different moves? Would U.S.-Iran relations be different today? In this episode, historian and Eurasia Group senior analyst Gregory Brew delves into the Cold War origins of the U.S.-Iran relationship and why Jimmy Carter made a human rights exception for the Shah.

Further reading:

The Struggle For Iran: Oil, Autocracy, and the Cold War, 1951 to 1954 by Gregory Brew and David S. Painter

America and Iran: A History, 1720 to the Present by John Ghazvinian

Further listening:

Operation Ajax (podcast featuring interview w/ Gregory Brew)

Biden in History Jan 21, 2025

Democrat Joseph R. Biden's very long political career is now over. The man first elected to the U.S. Senate in 1972 reached the pinnacle of power at 78 years old when he defeated Republican Donald Trump in 2020. Biden made saving democracy against the Trump threat a leitmotif of his administration. Yet, Biden's missteps -- none worse than his decision to seek a second term -- were largely responsible for Trump's return to power. What will endure from Biden's vision? From his legislative accomplishments or foreign policy decision-making? In this episode, historian Jeremi Suri begins to assess the former president's single term in the White House.

Further reading:

Biden Attacked the Oligarchs -- Too Little, Too Late by Jeremi Suri, Democracy of Hope on Substack

Great Power Politics (Bidenomics) by Adam Tooze, London Review

Trumpism After Trump, Revisited Jan 17, 2025

On the eve of Donald Trump’s second inauguration, many Americans are struggling to explain how we got here again. Are past narratives failing to help us understand the present? The history of conservatism or illiberalism may provide some answers for this new age of American politics, this post-post-Cold War period that is upending what we assumed about the march of progress, democracy, and free markets. In this episode, political scientist Damon Linker contends the old pieties no longer apply, but it's difficult to discern a new explanation.

Further reading:

The Movements of History by Damon Linker, Notes From the Middleground, on Substack

Trump and the Panama Canal Jan 14, 2025

President-elect Donald Trump says China has taken over the Panama Canal. In a news conference, Trump said U.S. military force may be necessary to seize the canal, which would abrogate the 1978 treaty between the U.S. and Panama ceding its control to that Central American country. In this episode, historian Jonathan Brown traces Panama's history from 1903, the year of its independence, through the rule of dictator Omar Torrijos, who persuaded the United States to give up control of the world’s busiest waterway. The canal is an important symbol of Panama's sovereignty, and China, contrary to Trump's claims, does not control it.

Further reading:

The Weak and the Powerful: Omar Torrijos, Panama, and the Non-Aligned World by Jonathan Brown

The Folly of Mass Deportation Jan 10, 2025

President-elect Donald Trump, who has said illegal immigrants are "poisoning the blood of our country," vows his administration will implement the largest deportation program in U.S. history. Mass deportations are part of the American story; Mexicans were targeted in "repatriation raids" in the 1930s, and in 1954 the Eisenhower administration undertook "Operation Wetback," a racist slur for people who crossed the southern border by swimming. What were the consequences of these past deportations? Is it possible to deport all the undocumented people in the United States? In this episode, Catholic University historian Julia Young delves into the history of nativism in our nation of immigrants.

Further reading:

Recent Immigration Surge Has Been Largest in U.S. History (New York Times)

To Love the Bomb Jan 07, 2025

A new nuclear arms race is underway. Almost all the landmark treaties of the Cold War and post-Cold War period restricting the U.S. and Russian arsenals are no longer in effect, having been abrogated or abandoned. China is arming. Other states may be interested in joining the nuclear club, despite the strictures of the non-proliferation treaty of 1968. In this episode, nuclear weapons expert Joe Cirincione, who writes Strategy & History on Substack, discusses the "arms control extinction" and the potential consequences of President-elect Trump's proposals, as stated in Project 2025, to spend trillions in building up America's arsenal.

Further reading:

The Arms Control Extinction by Joseph Cirincione, Strategy & History on Substack

Consequences of President Carter Jan 03, 2025

On Dec. 29, 2024, James Earl Carter died at 100. From 1977 to 1981, he was the 39th president of the United States. Carter's passing reignited a debate over the successes and failures of his one term in the White House. He is remembered for stagflation, gas lines, and the "crisis of confidence." His presidency was upended by economic problems at home and major crises abroad, none greater than the Iran hostage ordeal that vexed his administration for more than 400 days. Yet Carter also left a positive legacy in human rights and racial equality. In this episode, historians Jeremi Suri and Jeffrey Engel provide commentary as we look back on Jimmy Carter's eventful but largely unsuccessful presidency. Credit also to historians Sean Wilentz, John Ghazvinian, and Andrew Bacevich, whose scholarship was cited in this episode.

2024 Year in Review Dec 31, 2024

Note: This episode was produced before the news of the passing of former president Jimmy Carter. The episode scheduled for this upcoming Friday, Jan. 3, will cover Carter's legacy. Today's episode: Biden's humiliating fall. Trump's historic comeback. Assad was ousted. Israel destroyed Gaza. Russia continued to wage war on Ukraine. Democracy retreated. An accused murderer became a folk hero. Caitlin Clark was Time's Athlete of the Year. And the New York Jets -- Martin Di Caro's favorite sports team -- had another miserable campaign. It's the 2024 Year in Review, with historians Jeremi Suri and Jeffrey Engel. Happy New Year, everyone. May 2025 be the year when humanity gets its act together.

Back in the USSR Dec 27, 2024

The West celebrated the collapse of the Soviet Union. "This is a victory for democracy and freedom. It's a victory for the moral force of our value," said President George Bush from the Oval Office on Dec. 25, 1991, as the final curtain came down on the USSR. Few Russians today are celebrating. The end of one-party rule was welcomed, but the 1990s brought on economic collapse, widespread criminality and corruption, and national humiliation. The decade ended with Putin in power. Yet this does not mean Russians want to return to communism. In this episode, the journalist and political scientist Maria Lipman, who was born in Moscow the year before Stalin's death, discusses what the West gets wrong about its historic "triumph."

The Christmas Truce Dec 24, 2024

Something remarkable happened as British, French, and German soldiers shivered in their trenches on Christmas Eve along a 20-mile-long stretch of the Western Front in 1914. Instead of killing one another, they met in no-man's-land to fraternize. They shared songs and cigarettes rather than bullets and bombshells. In this episode, historian Terri Blom Crocker separates history from memory, myth from reality concerning the Christmas Truce of 1914. The myths say more about man's uses of memory than the First World War itself.

Further reading:

The Christmas Truce: Myth, Memory, and the First World War by Terri Blom Crocker

Religious Right and Left: Archie Bunker to Donald Trump Dec 20, 2024

Let's talk religion and politics as if we were on the set of All in the Family, the smash 1970s sitcom designed to expose the problems of racism, sexism, and religious intolerance. In this episode, historian Louis Benjamin Rolsky traces the rise and fall of the religious left through the career of Norman Lear, the legendary TV producer and writer. In Lear's view, if Archie Bunker personified the wrong ideas and attitudes, the millions of Americans watching All in the Family would see the errors of his mind. Would Archie Bunker vote for Donald Trump?

Recommended reading:

Misunderstanding the Right by L. Benjamin Rolsky (New International)

The Rise and Fall of the Religious Left by L. Benjamin Rolsky

Georgia Between the Kremlin and the West Dec 17, 2024

Since emerging as an independent state in 1991, Georgia has struggled to establish its nationhood. "Joining 'the West' has driven Georgian elites’ strategic thinking for decades," writes the historian Bryan Gigantino. Yet, at the same time, Tbilisi must not antagonize Russia, as the legacy of the 2008 war over South Ossetia and Abkhazia still looms over Georgian society. For the past three weeks, demonstrators have staged massive protests, often clashing with police, over the ruling Georgian Dream party's decision to suspend talks to join the European Union. In this episode, Gigantino untangles the complexities of Georgian history and politics as the country copes with life on the post-Soviet periphery.

Further reading:

In Georgia, a National Election Is a Geopolitical Struggle by Bryan Gigantino (Jacobin)

Goodbye Assad / Hello Who? Dec 13, 2024

The fall of Bashar al-Assad marked the historic end of more than 50 years of cruel tyranny that began with his father Hafez, who took power in 1970. The world watched moving scenes of Syrians being freed from the regime's dungeons after a 13-year-long civil war killed hundreds of thousands of people. But who are Syria's new leaders? Who are the rebels that toppled Assad? In this episode, Sefa Secen, an expert on Syria and Middle East security, delves into the country's murky future and dark past.

The "New Economy" Dec 10, 2024

Midway through his eighth year in office, President Bill Clinton kicked off a White House conference on the "new economy." The internet age was underway, unemployment was low, inflation was dormant, the stock market boomed, major industries had been deregulated, and Congress was preparing to pass a big trade deal with China. The future seemed so bright as Americans enjoyed the longest economic expansion in the country's history. The "new economy" cheerleaders did not foresee the working-class discontent that now defines American capitalism in the Age of Trump. In this episode, historian Nelson Lichtenstein delves into the illusions and missteps that hollowed out the working class.

Further reading:

A Fabulous Failure: The Clinton Presidency and the Transformation of American Capitalism by Nelson Lichtenstein

Why Bidenomics Did Not Deliver at the Polls by Dani Rodrik (Project Syndicate)

The Decline of Union Hall Politics by Michael Kazin (Dissent)

World War Ukraine Dec 06, 2024

Thirty years ago, in early December 1994, at a security summit in Budapest, the United States, United Kingdom, Russia, and Ukraine signed a memorandum in which Kyiv agreed to eliminate all nuclear weapons left on its territory after the collapse of the USSR. In exchange, the other signatories offered assurances to refrain from the threat or use of force against Ukraine's territorial integrity or political independence. Events would prove the Budapest Memorandum to be worth less than the paper it was printed on. Thirty years later, Russia has invaded Ukraine and occupies much of its eastern regions. The war has been devastating, killing tens of thousands of soldiers on both sides. In this episode, historian Michael Kimmage looks back at the empty assurances of the Budapest conference, which were made at a time of great optimism and even cooperation among former foes. Kimmage also contends that today's war is a world war insofar as it has expanding global repercussions and is attracting the involvement of non-European countries.

Further reading:

How Ukraine Became a World War by Michael Kimmage and Hanna Notte in Foreign Affairs, the official publication of the Council on Foreign Relations

Is It Genocide? Dec 03, 2024

The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for individual Israeli and Hamas leaders, charging them with crimes against humanity. The accusations against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense chief Yoav Gallant involve the intentional murder of Palestinian civilians and starvation as a method of war. Since invading Gaza in the aftermath of the Hamas atrocities of Oct. 7, 2023, Israel has killed tens of thousands of Palestinian women and children while utterly destroying most of Gaza's civilian infrastructure. Jewish settlers are said to be waiting to move into the northern Gaza Strip now that it has been emptied of Palestinians. Is it genocide? In this episode, historian Omer Bartov explains why he believes Israel's actions amount to the "intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such."

Further reading:

Essay on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by Omer Bartov (The Guardian)

The Crisis of Liberalism Nov 29, 2024

After the election, there was a hurricane of postmortems attempting to explain why Kamala Harris lost to Donald Trump. Eschewing small-bore analysis, historian Daniel Bessner posted on X, "I feel like people are missing the fundamental lesson of the election: it is not the Democratic Party that is in crisis; liberalism itself is in crisis." Liberalism—the dominant political philosophy of the American Century—appears to be a spent force amid a wave of illiberal populism and anti-establishment politics. In this episode, Bessner, who co-hosts American Prestige podcast, delves into the origins of liberalism's rise and apparent decline in this post-post-Cold War period.

Further reading:

Empire Burlesque: What Comes After the American Century? by Daniel Bessner (Harper's)

Evolution of Thanksgiving Nov 26, 2024

Over the centuries, Thanksgiving traditions have changed with political, cultural, and religious winds. The holiday's mythic origins were propagated in the mid-nineteenth century, and soon Americans were all celebrating Thanksgiving on the fourth Thursday of November. Parades and football games are important pieces of Americana now synonymous with Thanksgiving -- as is the start of the Christmas shopping season. In this episode, historian David Silverman delves into the history of a quintessential American holiday whose development has as much to do with magazine editor Sara Josepha Hale as the Pilgrim Edward Winslow.

Reconsidering Reagan Nov 22, 2024

Ronald Reagan was the most consequential U.S. president of the second half of the twentieth century. Conservatives once lionized him before the rise of Donald Trump. Yet how Reagan is remembered does not entirely square with his actual record. Although an anti-government, anti-Communist ideologue, Reagan governed like a pragmatist. Moreover, the fortieth president was a terrible manager with a flimsy grasp of policy. His administration was rife with scandal. When he left office, the federal deficit had nearly tripled. Despite it all, Reagan was an effective national leader who inspired Americans to feel proud of their country again. In this episode, historian and biographer Max Boot delves into the life and times of "The Great Communicator" whose Hollywood and television careers prepared him for political success.

Further reading:

Jan. 6, America's Rupture, and the Strange, Forgotten Power of Oblivion by Linda Kinstler (New York Times)

Come to This Court and Cry: How the Holocaust Ends by Linda Kinstler (2022)

We Have Met the Enemy Nov 15, 2024

The United States' most-wanted jihadist in Afghanistan is trying to portray himself as a pragmatic diplomat. Washington doesn't seem to be interested. Sirajuddin Haqqani has the blood of many U.S. soldiers and Afghan civilians on his hands. While the U.S. views him as an enemy, the CIA once handsomely supported his father Jalaluddin Haqqani in the war against the Soviets in the 1980s. The elder Haqqani was close to bin Laden in the years before the Haqqani network would violently resist U.S. invaders -- after the al-Qaeda strikes on 9/11/2001. Ah, Afghanistan, where the past is not even past. In this episode, Adam Weinstein of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft untangles the complexities of a land where the U.S. has been involved for most of the past forty years.

Further reading:

Is Afghanistan's Most-Wanted Militant Now Its Best Hope For Change? by Christina Goldbaum (New York Times)

Ghost Wars by Steve Coll

Taliban by Ahmed Rashid

Understanding the Rise of Hitler Nov 12, 2024

Donald Trump's election victory probably means Hitler comparisons won't go away, even if they make little sense. Still, there are lessons to learn from the collapse of the Weimar Republic in 1933, the year Adolf Hitler was levered into power by conservative elites who wrongly assumed that they could control the "Bohemian corporal." The question is which lessons are the right lessons? In this episode, historian Christian Goeschel of the University of Manchester explains how Hitler achieved power in Germany to avoid facile comparisons to the America of 2024. Our problems today bear little resemblance to the crisis of Weimar democracy.

NAFTA's Long Shadow Nov 08, 2024

When it was ratified more than 30 years ago, the North American Free Trade Agreement was hailed as a decision "that will permit us to create an economic order in the world that will promote more growth, more equality, better preservation of the environment, and a greater possibility of world peace," according to President Bill Clinton. Today, NAFTA is toxic, and populist anger at the multilateral free trade regime of the post-Cold War era is redefining global politics. In this episode, Dan Kaufman, a contributing writer for the New York Times Magazine, tells us how NAFTA destroyed the working class in his home state of Wisconsin, specifically in Milwaukee, once the "machine shop of the world."

Further reading:

How NAFTA Broke American Politics by Dan Kaufman

Further listening:

The Economy, Stupid with historian Nelson Lichtenstein

American Democracy Nov 05, 2024

It's Election Day in America and the survival of liberal democracy is said to be on the ballot. What does this mean? Has the United States ever been a democracy where all enjoy political freedom and economic rights? In this episode, historians Sean Wilentz and James Oakes delve into the history of political conflict in America, the progress and regress of democracy and liberty, a story of liberalism competing and coexisting with illiberalism.

Recommended reading:

The Rise of American Democracy by Sean Wilentz

Freedom National: The Destruction of Slavery in the United States, 1861-1865 by James Oakes

Election of 2016 Nov 01, 2024

**New episode! History As It Happens has returned!**

This is the eighth and final episode in a monthly series examining influential elections in U.S. history. The most recent episode, Election of 2008, was published on Sept 17.

As the Obama presidency ended, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was the obvious frontrunner for the Democratic nomination. As for the Republicans, 17 candidates vied for the top spot. As the election year unfolded, few "informed observers" believed the New York real estate developer-turned-reality TV star Donald Trump had a chance. They were all wrong. Not only did Trump, a man with no government or political experience, take over a major party, but he defeated Clinton in the general election, the most stunning upset in American history. What explains the rise of Trump? Historians Jeremi Suri and Jeffrey Engel delve into the defining question of the 21st century in the United States.

Best of HAIH: Election of 1980 Oct 26, 2024

This episode was first published on March 4, 2024.

Original show notes:

The embattled incumbent expressed anguish over soulless materialism. The optimistic challenger promised Americans they could overcome any and all problems. The election of 1980 pitted Democrat Jimmy Carter against Republican Ronald Reagan as Americans struggled with stagflation at home and crises abroad. Reagan's victory marked a sea change in U.S. politics, tilting the political landscape to the right. Reagan crusaded against big government and Soviet Communism. If the incumbent looked impotent in the face of these vexing problems, Reagan projected strength -- a timeless lesson of campaigning. In this episode, historians Jeremi Suri and Jeffrey Engel discuss why this election still matters.

Best of HAIH: Origins of Russia's War in Ukraine Oct 23, 2024

This episode was first published on Feb. 22, 2024 as part of a series marking the second anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Original show notes:

In every war, there is a battle over its origins. In this episode, historians Michael Kimmage and Mark Galeotti discuss Kimmage's new book, "Collisions," which seeks to explain why the excessive optimism of the early 1990s about Russia's path toward democracy and market economics never materialized. Moreover, Kimmage's narrative explains what led to each major collision between Russia and Ukraine; Russia and Europe; and Russia and the larger "rules-based order" led by the United States. Russia under Putin -- and for a brief period, Dmitry Medvedev -- and the United States under five presidential administrations could not overcome a fundamental dissonance in how each viewed the other's role in the world. Institutions such as NATO and the E.U., seen in the West as bulwarks of democracy, human rights, and economic prosperity, were viewed with hostility by Putin, who believed an independent Ukraine had no right to join them. ((Note: This conversation was recorded before the eastern Ukrainian town of Avdiivka fell to Russian forces))

Best of HAIH: 1948 Oct 21, 2024

This episode was first published on Oct. 24, 2023.

Original show notes:

Today's war between Israel and Hamas has its origins in the unresolved problems caused by the events of 1948. The year that witnessed the creation of an independent Jewish state in the former British mandate of Palestine, is known by Palestinians as the nakba, or catastrophe. Internecine violence intensified in 1947 as the U.N. weighed partitioning Palestine into two independent states, one Jewish and one Arab. Then five neighboring Arab countries invaded the new state of Israel immediately after David Ben-Gurion declared independence on May 14, 1948. In all, approximately 750,000 Arabs fled or were driven from their homes by Jewish forces. Many fled to Gaza and were forbidden from returning to their homeland after the war, turning them into permanent refugees. In this episode, Middle East expert Ian Lustick of the University of Pennsylvania discusses the throughline from 1948 to 2023.

Best of HAIH: Slavery and the Constitution Oct 18, 2024

This episode was first published on April 12, 2022.

Original show notes:

Was the Constitution pro- or anti-slavery? Maybe that is the wrong question to ask, even though it remains the question at the heart of public discourse about the founding generation. In this episode, Sean Wilentz and James Oakes -- two major scholars of eighteenth and nineteenth century America -- argue the Constitution was a contested document that marked the beginning of a political conflict over the future of slavery and, therefore, the nature of American democracy. They reject race-centered interpretations that elide early political conflicts over enslavement and the hard-fought progress won by Black Americans and their white allies. The American Revolution was an event of world-historical importance, marking a turning point in the history of human enslavement because it gave life to the world's first abolitionist movement.

Best of HAIH: Palestinians and the "Rules-Based Order" Oct 16, 2024

This episode was first published on June 25, 2024.

Original show notes:

Why are Palestinians stateless more than 75 years after the founding of a Jewish state in the same land? Why have international law and the rules-based order established after 1945 failed the Palestinian people? Why hasn’t the U.N. with its security council designed to prevent conflict, stopped the Israel-Palestinian conflict? In Nov. 1947 the United Nations General Assembly voted 33 to 13 with 10 abstentions to partition Palestine in one of the most consequential votes the body has ever taken. One side achieved statehood; the other rejected the vote. From this point forward international law hasn't helped Palestinians meet their national aspirations. In this episode, Victor Kattan of the University of Nottingham explains why.

Best of HAIH: Oppenheimer — Dropping the Bomb Oct 14, 2024

This episode was first published on August 17, 2023.

Original show notes:

When Robert Oppenheimer accepted the job to lead the top-secret Manhattan Project, he and his fellow physicists expected any bomb would be used against Nazi Germany. But by the time the A-bomb was ready in late July 1945, Hitler was dead and Germany had surrendered. Some scientists questioned whether it was necessary to use "the gadget" against Japan, whose weakened military and industrial capacities could no longer project power across the Pacific. Christopher Nolan's cinematic masterpiece has revived interest in this contentious debate: could the Second World War had been won without destroying Hiroshima and Nagasaki? In this episode, eminent historian David M. Kennedy discusses the difficult circumstances of August 1945. For Americans who look back on it as "the good war," the destruction of Japan may raise uncomfortable moral and ethical questions.

Note: Audio excerpts of the "Oppenheimer" film are courtesy Universal Pictures. The source for Harry Truman's speeches is the Miller Center at the University of Virginia.

Israel's War: The "New" Middle East Oct 10, 2024

This is the second of two episodes dealing with the consequences of the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel and ensuing year of war.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says his country will prevail over its enemies and change the Middle East for the better. This is not the first time Netanyahu (or other national leaders) have claimed war will produce positive results. PLO violence against Israel failed to liberate Palestinians. Israel's victory in 1967, for instance, produced a new set of intractable problems when Tel Aviv decided to occupy the West Bank and Gaza Strip. And the United States' recent record in the region is one of disastrous failure. In this episode, Brian Katulis of the Middle East Institute discusses the Biden administration's diplomatic and security-related missteps after a year of ferocious and expanding war.

Recommended reading:

America's Strategic Drift in the Middle East by Brian Katulis

Treading Cautiously on Shifting Sands: An Assessment of Biden's Middle East Policy Approach, 2021-2023 by Brian Katulis

Israel's War: Past and Future of Hamas Oct 07, 2024

This is the first of two episodes dealing with the consequences of the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel and ensuing year of war.

A year after Israel began its military campaign in Gaza with the aim of destroying Hamas in retaliation for the 10/7 terrorist atrocities, the radical Islamist group survives. Hamas is weakened, but it maintains a brutal grip on power in Gaza. Hamas also continues to hold Israeli hostages who were kidnapped last October. Its leader Yahya Sinwar is believed to be hiding underground, his attitude hardening toward reaching a ceasefire with his lifelong enemy. In this episode, Nathan Brown, an expert on Hamas at George Washington University, delves into the militant group's ability to survive and its political outlook after a year of war.

Further listening:

Hamas with Nathan Brown (published on Oct. 12, 2023)

The Looming Quagmire Oct 03, 2024

Israel’s invasion of southern Lebanon is evoking comparisons to 1982, the year Israel tried to rout an enemy on the other side of the border, leading to a catastrophe for Palestinian civilians. What happened at Sabra and Shatila sparked international outrage and a rebuke from Washington. Forty-two years later, Israel is risking falling into a Lebanese abyss once more. In this episode, historian Ahron Bregman, who was an IDF soldier during the siege of Beirut, discusses the causes of the carnage in 1982, why Israel may get stuck in Lebanon again as it fights Hezbollah, and the U.S. role in de-escalating the crisis.

Russia's Exiles Oct 01, 2024

Russian exiles in the West may not be able to change, let alone save, their home country, which is locked in the grip of the Putin autocracy, at war in Ukraine, and in a long conflict with the United States. Yet the exiles are important beyond the realm of politics because their minds and talents enrich Western societies. In this episode, historian Michael Kimmage and Russian journalist and political scientist Maria Lipman, an exile herself, contend "the opposition has no chance of acquiring power in Russia in the foreseeable future." At the same time, Western political leaders and societies must avoid projecting their own beliefs onto the exiles, who find themselves in a very difficult position criticizing their home government from afar.

Further reading:

Exiles Cannot Save Russia by Michael Kimmage and Maria Lipman in Foreign Affairs (official publication of the Council on Foreign Relations)

Nation-Building or Nation-Wrecking Sep 26, 2024

After the disastrous failures of the U.S. projects in Iraq and Afghanistan, many Americans have soured on nation-building, especially if it involves the deployment of U.S. troops in a hostile country for years on end. Americans also remember the fiasco in Somalia in 1993 or the hazy national interest when it came to intervening in the Balkans. In this episode, Keith Mines, a former U.S. Army officer and State Department diplomat, contends nation-building is more successful than its detractors are willing to concede. Mines, now an expert on post-conflict stabilization at the U.S. Institute of Peace, has worked in Latin America, Haiti, Iraq, Afghanistan, Sudan, and elsewhere.

Further reading:

Why Nation Building Matters: Political Consolidation, Building Security Forces, and Economic Development in Failed and Fragile States by Keith Mines

Why the Electoral College? Sep 24, 2024

As another presidential election looms, so does the possibility that the ultimate winner will lose the popular vote. The race is decided by the Electoral College, which critics say is anti-democratic body that distorts outcomes. Since 1988, Republican candidates have won the popular vote once (2004), but twice won the White House thanks to an Electoral College majority -- in 2000 and 2016. In this episode, historian Sean Wilentz delves into the origins of the Electoral College at the Constitutional Convention in 1787, debunking the argument that the Electoral College was a concession to slaveholders. Also, Wilentz discusses his new essay in the journal Liberties where he contends a Trump victory in November will imperil American democracy in ways the news media fail to take seriously.

Further reading: The Clear and Present Danger by Sean Wilentz in Liberties

Biden Doctrine, Revisited Sep 19, 2024

Is there a Biden Doctrine? What did it achieve? Where did it fail? The president sought to reset U.S. foreign policy after the unilateralism of the Trump years. Biden spoke of a global battle pitting democracies versus autocracies, and he reinforced U.S. alliances in Europe and Asia. Presidents from Truman to Reagan to George W. Bush saw their names attached to actionable ideas, i.e. containment of Communism, but whatever the name of the strategy U.S. foreign policy since 1945 has been designed to maintain primacy. In this episode, historian Jeffrey Engel delves into decades of doctrines and Biden's successes and failures.

Additional reading:

What Was the Biden Doctrine? by Jessica T. Mathews in Foreign Affairs

Election of 2008 Sep 17, 2024

A crushing economic crisis, caused by the subprime mortgage meltdown, and two failing wars were the backdrop for the election of 2008. At the onset of the year, a first-term Democratic senator from Illinois, Barack Obama, was a long shot taking on Hillary Clinton, the New York senator and former first lady with universal name recognition. On the Republican side, Arizona Senator John McCain emerged from a crowded primary field to choose little known Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, whose inane manner became the butt of late-night jokes, as his running mate. The outcome made history as Obama became the first Black president. In this episode, historian Jeremi Suri takes us back into the recent past to examine an election that seems more distant than it actually is, thanks to the earthquake that followed 8 years later.

1967 and the West Bank Today Sep 12, 2024

The Israeli military raids and unchecked settler violence in the West Bank are shifting, for a moment, the world's attention away from the ongoing war in Gaza -- and revealing the brutal realities of Palestinian life under military occupation. In July the U.N.'s top court issued a non-binding opinion saying Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories and expanding settlement activity violate international law. In this episode, Omar Rahman of the Middle East Council on Global Affairs delves into the history of Israel's occupation and settlement of the West Bank, which came under its control following the Six Day War in June 1967.

What Happened to the Israeli Left? Sep 10, 2024

In Israel (and the Palestinian territories), support for a two-state solution has dramatically dropped since the more optimistic years of the Oslo peace process. Since the Second Intifada from 2000, the Israeli peace camp "suffered domestic delegitimization," according to Dahlia Scheindlin, a political strategist and a public opinion expert who has advised on nine national campaigns in Israel among 15 countries. In this episode, Scheindlin explains why leftist politics and political parties have lost ground in Israel, which is now governed by the most right-wing coalition in its history.

Further reading:

Israel's Annexation of the West Bank Has Already Begun by Dahlia Scheindlin and Yael Berda in Foreign Affairs

The Sorrow of Sudan Sep 05, 2024

In our world of conflicts, a civil war in Africa is going mostly unnoticed in the United States, at least compared to the attention given to the wars in Ukraine and Israel. For the third time in its post-independence history (from 1956), Sudan is embroiled in a horrendous civil war full of massacres, the displacement of millions, and the potential for mass famine. In this episode, Alex de Waal, one of the world's foremost experts on Sudan, delves into the war's origins and the horrible reasons why the world seems helpless to stop it.

A Peace Plan For Ukraine, Revisited Sep 03, 2024

Russia invaded Ukraine in an act of naked aggression more than 900 days ago. Both sides have lost at least tens of thousands of their soldiers, yet the 750-mile front has not moved much in the past two years. Neither side appears close to military victory, but they also appear far apart on a possible negotiated settlement. As Ukrainian forces invade the Russian territory of Kursk, and as Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelenskyy prepares to show his peace plan to the Biden administration, is a ceasefire possible? In this episode, Anatol Lieven of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft discusses what's at stake as Ukraine pulls off a stunning foray into Russia.

Further reading:

How the Russian Establishment Really Sees the War Ending by Anatol Lieven in Foreign Policy

HAIH On Location! Lindsay Chervinsky on "Making the Presidency" Aug 29, 2024

This is the second conversation in a two-part series recorded inside the George Washington Presidential Library at Mount Vernon.

John Adams' one-term presidency was sandwiched between towering figures of the American past. He succeeded the living legend George Washington and was succeeded by Thomas Jefferson, and Adams' time in office was marked by incessant crisis and ferocious partisanship. Historian Lindsay Chervinsky, the new executive director of the George Washington Presidential Library, wants us to look at Adams with a fresh pair of eyes. In her view, President Adams cemented important and lasting precedents for his office at a time when many wondered if the presidency could survive without Washington's calming influence. With the potential for violence looming as the election of 1800 was decided for Jefferson, Adams quietly exited the stage, establishing the republican tradition of the peaceful transfer of power, which lasted until Jan. 6, 2021.

Recommended reading: 'Making the Presidency: John Adams and the Precedents That Forged the Republic' by Lindsay Chervinsky

HAIH On Location! Inside the George Washington Presidential Library at Mount Vernon Aug 27, 2024

This is the first conversation of a two-part series recorded at the George Washington Presidential Library at Mount Vernon.

Hundreds of thousands of Americans visit Mount Vernon annually. Relatively few people see the inside of the George Washington Library. Its new executive director is historian Lindsay Chervinsky, and she wants to make the library a meeting place for elevated, historically-informed conversations on current events, while continuing to achieve its core mission of providing space and resources for professional scholars and researchers. Chervinsky's new surroundings are inspiring, as she reveals in this episode of History As It Happens.

Bombs Away! Nixon's Lawless Legacy Aug 22, 2024

This month marked 50 years since Richard Nixon resigned the presidency for the crimes of Watergate. The endless fascination with the break-in and the cover-up has obscured what may be more important in Nixon’s legacy as Americans demand a more restrained foreign policy today: his contribution to the imperial presidency and the crimes he got away with. In the summer of 1974, Congress had a chance to hold the chief executive accountable for concealing the bombing of a neutral Cambodia during the Vietnam War. But this article of impeachment was voted down. In this episode, historian Carolyn Eisenberg takes us into the Nixon White House and the jungles of Southeast Asia to show how an American president and his national security advisor prolonged the war, misled the public, and caused appalling carnage in faraway places – but got away with it, with terrible consequences for our own time.

Recommended reading: 'Fire and Rain: Nixon, Kissinger, and the Wars in Southeast Asia' by Carolyn Woods Eisenberg, winner of a 2024 Bancroft Prize

No One Votes For Vice President Aug 20, 2024

The selections of Republican JD Vance and Democrat Tim Walz as vice presidential running mates received non-stop media attention this summer, but will either choice really matter come November? Does anyone vote for vice president? John Adams once called the vice presidency "the most insignificant office that ever the invention of man contrived or his imagination conceived." Yet many vice presidents have played consequential roles in U.S. history because eight presidents have died in office, suddenly vaulting the No. 2 office holders into the Oval Office. In this episode, historians Jeffrey Engel and Jeremi Suri delve into the relevance (or irrelevance) of the veeps.

Election of 1800 Aug 15, 2024

This is the sixth episode in an occasional series examining influential elections in U.S. history. The most recent episode, Election of 2000, was published on July 11.

If you believe American society has never been as politically polarized as it is now, you may not be familiar with the late 1790s. Federalists and Republicans viciously attacked each other, trading accusations of frittering away the Constitution and imperiling the legacy of the American Revolution. The incumbent president John Adams was beset by a crisis with France verging on war. His vice president, Thomas Jefferson, was the leader of the political opposition. In this episode, historian Alan Taylor takes us back to a crazy time: the XYZ Affair, the Alien and Sedition Acts, and Aaron Burr! The election of 1800 had to be decided in the House of Representatives amid scheming to deny Jefferson the presidency. Jefferson's victory brought on the first peaceful transfer of power in the new republic, an important tradition that lasted until the election of 2020.

Humanizing Hitler Aug 13, 2024

With democracy in global decline amid the rise of autocrats and ongoing armed conflict, many politicians and pundits invoke the emergency of fascism a century ago in an attempt to make sense of our current dilemmas. Such comparisons are fraught with problems, not least the unique nature of Nazism’s ambitions for global conquest and genocide. In this episode, historian Richard J. Evans discusses the new urgency surrounding what “made and sustained” the Third Reich and Adolf Hitler’s dictatorship as they relate to today’s threats to democratic institutions. Mr. Evans is the author of “Hitler’s People,” which aims to explain what motivated the Nazi leaders and bureaucrats to carry out their crimes. The book was reviewed in The Washington Times on Aug. 1.

Hezbollah Aug 08, 2024

What is Hezbollah, a name that translates to Army of God? These militant Shia led by the cleric Hassan Nasrallah are expected to retaliate for Israel's assassination of one of their military commanders in Beirut. Hezbollah, considered a terrorist organization by Western governments, is the strongest military force in Lebanon and holds seats in the country's dysfunctional parliament. It has been at odds with Israel for more than 40 years. But where did they come from? In this episode, the Middle East Institute's Randa Slim, a native of Lebanon who witnessed the Israeli invasion of 1982, explores the group's origins.

Middle East on the Brink Aug 06, 2024

Annelle Sheline resigned her position at the U.S. Department of State in protest of President Biden's unconditional support of Israel as it waged a war of immense destruction in Gaza. An expert on the Middle East at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, Sheline says Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is attempting to pull the United States into a regional war after Israel assassinated Hamas and Hezbollah leaders in Tehran and Beirut. The attacks virtually guaranteed Iranian retaliation at some point, and the Biden administration has vowed to protect Israel from attacks. For all the wars and terrorism in the Middle East since 1948, the region has yet to witness a full-scale, regional conflict directly involving outside powers.

Supreme Court vs. Founders Aug 01, 2024

By granting former President Donald Trump absolute immunity from criminal prosecution "for official acts" as Trump fights charges stemming from his attempt to overthrow the 2020 election results, the Supreme Court "descended to a level of shame reserved until now for the Roger B. Taney Court that decided the case of Dred Scott v. Sandford in 1857," says Princeton historian Sean Wilentz in an essay for The New York Review. In this episode, Wilentz discusses the problems with the Court's 6-3 ruling that declared a president above the law -- a first in U.S. history.

What's Economic Nationalism? Jul 30, 2024

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and running mate J.D. Vance say they will lead America into the future with an economic platform that resembles something from the past. High tariffs were once the mainstay of U.S. economic policy, accounting for the large part of government revenues in the era before the personal income tax. The tariffs, trade barriers, expulsion of migrants, and domestic manufacturing espoused by the Republican ticket might be called an economic nationalism of the populist right. In this episode, historian Phil Magness delves into the fascinating history of American tariffs from the founding through the end of the Second World War.

Recommended reading:

The Problem of the Tariff in American Economic History by Phil Magness

Aficionado of Exits Jul 25, 2024

Both Donald Trump and Joseph Biden claimed they were indispensable to their party's electoral prospects, which both men attached to the very fate of our republic. "I alone can fix it," Trump once thundered. Up until Biden finally bowed out of the race on July 21, he insisted he was the best candidate to defeat Trump, despite his poor approval ratings and age-related mental disintegration. It may be cliché to consult the wisdom of the founding generation, but pieces of their wisdom can still help us come to terms with the bewildering events of our own time. For starters, George Washington set an example that seems to have been lost on both Trump and Biden. Giving up power -- knowing when to walk away -- is a sign of virtue. In this episode, eminent historian Joseph Ellis discusses Washington's warning about the threats to stable republican government.

Recommended reading:

His Excellency: George Washington by Joseph Ellis

Open Convention Jul 23, 2024

With President Joe Biden out of the race, prominent Democrats and donors are coalescing around Vice President Kamala Harris as his successor, making it unlikely there will be a truly open nominating convention in Chicago next month. For most of American history, open conventions were the norm. Some ended in chaos, with the party and its chosen nominee weakened heading into the general election. In this episode, Georgetown University historian Michael Kazin delves into the fascinating, rough-and-tumble history of political conventions in presidential election years, and he explains why the major parties did away with them in the early 1970s.

Recommended reading:

What It Took To Win: A History of the Democratic Party by Michael Kazin

Traditions of Violence Jul 18, 2024

This is the second of two podcast episodes this week dealing with the aftermath of the attempted assassination of Donald J. Trump and the causes and effects of political violence in America.

Political violence comes in different forms. A political movement might have a paramilitary force that engages in extrajudicial mayhem. A lone assassin may or may not be motivated by political ideas. Mobs break out in sheer anger and frustration at injustice, real or perceived. In this episode, Oxford Brookes historian Roger Griffin, an expert on socio-political movements, fascism, and terrorism, delves into the causes of political violence that are often difficult to clearly discern or contain.

The Madness of Political Violence Jul 15, 2024

This is the first of two podcast episodes this week dealing with the aftermath of the attempted assassination of Donald J. Trump and the causes and effects of political violence in America.

Historian Jeremi Suri says violence has been a part of our national story from the beginning. In a Time op-ed, Suri argues, "We have inherited a very violent culture in the United States. Moving forward, we have a choice. We can continue to encourage violence, or, we can step back and actively discourage personal attacks, bullying, and intimidation, knowing all too well where they can lead."

In this episode, Suri, who co-authors Democracy of Hope on Substack, explores the reasons behind the many assassinations in U.S. history and their effect on the rest of society.

Election of 2000 Jul 11, 2024

This is the fifth episode in an occasional series examining influential elections in U.S. history. The most recent episode, The Election of 1932, was published on June 17.

George W. Bush's historically narrow victory over Al Gore is remembered for how it was decided: the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 to end a Florida court-ordered recount of disputed ballots, handing the state's 25 Electoral College votes to the Texas Republican. The campaign itself was relatively tame as the candidates sparred over how best to spend a federal budget surplus. Vice President Gore struggled to escape the shadow of his boss Bill Clinton, as voters did not credit Gore with the economic boom that took place during Clinton's two terms. Bush had a shaky grasp of policy and world events, but he struck voters as genuine. In this episode, historians Jeremi Suri and Jeffrey Engel delve into the election of 2000. If the winner only knew what awaited him on Sept. 11, 2001...

Europe's Turbulent Politics Jul 09, 2024

Far-right political movements achieved power in Europe a century ago, wrecking parliamentary democracies and instigating wars of conquest and genocide. Today’s far-right populists are not the same as yesteryear’s fascists, but their growing popularity on a prosperous, mostly peaceful continent has caught many observers by surprise. In the elections for the European Parliament in early June, there was a clear shift to the right. Yet it would be wrong to conclude that Europe, with its stated commitment to human rights and market economics, is hurtling toward a far-right revolution. The results in France's snap elections dealt Marine Le Pen's National Rally a stunning setback, for instance. In this episode, political scientist Veronica Anghel of the European University Institute explains what's driving Europe's turbulent politics.

What If? The British Won the Revolutionary War? Jul 04, 2024

This is the third episode in an occasional series examining major counterfactual scenarios in history. The most recent installment (Nov. 30, 2023) examined what would have happened to slavery in America without the Civil War.

The rebellious colonists' victory in the Revolutionary War and the high ideals of the Declaration of Independence are so integral to the American origin story that it is difficult to grasp our modern society without them. Yet, the British came close to capturing General George Washington's army in 1776 in the first major battle after the delegates in Philadelphia signed the Declaration. The rebellion might have been crushed. So why didn't Great Britain win with its advantages of a professional military, powerful navy, and advanced economy? In this episode, University of Virginia historian Andrew Jackson O'Shaughnessy discusses the reasons why history turned out the way it did.

Recommended reading:

"The Men Who Lost America: British Leadership, the American Revolution, and the Fate of Empire" by Andrew Jackson O'Shaughnessy

The Chennault Affair Jul 02, 2024

The last time an incumbent president withdrew from a reelection campaign was 1968. On March 31, under immense stress from the failure of his Vietnam War policy, President Lyndon Johnson told a national TV audience that he would neither seek nor accept the nomination of the Democratic Party for another four years in the White House. Vice President Hubert Humphrey would win the nomination, as all hell broke loose on the Chicago streets outside the convention, during one of the most turbulent years in U.S. political history. By late October, as Humphrey gained ground in the polls against Republican Richard Nixon, LBJ learned that a woman by the name of Anna Chennault was interfering in his 11th hour bid to initiate peace talks with the North Vietnamese government in Paris. The person who orchestrated this dirty trick was Nixon himself. In this episode, University of Virginia historian and researcher Ken Hughes tells the story of the Chennault Affair.

Recommended reading:

"Chasing Shadows: The Nixon Tapes, the Chennault Affair, and the Origins of Watergate" by Ken Hughes

What the Commies Really Wanted Jun 27, 2024

During the Cold War it was taken for granted that Soviet foreign policy was driven by the tenets of Marxism-Leninism toward imperial expansion and subversion. Stalin, Khrushchev, Brezhnev, and even Gorbachev were viewed as ideologues bent on leading their Third World clients to resist U.S. hegemony. In this episode, historians Sergey Radchenko and Vladislav Zubok weigh the role of ideology versus other, more "realist" factors, such as the quest for security and the recognition of the legitimacy of the Kremlin's interests. The focus of the discussion is Radchenko's latest book "To Run the World: The Kremlin's Cold War Bid For Global Power."

Additional reading:

Collapse: The Fall of the Soviet Union by Vladislav Zubok

Palestinians and the "Rules-Based Order" Jun 25, 2024

Why are Palestinians stateless more than 75 years after the founding of a Jewish state in the same land? Why have international law and the rules-based order established after 1945 failed the Palestinian people? Why hasn’t the U.N. with its security council designed to prevent conflict, stopped the Israel-Palestinian conflict? In Nov. 1947 the United Nations General Assembly voted 33 to 13 with 10 abstentions to partition Palestine in one of the most consequential votes the body has ever taken. One side achieved statehood; the other rejected the vote. From this point forward international law hasn't helped Palestinians meet their national aspirations. In this episode, Victor Kattan of the University of Nottingham explains why.

Myanmar on the Brink Jun 20, 2024

Since achieving its independence in 1948, Burma – now Myanmar – has spent decades under military rule, its people joining ethnic armies at war with the state. With the current war now in its fourth year, pro-democracy activists are being jailed, tortured and murdered. The junta toppled a democratically-elected government in 2021, yet the war doesn’t receive as much attention in the U.S. as other wars where democracy is said to be on the line. In this episode, Priscilla Clapp of the U.S. Institute of Peace discusses Burma's history of military rule and democratic activism, and whether any reasons for optimism exist as the country fragments into autonomous statelets ruled by armed groups opposed to the central government. Clapp served as chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Burma (1999-2002).

Election of 1932 Jun 17, 2024

This is the fourth episode in an occasional series examining influential elections in U.S. history. The most recent episode, The Elections of 1860 and 1864, was published on May 7.

When Franklin Delano Roosevelt took the oath of office in March 1933, the American people faced a paralyzing national emergency of historic proportions. The unemployment rate was 25 percent and much of the nation's wealth had evaporated with astonishing speed. It was a moment of high drama, unlike the election that put Roosevelt in the White House. When voters went to the polls in Nov. 1932, there was little doubt FDR would defeat the hapless Herbert Hoover by a wide margin. Unclear was whether Roosevelt's promised New Deal would pull the country out of the Great Depression. In this episode, historian David M. Kennedy explains how Roosevelt's economic vision made him a transformational figure.

Do Not Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor Jun 13, 2024

American public opinion is increasingly intolerant of migrants, given the record numbers who have illegally crossed the southern border over the past several years. The U.S. immigration system is broken, as harsher enforcement in the name of deterrence has not magically fixed the root causes of human migration from Central and South America. Under election year pressure, President Joseph Biden signed an executive order to bar most asylum seekers, but comprehensive immigration reform remains out of reach. The asylum system, codified in 1980, was never designed to handle so many people. In this episode, New Yorker staff writer Jonathan Blitzer, the author of "Everyone Who Is Gone Is Here," explains the ins and outs of asylum and the human costs of failing to reform a broken system.

Trumpism After the Conviction Jun 11, 2024

Future historians who write about the 2024 campaign might puzzle over how the Republican nominee, four years earlier, egged on a mob to attack Congress, the futile culmination of a months-long scheme to steal the 2020 election. But rather than end his political career, he would survive to champion the rioters as victims of the same nefarious forces arrayed against him and, by extension, the American people. So it should come as no surprise that the felony conviction against Donald J. Trump for falsifying business records in a hush-money scheme with a porn star may not dent his support very much. What is Trumpism today? Is there more to it than the man's grievances against prosecutors, judges, and his political foes? In this episode, the National Review's Dan McLaughlin discusses the sources of Trump's ongoing dominance of the Republican Party.

Memories of the Liberation (D-Day at 80) Jun 06, 2024

Today marks the 80th anniversary of the Allied invasion of Normandy, a massive military campaign to begin liberating Western Europe from Nazi occupation on the way to victory in the Second World War. American memories are filled with heroism and sacrifice, as D-Day remains a touchstone in the U.S. self-image as a global superpower and defender of freedom and democracy. For the people of France, memories are more complicated, even painful, because the liberation came at a cost of thousands of French civilians. Moreover, the French defeat of 1940 continued to loom large in collective memory as a source of shame. In this episode, the Smithsonian's Kate Clarke Lemay discusses her work studying the war cemeteries in France, which stand as monuments to U.S. military and cultural primacy. Lemay is the author of "Triumph of the Dead: American World War II Cemeteries, Monuments, and Diplomacy in France."

Saddam And His American Friends Jun 04, 2024

Before U.S. leaders would compare Saddam Hussein to Hitler, they cynically helped him in his war against Iran. Before the U.S. would wage a decades-long war on Iraq in the form of sanctions and a pre-emptive invasion, multiple White House administrations sought better relations between Washington and Baghdad. During periods of cooperation and conflict, each side misread the other. Yet "forever war" was avoidable. In this episode, investigative journalist Steve Coll, the author of "The Achilles Trap: Saddam Hussein, the C.I.A., and the Origins of America's Invasion of Iraq," discusses new source materials, including audio tapes of Saddam's internal deliberations, that allow us to understand the dictator's decision-making in illuminating ways.

Last Gasp of the Lost Cause May 30, 2024

Collective memory -- what our society chooses to remember, honor, or erase from our past -- is perpetually mediated. For generations Confederate statues and monuments stood in public squares until a new racial reckoning compelled cities and towns to remove them. But that wasn't the end of the story -- at least not in Shenandoah County, Virginia. Its school board voted to restore the names of Confederate Generals Lee, Jackson, and Ashby to a pair of schools which had been renamed (Honey Run and Mountain View) in 2020. In Tennessee, the caretakers of the Franklin Battlefield just dedicated a new monument honoring the Texas soldiers who fought there for the Confederacy in 1864. In this episode, historian and Substack writer Kevin Levin discusses the grip Lost Cause mythology continues to hold on the minds of some Americans today, and the difficult task of acknowledging important historical events and actors without glorifying their causes.

Death of Raisi / Future of Iran May 28, 2024

The death of Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi has left a power vacuum to be filled in snap elections in less than 50 days. The death of the man once called the "butcher of Tehran" comes at low point in U.S.-Iran relations, and as the theocratic regime's legitimacy at home is under severe stress. In this episode, historians Gregory Brew of Eurasia Group and John Ghazvinian of the University of Pennsylvania discuss Raisi's legacy and how his death may influence the regime's stance on nuclear weapons development.

Defeating Democracy, Searching For Fascism May 23, 2024

In the United States and in capitals across the world, liberal democracy is under pressure. We are told that fascism is on the rise. Commentators rummage through the past on the hunt for analogies to explain our current predicament. How does democracy die? What does creeping fascism really look like? Maybe there are solid analogies to examine, if only to confirm that rising fascism is not a real problem today -- or is it? In this episode, political scientist Andreas Umland discusses the crushing of democratic experiments in Weimar Germany and post-Soviet Russia, and the triumph of fascism in the former.

The British Mandate May 21, 2024

In an essay for Foreign Affairs, the Israeli historian Tom Segev argues that a peaceful resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is impossible. As early as 1919, the future prime minister David Ben-Gurion observed that both nations' competing claims to the land created an unbridgeable abyss. In this episode, Segev traces the origins of today's war to the era of the British mandate. By facilitating the creation of a Jewish homeland in what was then an Arab-majority country, the British laid the groundwork for decades of bloodshed and grievances. (Foreign Affairs is the official publication of the Council on Foreign Relations).

Special Relationship: Why the U.S. Chose Israel May 16, 2024

President Joseph Biden's decision to pause bomb shipments to Israel over its planned invasion of Rafah provoked a curious charge from Republican legislators. They accused Biden of "abandoning" Israel despite his steadfast support of the Jewish state not only for much of the past seven months (since the 10/7 Hamas attack) but also for most of his decades-long career in Washington. The truth is that every U.S. administration since 1948 has supported Israel, but rarely has the support come without any conditions or criticisms. In this episode, historian Jeremi Suri discusses the deep historical roots of the "special relationship" between the two countries. In the context of the past 75 years, President Biden's move to withhold certain weapons because they may be used to kill Palestinian civilians is the kind of politics that has often tested, but not severed, the bilateral bond.

Recovering Kennan May 14, 2024

The American diplomat George Kennan was the architect of the Cold War "containment" policy toward the Soviet Union. Writing in the late 1940s, Kennan viewed the USSR as a hostile expansionist enemy, but one that would be willing to compromise if checked by the United States. Containment did not mean the U.S. could or should militarily crush the Soviets. Can Kennan's ideas be applied to Vladimir Putin's Russia? In this episode, historians Michael Kimmage and Frank Costigliola discuss the enduring influence of Kennan's ideas on American policy-makers.

What Is Intifada? May 09, 2024

Campus antiwar protests are disturbing some Jewish students, administrators, and politicians by chanting an Arabic word meaning uprising, intifada. Since Israel began its military occupation of Palestinian territories in 1967, Palestinians have waged two uprisings: in 1987 and 2000. Both were crushed by the IDF. In this episode, Khaled Elgindy of the Middle East Institute delves into the history and meanings of intifada, as some Israel supporters say the word is antisemitic and threatening.

Elections of 1860 and 1864 May 07, 2024

This is the third episode in an occasional series examining influential elections in U.S. history. The most recent episode, The Election of 1992, was published on April 4.

Audio excerpts of "Civil War" are courtesy A24 Films.

Democracy and the Constitution are on the ballot. The fate of the republican is at stake. The potential for violence festers as Americans view their political foes as existential enemies. This was the United States in 1860. Abraham Lincoln's victory as the first antislavery president was met with Southern secession and war. In 1864, Lincoln expected to lose before major Union victories propelled him to a landslide victory, thereby keeping alive the Thirteenth Amendment to abolish slavery forever. In this episode, two of the premier historians of nineteenth century American politics, Sean Wilentz and James Oakes, delve into the enduring consequences of these two "revolutionary" elections.

The Fascism Distraction May 02, 2024

Is fascism what's ailing the American body politic today? Are Donald Trump and the Republican Party fascists or has fascism been around much longer, going back to the Ku Klux Klan and Jim Crow? In this episode, historian Daniel Bessner, the co-host of American Prestige, discusses what has been a preoccupation among public intellectuals and commentators since Trump entered presidential politics in 2015. Bessner co-authored an essay published in a new anthology edited by the historian Daniel Steinmetz-Jenkins, "Did It Happen Here? Perspectives on Fascism and America."

What Is Zionism? Apr 30, 2024

Zionism was a national liberation movement developed by European Jews in the late nineteenth century. Their early vision of a national homeland was fulfilled about half a century later with the creation of the independent state of Israel, which turned a majority Arab land into a Jewish state. Today, pro-Palestinian protesters on college campuses routinely denounce Zionism as a violent colonial project. In this episode, political scientist Ian Lustick recovers Zionism's historical origins and discusses its future, as roughly 7 million Jewish Israelis face as many Arab residents on territory controlled by Israel.

An Ally in the South China Sea Apr 25, 2024

The Philippines' oldest ally is the United States. Bound by a mutual defense treaty more than 70 years old, the two nations are aligning against China's aggressive behavior in the vitally important South China Sea. If the presidency of Rodrigo Duterte marked a low point in relations, new president Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is renewing the alliance with the U.S. while also courting other nations in the Indo-Pacific and Europe in an anti-China coalition. In this episode, The Washington Times Asia bureau chief Andrew Salmon and U.S. Institute of Peace senior expert Brian Harding discuss the up and down history of the alliance and the importance of keeping the South China Sea from becoming a Chinese lake.

When Reagan Pressured Israel Apr 23, 2024

After Israel invaded Lebanon in June 1982, President Ronald Reagan grew infuriated by Israel's siege of Beirut because of thousands of civilian casualties. His administration cut off some arms shipments to Israel, and Reagan himself tore into Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin to convince him to withdraw. Today, President Joseph Biden is being criticized for failing to effectively exert U.S. pressure on Israel to curb its campaign in Gaza to protect Palestinian civilians and avoid provoking a wider Middle Eastern war. In this episode, historian Salim Yaqub, an expert on U.S. foreign relations and the Middle East, delves into the analogy between Reagan in 1982 and Biden in 2024.

Trump Against the Founders Apr 18, 2024

Former President Donald Trump claims he is absolutely immune from criminal charges as he tries to stop Special Counsel Jack Smith from prosecuting him. Trump is to stand trial for attempting to overturn the 2020 election, an effort that culminated in the Jan. 6 riot attack on the U.S. Capitol. The Supreme Court will hear arguments in Trump's immunity claim on April 25. In an amicus brief filed with the court, fifteen founding-era scholars contend there is no historical basis for Trump's claim. In this episode, historians Jack Rakove and Joseph Ellis discuss the founders' fears of unaccountable monarchs and the possible consequences for American democracy should the Supreme Court validate Trump's claim.

Origins of Our Border Crisis Apr 16, 2024

By focusing our attention on only what's happening at the U.S.-Mexico border, we cannot hope to understand the causes of migration or its full consequences. U.S. authorities are encountering record-shattering numbers of migrants crossing into the United States because their home countries continue to lack political and economic stability. The origins of the crisis can be found in decades of political persecution, violence, crime, the rise of gangs, and climate-related crop catastrophes and natural disasters. Meanwhile, the U.S. political system failed to pass comprehensive reform, instead pouring billions into deportation and detention. In this episode, Catholic University historian Julia Young discusses the roots of migration to America.

Who's ISIS-K? Apr 11, 2024

The Islamic State-Khorasan is forging a reputation for ferocious terrorist violence. Its gunmen massacred 137 people at a Moscow concert hall in March. In January, the group's jihadists slaughtered dozens at a memorial service in Iran. In August 2021, ISIS-K was behind the suicide bombing at the Kabul airport that killed 13 U.S. soldiers and 170 Afghan civilians. Who are these guys? Who is their leader? And what does ISIS-K aim to accomplish by committing spectacular acts of terrorism far from its home base in Afghanistan. In this episode, New America vice president and CNN national security analyst Peter Bergen discuss the group's origins, motives, ideas, and goals.

Still Bombing Baghdad Apr 09, 2024

The U.S. invaded Iraq and toppled Saddam Hussein more than 21 years ago, yet the U.S. is still at war there. Why? Against whom? Will American forces ever leave the country U.S. leaders claimed was liberated way back in mid-2003? In this episode, Chatham House analyst Renad Mansour talks about the armed groups that have attacked U.S. bases in Iraq and Syria, triggering tit-for-tat retaliatory airstrikes that damaged the militias' military infrastructure but failed to advance the political and governmental reforms necessary to turn Iraq into a stable nation-state. A generation after invading and causing a catastrophe, the U.S. cannot extricate itself from Iraq. Also, read Renad Mansour's essay about the Iraqi armed groups in Foreign Affairs, the official publication of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Election of 1992 Apr 04, 2024

This is the second episode in an occasional series examining influential elections in U.S. history. The first installment, The Election of 1980, was published on March 4.

A Republican incumbent faced a Democratic challenger trying to end 12 years of GOP control of the White House. A right-wing insurgent and a Texas businessman tried to upend the status quo by appealing to populist grievances against "the establishment." The election of 1992 was the first of the post-Cold War period, making it the first presidential contest of the era we live in today. In this episode, historians Jeffrey Engel and Jeremi Suri discuss and debate its enduring significance.

After Arafat Apr 02, 2024

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat died 20 years ago. A generation later, his people appear no closer to achieving their national aspirations than they did during his lifetime. Arafat was reviled by some for PLO terrorism; others celebrated him as a freedom fighter. For years he tried violent resistance; in the 1990s he signed the Oslo Accords. Neither produced Palestinian statehood. His legacy also raises the question, still relevant today, of whether violence is legitimate or even effective at resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In this episode, Omar Rahman of the Middle East Council on Global Affairs discusses Arafat and the Palestinian cause some 60 years after the founding of the PLO.

Too Old (Or Young) To Be President Mar 28, 2024

How old is too old to run the country? Donald Trump will turn 78 in June. The incumbent Joseph Biden will turn 82 shortly after the November election. Biden is already the oldest president in U.S. history, succeeding Trump who had been the oldest (70) at inauguration in 2017. Rarely have age and mental fitness been such prominent issues in a presidential campaign. But past candidates for the White House successfully dealt with questions about their health and wits. Dwight Eisenhower, then in his mid-60s, suffered a major heart attack the year before he won re-election in 1956. Ronald Reagan faced questions about his age as early as the mid-1970s. Getting old can be either an asset or liability depending on the candidate, as can youth. JFK, Clinton, and Obama all parried accusations they lacked the experience to handle the job. In this episode, presidential historian Lindsay Chervinsky tells us which politicians handled the age question the best -- and how they did it.

Securing Ukraine / Negotiating With Putin? Mar 26, 2024

As military aid remains stalled in Congress, Ukraine is facing shortages of weapons and ammo as its military forces fight a war of attrition against the Russian invaders. Moscow now has more than 400,000 troops in Ukraine which also faces a manpower shortage. In this episode, Anatol Lieven of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft argues time is not on Ukraine's side, so Kyiv and its Western backers, namely the U.S., should seek a diplomatic resolution to the war. Are negotiations with Putin possible? Can Ukraine be secure while ceding territory to an aggressor?

Debs (Running For President From Prison) Mar 21, 2024

At a campaign rally in Ohio, Donald Trump said some things that, depending on your perspective, were either appalling or patriotic. He defended the Jan. 6 rioters as "hostages," called some migrants crossing the southern border "animals," and warned there would be a "bloodbath" if he isn't elected in November -- although his defenders pointed out he was referring to the U.S. auto industry which, according to Trump, needs tariff protection from Chinese imports. Whatever one thinks of Trump's latest demagoguery, it wasn't illegal. One-hundred-six years ago in Ohio, an antiwar speech delivered by Eugene V. Debs did break the law -- by violating the Espionage Act. Debs was arrested, tried, convicted, and sentenced to 10 years in prison. Yet Debs still ran for president as the Socialist Party candidate in 1920. If Trump were to find himself in a similar situation come November (if any of his pending criminal trials are held by then), he too could campaign from behind bars. But this is where the similarities between Trump and Debs end. In this episode, Michael Kazin, a distinguished historian of political and social movements at Georgetown University, discusses the other reasons Eugene V. Debs is an American worth remembering.

Anarchy in Haiti Mar 19, 2024

Haiti is collapsing under gang-fueled lawlessness. The central government has lost control of most of the capital, Port-au-Prince. The de facto prime minister Ariel Henry has agreed to resign under pressure. Ordinary citizens are being kidnapped by gangs and held for ransom. They have been gunned down in wild shootouts, and are desperate for basic necessities. Caribbean neighbors have agreed to create a transitional council to fill the power vacuum, but it faces internal opposition from rival factions within Haiti. In this episode, Keith Mines of the U.S. Institute of Peace discusses the sources of anarchy in a country that once appeared headed for a brighter future after the Duvalier dictatorship more than 30 years ago.

Netanyahu's War Mar 14, 2024

Throughout his long political career -- as a diplomat, Likud party leader, or Israeli prime minister -- Benjamin Netanyahu has obsessed over his country's security while vehemently opposing Palestinian statehood and U.S.-Iran rapprochement. He promised his people they could be safe, have settlements, and co-exist with Palestinians marooned in permanent statelessness. Now 74 years old and fighting for his political survival, Netanyahu is prosecuting a war of immense destruction after Israel's "mowing the grass" strategy in Gaza was destroyed by the Hamas terrorist attack on Oct. 7. In this episode, the Middle East Institute's Nimrod Goren looks back on Netanyahu's time as soldier, statesman, and political survivor.

Historians vs. Trump, Revisited Mar 12, 2024

This is the follow-up episode to the one published on Feb. 6 previewing the oral arguments in the Colorado ballot case, Trump v. Anderson.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a state may not disqualify a candidate for federal office under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, whose Reconstruction-era framers sought to bar anyone from holding office who had violated their oath by engaging in insurrection. In doing so, the Supreme Court restored Donald J. Trump to the Colorado ballot. But the conservative majority also invented a rule that only Congress has the power to disqualify by passing legislation, something that has no constitutional basis. In this episode, University of Maryland constitutional scholar Mark Graber explains where the Supreme Court mangled U.S. history. Graber also provides a definition of insurrection based on his exhaustive research of centuries of relevant cases.

After Putin Mar 07, 2024

In power for nearly a quarter century, Vladimir Putin, 71, is a modern-day tsar -- an autocrat largely unaccountable to his people -- except he has no known successor. Whether the Russian president rules for another week or another decade, there will come a time when he’s gone. Who might replace him is a mystery. Also unclear is how Putin might be replaced: by a violent coup? Some legal way under the Russian constitution? In this episode, Liana Fix of the Council on Foreign Relations and Maria Snegovaya of the Center for Strategic & International Studies use the Soviet past as a guide to understanding possible scenarios under which a successor may emerge -- and what new leadership in the Kremlin means for Russia, Europe, and the United States.

Election of 1980 Mar 04, 2024

Hey, 2024 is an election year! This is the first episode in an occasional series examining influential elections in U.S. history.

The moralistic incumbent expressed anguish over soulless materialism. The optimistic challenger promised Americans they could overcome any and all problems. The election of 1980 pitted Democrat Jimmy Carter against Republican Ronald Reagan as Americans struggled with stagflation at home and crises abroad. Reagan's victory marked a sea change in U.S. politics, tilting the political landscape to the right. Reagan crusaded against big government and Soviet Communism. If the incumbent looked impotent in the face of these vexing problems, Reagan projected strength -- a timeless lesson of campaigning. In this episode, historians Jeremi Suri and Jeffrey Engel discuss why this election still matters.

Who Was Alexei Navalny? Feb 29, 2024

Alexei Navalny was Russia’s most prominent and effective opposition leader, an anti-corruption crusader and democratic politician who entered public life as a provocative blogger around the same time his future persecutor, Vladimir Putin, became Russia's president. Navalny died inside an Arctic penal colony on Feb. 16. He was 47. He leaves a legacy, setting an example of how to challenge the regime even while under constant state persecution. In this episode, Miriam Lanskoy of the National Endowment for Democracy explains who Navalny was, why his opposition movement was so effective, and what his death says about late Putinism.

Strangelove at 60 Feb 27, 2024

In early 1964, Stanley Kubrick's black comedy Dr. Strangelove, Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb premiered in theaters. Sixty years later, it remains one of Kubrick's greatest films, a commentary on the madness of the idea that anyone could win a nuclear exchange. If you watch the film today unaware of the cultural and political milieu in which it was made, you might not get the jokes. In this episode, Joe Cirincione, an expert on nuclear arms control and the history of the arms race, discusses the very real scenarios the movie brilliantly satirized.

Two Years of War w/ Michael Kimmage and Mark Galeotti Feb 22, 2024

In every war, there is a battle over its origins. In this episode, historians Michael Kimmage and Mark Galeotti discuss Kimmage's new book, "Collisions," which seeks to explain why the excessive optimism of the early 1990s about Russia's path toward democracy and market economics never materialized. Moreover, Kimmage's narrative explains what led to each major collision between Russia and Ukraine; Russia and Europe; and Russia and the larger "rules-based order" led by the United States. Russia under Putin -- and for a brief period, Dmitry Medvedev -- and the United States under five presidential administrations could not overcome a fundamental dissonance in how each viewed the other's role in the world. Institutions such as NATO and the E.U., seen in the West as bulwarks of democracy, human rights, and economic prosperity, were viewed with hostility by Putin, who believed an independent Ukraine had no right to join them. ((Note: This conversation was recorded before the eastern Ukrainian town of Avdiivka fell to Russian forces))

Two Years of War w/ Yaroslav Trofimov Feb 20, 2024

When Russian shells began raining on Ukrainian cities and Russian tanks smashed across the border toward Kyiv on Feb. 24, 2022, much of the world wrote off Ukraine. But Vladimir Putin's war of aggression did not go as planned. Ukrainian forces not only stopped the Russian drive on the capital, they drove the Russians back. This is the story told by the Wall Street Journal's Yaroslav Trofimov in "Our Enemies Will Vanish," an eyewitness account of the war's first year. In this episode, Trofimov, who has spent two decades covering conflicts from the front lines, discusses what's at stake for Ukraine as the war turns into a First World War-style slog, and as U.S. aid for Ukraine is entangled in election-year politics. ((Note: This conversation was recorded before the eastern Ukrainian town of Avdiivka fell to Russian forces))

Rwanda's Genocide, 30 Years On Feb 15, 2024

In 1994 Rwanda was scarred by an organized campaign of mass carnage perpetrated by the Hutu majority against the Tutsi minority and moderate Hutus. It was the final genocide of the twentieth century, with the killers murdering about one million people in about 100 days. The United Nations and U.S. looked on but failed to act, a tragic misstep that has influenced decision-makers since to look differently at the task of intervening in foreign conflicts to protect the innocent. In this episode, Omar McDoom of the London School of Economics and Political Science, a scholar of genocide and expert on central Africa, reflects on the enduring lessons of Rwanda's darkest hour.

All We Are Saying Is Give War A Chance Feb 13, 2024

Most everywhere one looks in the Middle East today there is conflict: Israel-Gaza, Yemen and the Red Sea, Iraq, Iran and its proxies. The catalyst for this mayhem is the failure to reach a ceasefire in Israel's war against Hamas that would allow for the release of all remaining Israeli hostages held by Hamas militants. Some analysts see the dangerous potential for a wider war -- or even a global war between the U.S. and its allies on one side versus Russia, China, Iran and other despotic regimes on the other. In this episode, Trita Parsi of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft breaks down the causes of today's dangerous crises.

Auschwitz Through Nazi Eyes Feb 08, 2024

Audio excerpts from "The Zone of Interest" are courtesy A24 Films.

Oscar-nominated "The Zone of Interest" dramatizes the domestic life of the fanatical Nazi Rudolph Hoess, his wife Hedwig, and five kids. They're living in their dream home -- directly adjacent to the infamous Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp where Commandant Hoess implemented Hitler's Final Solution, the genocide of Europe's Jews. In this episode, historian Christian Goeschel, an expert on Nazi Germany and modern European history, discusses the film's strengths and weaknesses as well as the decades-old debates over how to study and depict the Holocaust.

Historians vs. Trump Feb 06, 2024

Distinguished historians of the Civil War and Reconstruction eras have submitted briefs to the U.S. Supreme Court explaining the meaning of Section 3 of the 14th Amendment. It is unambiguous and self-executing: Anyone who violates his or her oath by engaging in insurrection is barred from holding public office again. It is not necessary to be formally charged with insurrection to be disqualified. On Feb. 8, the Supreme Court will hear arguments in a Colorado case that resulted in Donald Trump's disqualification from that state's ballot. Challenges to Trump’s eligibility are currently pending in 11 other states. In this episode, Princeton historian Sean Wilentz contends that Trump should be disqualified based on an originalist rendering of Section 3. Wilentz rejects the notion that disqualifying Trump will damage democracy when the GOP frontrunner has made clear that he intends to eviscerate the country's democratic institutions upon returning to the White House.

Skokie Feb 01, 2024

The uproar over free expression and antisemitism on college campuses evokes a controversy from the late 1970s that left a lasting mark on First Amendment case law and provided an enduring lesson on the importance of free speech in a democratic society. In 1977, American Nazis led by Frank Collin sought permission to hold a rally in the Chicago suburb of Skokie, Illinois, the home of thousands of Holocaust survivors. Outraged by the group's racist rhetoric and pamphleteering, the town won a preliminary injunction in court barring the Nazis from assembling. Realizing correctly that the First Amendment protects unpopular and hateful speech, the ACLU came to the Nazis' defense in a case that made national news and defined a generation of civil libertarians. In this episode, Nico Perrino of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) reflects on why Skokie matters at a time of increasing hostility to free expression across the American political spectrum. Perrino co-directed the documentary Mighty Ira, about Ira Glasser who led the ACLU for 23 years after the intense backlash against its legal defense of the Nazis' right to express themselves.

Fascists, Fascists Everywhere Jan 30, 2024

We might need a new lexicon to describe the threats to liberal democracy. At a time when some notable scholars are referencing the 1930s -- the decade of Hitler and Mussolini -- to argue that Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, to name two, are fascists, historian Roger Griffin contends fascism is too malleable and unhelpful a concept. Today's autocrats and wannabe authoritarians do not fit into a single category or share the same political ideology. Rather, Griffin argues, nationalistic leaders, many of them democratically elected, are rejecting liberalism and humanism by bending their nation-states in on themselves. What should we call this? Incurvation.

The Economy, Stupid! Jan 25, 2024

The origins of the populist backlash against free trade and Wall Street hegemony may be traced to the excessively optimistic 1990s when breaking down trade barriers with Mexico and China was seen as essential to America's long-term prosperity. The decade also saw figures such as Bob Rubin and Alan Greenspan exert their influence to deregulate financial markets, putting ideological faith in banks and hedge funds to regulate themselves, and in the potential of technological innovation to solve societal problems. In this episode, labor historian Nelson Lichtenstein discusses his important new book, "A Fabulous Failure," which charts the Clinton administration's drift away from outdated policies of New Deal, Keynesian liberalism to a neoliberal order prioritizing the free flow of capital, open markets, the decline of labor power, and smaller government. Was the Clinton boom built on sand?

Beyond Taiwan Jan 23, 2024

Taiwanese voters handed the Democratic Progressive Party an unprecedented third consecutive presidential term in the face of Chinese intimidation. The party is promising to defend Taiwan's autonomy, rebuffing Beijing's claims of sovereignty. The election had global implications, too, as The Washington Times reporter Andrew Salmon and U.S. Institute of Peace senior expert Carla Freeman discuss in this episode. At a time when democracy is said to be in retreat, Taiwan's ruling party says it will stand up against the forces of authoritarianism.

Who Are the Houthis? Jan 18, 2024

In Yemen a rebel movement of Shia Islamists has been firing missiles at commercial shipping in the Red Sea, provoking several rounds of U.S. airstrikes in retaliation. Few Americans know much about the Houthis, who go by the formal name of Ansar Allah or "Defenders of God." The Houthis seized control of Sana'a in 2014, leading to years of catastrophic war once Saudia Arabia intervened to try to restore the ousted government. Today, this relatively small militia is disrupting global shipping, as cargo ships have been forced to avoid the strait at the mouth of the Red Sea on the way to the Suez Canal. In this episode, Eurasia Group analyst Gregory Brew discusses the Houthis' motives and the impact of their missile attacks on the geopolitics of the region.

China's Real Historians Jan 16, 2024

In the face of government repression and censorship, a number of brave Chinese citizens -- some are activists, others ordinary folks -- are using basic technologies to disseminate the truth about the country's history. Since taking power in 2013, President Xi Jinping outlawed criticism of Mao and rewrote China's modern history to erase the Communist Party's sordid record from the Great Leap Forward to Tiananmen Square and beyond. In this episode, journalist Ian Johnson discusses how the "underground historians" are fighting for China's future by accurately portraying the past.

Life and Death in Gaza Jan 11, 2024

Before Gaza became synonymous with poverty and human misery, the area was a thriving commercial hub and a crossroads for the armies of empires. Before it became the much smaller Gaza Strip and a seedbed of Palestinian nationalism, it was home to 80,000 Arabs and of little interest to Zionists. But since the middle of the 20th century, Gaza's Arab inhabitants -- the great majority refugees from the violence that brought the independent state of Israel into being -- have been cut off from the greater region. In this episode, eminent historian Jean-Pierre Filiu explores the origins of today's war and its continuities with the past. By his count, there have been 15 wars between Israel and the Arabs of Gaza since 1948. Over the past 75 years, each time Israeli leaders have sought a solution to the problem of Gaza they failed to fulfill Palestinian national aspirations. The result was a cycle of violence spanning generations. Read Jean-Pierre Filiu's essay about Gaza in Foreign Affairs here.

Hitler Enters the Race Jan 09, 2024

In a major campaign speech to start 2024, President Joseph Biden likened the remarks of his likely November opponent to the rhetoric of Adolph Hitler. "He talks about the blood of America is being poisoned, echoing the same exact language used in Nazi Germany," said Mr. Biden from Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. In fact, Donald Trump has warned his supporters at rallies that immigrants poison the country's blood, and he also recently referred to his political opponents as "vermin." But does likening Trump to the Nazi dictator clarify or confuse? Can Americans understand the challenges to their democratic system by studying 1930s Europe and the rise of fascism? In this episode, esteemed Holocaust scholar Omer Bartov of Brown University dives into the debate over whether Donald Trump poses a unique threat to American democracy, and whether comparisons to Hitler work.

Hold Your Nose and Vote For Humphrey Jan 04, 2024

In 1968 the antiwar left punished Vice President Hubert Humphrey for supporting his boss Lyndon Johnson's war in Vietnam. Many young activists either withheld their votes from or gave reluctant support to the Democrat who ultimately lost to Richard Nixon. Then Nixon prolonged the Vietnam War four more years. The distinguished Georgetown University historian Michael Kazin says young leftists today who are considering not voting for President Joe Biden because he refuses to chastise Israel for the war in Gaza, may want to absorb the lesson of '68 or risk helping Donald Trump return to the White House. Kazin, who was a self-described radical in the 1960s, explores the parallels between '68 and the 2024 election cycle with a focus on the genuine dilemma faced by the antiwar left.

Biden's Foreign Policy, Year Four Jan 02, 2024

President Joseph R. Biden will begin 2024 managing the same commitments and crises that defined his foreign policy in 2023. In both Ukraine and Israel, as well as in the Indo-Pacific, Mr. Biden tied U.S. power and influence to his global crusade against rising autocracy. But as he runs for re-election, the president must balance his time and energy between, on the one hand, managing the U.S. role in foreign wars of questionable popularity and, on the other, tending to pressing domestic issues such as high prices and border chaos. In this episode, The Washington Times' national security team leader Guy Taylor and military and foreign affairs correspondent Ben Wolfgang look ahead to the fourth year of Mr. Biden's foreign policy agenda.

2023 Year in Review, Part 2 Dec 28, 2023

This is the second of two episodes looking back on the major events of 2023.

Our year in review continues with historians Jeremi Suri and Jeffrey Engel. As professional scholars, they share their perspectives on the controversy involving free speech and antisemitism on college campuses. They also look ahead to the presidential election of 2024 for which there appear no obvious parallels in U.S. history. The two historians and host Martin Di Caro conclude by sharing their favorite moments of 2023 as well as their thoughts on the importance of historical thinking.

2023 Year in Review, Part 1 Dec 26, 2023

This is the first of two episodes looking back on the major events and ideas of 2023.

What events this year compelled you to reassess the past? What historic moments will you speaking about for years to come? In this penultimate episode of 2023, historians Jeremi Suri and Jeffrey Engel talk about the enduring appeal of Trumpism, the health of democracy in the U.S. and abroad, the historical antecedents of the wars in Eastern Europe and the Middle East, and much more.

Bonus Ep! Ukraine War Update w/ Michael Kimmage Dec 24, 2023

This conversation was first published in a Washington Times video on Dec. 20 available at washingtontimes.com.

Catholic University historian Michael Kimmage, an expert on post-Cold War Europe and U.S.-Russia relations, discusses the state of the Russia-Ukraine war. As winter sets in, Kyiv finds itself in an impossible situation. Its armed forces are entirely reliant on other countries for ammunition and hardware, but Republicans in Congress are not keen on an open-ended commitment in the tens of billions. Kyiv cannot expel Russian forces from its territory. On the other side, Putin does not believe he is losing even though Russia has failed to score a battlefield victory of strategic significance since the summer of 2022.

Collapse of the USSR, Revisited Dec 21, 2023

As Americans opened their Christmas gifts 32 years ago, the beleaguered president of a superpower on the other side of the world endured a unique humiliation. Mikhail Gorbachev, whose open mind and magnetism had captivated Western publics after coming to power in 1985, announced his resignation as leader of the Soviet Union. The nation-state he had tried to reform into something better was swept into the dustbin of history. December 25, 1991: Gorbachev was gone; the country he led no longer existed. The moment was celebrated in the West. But if democracy and market economies were on the march as the curtain fell on the Cold War, their advance halted in Russia during the disastrous Yeltsin years of the 1990s. In this episode, historian Vladislav Zubok, who was born in Moscow in the 1950s and witnessed the rise and fall of perestroika and glasnost, takes on a provocative question: what if some kind of union had survived the tumult of 1991? A proto-democratic, voluntary confederation with decision-making authority devolved to the now former Soviet republics? The question matters today. A revanchist, chauvinist Russia under Vladimir Putin seeks to dominate its neighbors. Western commentators worry about the fate of the "liberal world order" and the waning of U.S. hegemony just a generation after they appeared triumphant.

Saving Napoleon Dec 19, 2023

Audio excerpts of Napoleon courtesy Sony Pictures and Apple Original Films.

Many historians have skewered Ridley Scott's Napoleon for inaccuracies and for failing to convey the monumental historical significance of its subject. In this episode, historian Alan Strauss-Schom, the founder of the French Colonial Historical Society and author of "Napoleon Bonaparte" (1997), discusses the origins of Napoleon's military genius and the nature of his despotic rule.

Recovering Rustin Dec 14, 2023

Bayard Rustin was born a Quaker in Pennsylvania and became an advocate of non-violent resistance in the civil rights movement. He was openly gay at a time when most people in his position would have kept knowledge of their homosexuality secret. He was a brilliant organizer. Bayard Rustin was also a socialist who called for a sweeping economic rights program designed to pull all poor Americans out of poverty, rather than narrowly focusing on race. But you wouldn't learn the socialist aspects of Rustin's philosophy and activism from watching the new Netflix biopic "Rustin," which was executive-produced by the Obamas. In this episode, historian William P. Jones discusses the Rustin that doesn't appear on screen, a man dedicated to economic justice who also refused to publicly condemn the Vietnam War.

Ordinary Men / Extraordinary Crimes Dec 12, 2023

The Israel-Hamas war has provoked an angry, bitter debate over the meaning of genocide as partisans on both sides of the conflict invoke the memory of the Nazis and the Holocaust. The new Netflix documentary "Ordinary Men" -- based on the 1992 book of the same title by historian Christopher Browning -- may help place this use (or misuse) of history in its proper perspective. "Ordinary Men" confonts us with unsettling questions concerning humans' capacity to inflict cruelty on others. In this episode, historian Thomas Kuehne discusses the psychological aspects of mass murder and the difficulty in drawing comparisons between, for instance, Hamas and the Nazis.

From Beirut to Gaza City Dec 07, 2023

Urban warfare, an appalling civilian death toll, and international outcry: Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza shares parallels with its failed invasion of Lebanon in 1982, which was also meant to destroy a terrorist enemy (guerrilla units of the PLO) on the other side of the border. Whatever similarities and differences that exist between the two wars separated by 41 years, Middle East experts contend that both wars prove that there is no military solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict. On the contrary, today's war is likely to end in disaster for all involved, just as the 1982 invasion did. In this episode, Middle East Institute president Paul Salem, who was in Lebanon in 1982, discusses the unsettling parallels.

Diplomat / Intellectual / War Criminal? Dec 04, 2023

The death of Henry Kissinger at 100 reignited the debate over the foreign policy record of a man who embodied U.S. power and influence. Revered or despised, the former Secretary of State to Presidents Nixon and Ford was one of the most impactful statesman of the American century, maintaining influence as a private consultant and informal presidential counselor up until his death. While in government, Kissinger backed dictators and was a central figure in the secret bombing of Cambodia. He helped open the door to Mao's China, re-establishing the U.S. relationship with the world's most populous country. In this episode, historian and Kissinger biographer Jeremi Suri examines the ideas behind the policies that shaped world history.

What If? Slavery Without the Civil War Nov 30, 2023

This is the second episode in an occasional series examining major counterfactual scenarios in history. The first, published in September, asked whether President Kennedy would have withdrawn the U.S. from Vietnam had he lived to serve a second term.

The destruction of human chattel slavery in the United States was a process of world historical importance. It took a terrible civil war and the passage of a constitutional amendment to bring about its complete demise. Could slavery have been ended peacefully? If so, how long would it have taken, had the Civil War not broken out in 1861? In this episode, historian Jim Oakes, an expert on slavery and antebellum U.S. politics, takes on this counter-factual question.

The Cold War Liberals Nov 28, 2023

If the era of Trump has brought on a crisis of liberalism, liberals have failed to fully reckon with their "failure to establish a liberal society at home, to say nothing of how their acts and outlook set back the globalization of liberalism abroad as the toll of neoconservative and neoliberal policy continued to mount," according to Yale University historian Samuel Moyn in his provocative book, "Liberalism Against Itself: Cold War Intellectuals and the Making of Our Times." In this episode, Moyn discusses how, in his view, Cold War liberals betrayed liberalism by rejecting its relationship to emancipation and reason in order to confront Soviet communism, with consequences that continue to ripple to this day.

HAIH Live! The Kennedy Coup Nov 26, 2023

This conversation with University of Virginia Miller Center historian Ken Hughes aired on C-SPAN's American History TV on Nov. 25. Hughes discusses his new research into President John F. Kennedy's role in the coup d'état and assassination of South Vietnam's president Ngo Dinh Diem in early Nov. 1963, just three weeks before JFK was assassinated in Dallas.

Turkey on Thanksgiving Nov 23, 2023

Millions of Americans devour roasted turkey for their Thanksgiving dinner. It's the traditional centerpiece of this quintessential American feast. But how did this big o'l bird migrate to our dinner tables? It has less to do with the Pilgrims than Sarah Josepha Hale. In this episode, historian Ruth McClelland-Nugent traces the origins of our modern Thanksgiving traditions and discusses why such cultural touchstones matter, even if we don't always precisely understand where they come from.

The Question of Genocide Nov 21, 2023

Partisans and activists on either side of the Israel-Hamas war are lobbing allegations of genocide against the other. Some respected legal scholars and historians are also weighing in, however, in an effort to elevate a debate that can easily turn ugly. After all, there's no more serious crime than genocide, which is "theintent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such." The memory and history of the Holocaust also are being invoked, as Israel's critics accuse the Jewish state of committing the same crime the Nazis perpetrated against the Jews during the Second World War. In this episode, historian Dirk Moses delves into the thorny moral and legal questions surrounding genocide. He offers a counter argument: the genocide debate obscures the development in modern warfare of the legalized killing of civilians as states pursue "permanent security."

Russia in the Middle East Nov 16, 2023

What was Vladimir Putin doing hosting Hamas' representatives two weeks after the terrorist group massacred Israeli civilians? What are Russia’s interests in a region that was so important during the Cold War? Its interests may come down to Moscow's great power ambitions in a part of the globe where it has a long history and once exercised considerable influence. In this episode, historians Sergey Radchenko and Vladislav Zubok identify continuities between the Cold War and today concerning Russian influence in the Middle East as a terrible new Arab-Israeli war recalls the region's violent past.

How Wars Are Lost Nov 14, 2023

The wars in Eastern Europe and the Middle East shattered illusions. Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, now in its twenty-first month, dispelled the notion that major land wars between European states were a thing of the past. Hamas' savage attack on Israel on Oct. 7, which was meant to provoke massive retaliation in the tiny Gaza strip, destroyed the idea that Israel’s strategy of deterrence could be sustained indefinitely. Moreover, both conflicts are offering hourly reminders that civilians pay the heaviest price when governments choose war instead of peace. In this episode, acclaimed military historian Andrew Roberts discusses his new book, co-written with Gen. David Petraeus, “Conflict: The Evolution of Warfare from 1945 to Ukraine.” Roberts applies his argument about the importance of strategic leadership to the conflicts in Ukraine, a mostly conventional war involving huge numbers of infantry, and Gaza, where the Israeli Defense Forces are facing a guerrilla army in a densely populated urban environment. Effective leadership is just as important today as when the Allies conquered Germany and Japan, whether wars are fought in jungles, deserts, packed city streets, or cyberspace. Russian president Vladimir Putin failed the leadership test in Ukraine. Israel is trying to destroy Hamas in Gaza. How should we define success?

Why Peace Failed (Oslo Accords at 30) Nov 09, 2023

In a scene that seems as unimaginable today as it did then, U.S., Israeli, and Palestinian officials gathered on the White House lawn in September 1993 to announce a new way forward. The signing of the Oslo Accords was supposed to mark a break with a violent past, leading to security for Israel and autonomy, possibly statehood, for Palestinians. After seven years of difficult negotiations that witnessed breakthroughs and setbacks, often overshadowed by outbreaks of bloodshed in the Holy Land, the Oslo peace process failed. A generation later, as a new war rages in Israel, the two-state solution is getting a new hearing. President Joseph Biden has said that once the current war ends, there can be no return to the pre-October 7 status quo and that the two-state solution must be pursued. In this episode, Khaled Elgindy, an expert on Palestinian affairs at the Middle East Institute, discusses what it would take to bring about new leaders on both sides who are amenable to peace. The fundamental problems are the same today as in 1993, only with three decades of complications piled on. Still, it remains a conflict over land underpinned by assertions of nationalism and religious faith: who gets to live where and under what authority.

From 9/11 to 10/7: Know Your Enemy Nov 07, 2023

The Hamas terrorist attack on Oct. 7 that killed more than 1,400 Israelis drew comparisons to the al-Qaeda attacks on New York and Washington on Sept. 11, 2001. For some, the comparison is meant to justify massive military retaliation for a righteous cause after a stunning surprise attack. For others, the parallels offer a warning about the limits of military power and revenge. In this episode, CNN national security analyst and international terrorism expert Peter Bergen, the author of "The Rise and Fall of Osama bin Laden," discusses the similarities and differences between America's global war on terrorism and Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza.

Ike's Assassins Nov 02, 2023

In late 1960 the Congo crisis was front-page news. Photographers and newsreels captured the humiliating arrest and imprisonment of the newly independent country's ousted prime minister, Patrice Lumumba. In January 1961, his domestic political enemies murdered Lumumba in a remote clearing. What the world did not know at the time was the role the Eisenhower administration had played in backing the coup d'etat to topple Congo's first democratically-elected leader while covertly supporting the army officer who would then rule Congo for more than three decades, Mobutu. Also secret in late summer 1960 was Eisenhower's decision to have Lumumba assassinated, although multiple CIA killers never got to him. In this episode, Stuart Reid, the author of "The Lumumba Plot" discusses the enduring importance of a largely forgotten Cold War drama, part of a transformative period for the CIA as well as the United Nations, with utterly tragic consequences for the people of Africa.

The Oil Weapon Oct 31, 2023

Fifty Octobers ago, Arab oil producers agreed to an embargo against the United States and a handful of other countries, upending American politics and energy policy for years to come. The oil weapon was wielded to punish the U.S. for supporting Israel in the Yom Kippur War, which erupted on Oct. 6, 1973, and lasted for two and a half weeks. Egypt and Syria launched a surprise attack in a bid to reclaim territory occupied by Israel since 1967. Today, with Israel at war again and the Palestinian problem still unresolved, would Saudi Arabia or any Arab state unsheath the oil weapon? In this episode, historian Victor McFarland, an expert on oil and U.S.-Middle East relations, contends it's unlikely. The world is a lot different than it was in 1973.

Bidenomics Oct 26, 2023

Presidents like to take credit when the economy is booming or deflect blame when things turn sour. Despite plenty of positive economic news, polls show that President Biden's economic agenda -- and his repeated invocation of Bidenomics -- still aren't catching on with the American public, however. In this episode, Northwestern University economist Robert Gordon explains why ordinary Americans relate to Bidenomics differently than the White House does. Moreover, when it comes to the president's larger aim of ameliorating income inequality, Gordon contends that formidable, long-term structural changes in global capitalism and U.S. manufacturing stand in the way of creating a more even distribution of wealth. From 1870 to 1970, a slew of one-time innovations catalyzed economic growth. Since the 1970s, the decline of unions, increases in imports and immigration, poor educational outcomes at the bottom end of the economic spectrum, the effects of automation in destroying middle-income jobs, and the decline of purchasing power of the minimum wage have helped make income inequality worse.

1948 Oct 24, 2023

Today's war between Israel and Hamas has its origins in the unresolved problems caused by the events of 1948. The year that witnessed the creation of an independent Jewish state in the former British mandate of Palestine, is known by Palestinians as the nakba, or catastrophe. Internecine violence intensified in 1947 as the U.N. weighed partitioning Palestine into two independent states, one Jewish and one Arab. Then five neighboring Arab countries invaded the new state of Israel immediately after David Ben-Gurion declared independence on May 14, 1948. In all, approximately 750,000 Arabs fled or were driven from their homes by Jewish forces. Many fled to Gaza and were forbidden from returning to their homeland after the war, turning them into permanent refugees. In this episode, Middle East expert Ian Lustick of the University of Pennsylvania discusses the throughline from 1948 to 2023.

Putin's Forever War Oct 19, 2023

Russian president Vladimir Putin's public remarks of late have taken on a darker tone. As he blasts the West for, in his view, trying to dominate Russia, Putin is also preparing the Russian people for a very long war of an existential nature. In this episode, historian Mark Galeotti, the host of "In Moscow's Shadows," says the idea of "forever war" is now part of Putin's creed. The countries supporting Ukraine, namely the United States, must understand that Putin is willing to persist in his effort to subjugate his neighbor for years. Has Putin always felt that he's at war with the West?

Israel's Neighborhood Oct 17, 2023

The outbreak of war between Israel and Hamas shattered an illusion. The illusion was that better relations between Israel and its neighbors could be successfully pursued without resolving the Palestinian-Jewish conflict. This new war threatens to undo the recent reshaping of the political landscape in the Middle East. In this episode, Trita Parsi of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft breaks down the geopolitical complexities of a region where peace and stability, democracy and respect for human rights, have been rare.

Hamas Oct 12, 2023

Who is Hamas? What are the origins of this Islamic movement that rules Gaza? What are its motivations and aims? The stunning terrorist attack by Hamas that killed more than 1,000 Israeli civilians has focused the world's attention on this sliver of land in the Middle East. A new war is underway, and as of the publication of this episode, more than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel's military retaliation. Entire Gaza neighborhoods have been flattened. In this episode, George Washington University political scientist Nathan Brown, an expert on the Middle East, traces Hamas' origins from the first intifada of 1987 through the failed Oslo peace process to today's crisis.

Nut House Oct 10, 2023

The ouster of Rep. Kevin McCarthy, instigated by a coterie of far-right Republicans, has left the U.S. House leaderless. Although McCarthy's demise was unprecedented as the first Speaker to be removed during his term, it was not unexpected. Is his case another example of the turmoil afflicting American democracy, or is this simply the messy infighting of a political party in transition? In this episode, historian Jeremi Suri discusses the meaning of McCarthy's downfall at a time when few Americans trust that government institutions will act on their behalf.

Spies, Spies, Spies! Oct 05, 2023

In most major works of history, the "intelligence dimension" has been badly lacking. Enter Calder Walton, a scholar at the Harvard Kennedy School and author of "Spies: The Epic Intelligence War Between East and West." The Cold War did not begin after 1945, Walton argues, but rather the Soviet Union had been at war with the West since its inception, waging an intelligence onslaught designed to steal government secrets and commercial and technological advancements. And the Cold War did not end with the USSR's disappearance. The Kremlin continued to attack its enemies in the West. In this episode, Walton discusses his riveting book and its relevance to the new U.S.-China conflict. For the past century, intelligence services authored stories of human drama more compelling than anything found in a spy novel, replete with assassinations, election meddling, and nuclear close-calls.

Nixon May Have Been Right (About Russia) Oct 03, 2023

When President Bill Clinton eulogized Richard Nixon in April 1994, he briefly referred to advice he had received from the former president just the month before. “Even in the final weeks of his life, he gave me his wise counsel, especially with regard to Russia,” said Clinton at the 37th president's funeral. The advice on Russia came in the form of a memo, only recently released to the public thanks to the work of researcher Anthony Constantini. In March 1994, following a trip to Russia, Ukraine, Germany, and the United Kingdom, Nixon wrote a 7-page memo detailing the grave problems in Russia’s experiment with liberal democracy and market economics. In this episode, Constantini, who is a regular contributor to The American Conservative, says the memo that he obtained from the Clinton presidential library shows that Richard Nixon understood what was at stake as Russia under Boris Yeltsin tried to transition to political and economic freedom. Nixon advised Clinton to fix the aid program to Moscow, and find alternatives to the frequently drunk and faltering Yeltsin. But, Constantini contends, most of Nixon's advice was ignored to the detriment of global history.

The Rise of Poland Sep 28, 2023

If Europe’s center of gravity is moving east, Poland is a rising military and economic force whose support for Ukraine, recent tensions with Kyiv notwithstanding, is indispensable to European security. Once destroyed and dominated by its neighbors, Poland harbors ambitions of being a European leader more than thirty years after throwing off the yoke of Soviet communism. In this episode, The Washington Times national security reporter Guy Taylor discusses his recent trip to Poland, a nation no longer on the periphery of European politics or economics. Taylor visited during the heat of an intense campaign season, as parliamentary elections are scheduled for Oct. 15. Poland's people and culture have long histories and unique traditions, but it's the nationalism of the post-1989 period that is evident in Poland's new self-confidence as a nation-state.

Recovering a Vanished World Sep 26, 2023

The Eastern Europe that existed before the horrors of the 20th century was a world of ethnic, linguistic, and religious diversity and relative tolerance, “a kind of ramshackle utopia” with “many peoples and faiths and languages arranging themselves in a loose symbiosis” that had lasted centuries, according to journalist and author Jacob Mikanowski in his new book, "Goodbye Eastern Europe: An Intimate History of a Divided Land." Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine evokes memories of the region's darkest days, rather than the history and traditions Mikanowski beautifully writes about. In this episode, the author discusses the region's forgotten past with an eye toward a better future.

Chile's Coup Sep 21, 2023

In the midst of a constitutional crisis, Chileans are also at odds over the legacy of one of the darkest days in their past. Fifty years ago, in September 1973, a military coup, welcomed but not directly instigated by the CIA, toppled the democratically-elected, socialist president Salvadore Allende. Army Gen. Augusto Pinochet took power and ruled Chile with an iron fist for nearly 17 years. Pinochet’s regime was notorious for murdering, torturing, and imprisoning thousands of its opponents, canceling elections, and destroying labor unions. Yet, according to polls, significant numbers of Chileans today believe the military coup was justified because of the economic chaos and Marxist drift brought on by Allende’s management of the country. Today's conflict over drafting a new constitution (to replace the Pinochet-era constitution) is a reflection of Chile’s complicated history of political strife between left and right. In this episode, historians James Lockhart and Kristian Gustafson dissect the CIA’s role in opposing Allende’s rule after 1970. President Nixon hoped U.S. operatives could somehow block Allende’s inauguration by covertly working with his domestic opponents in the Chilean military, Congress, and media. These efforts failed, but the country was embroiled in such chaos by 1973 that the military may have needed no such U.S. encouragement to ultimately dispatch Allende’s government.

Collapse of Trust Sep 19, 2023

Every major poll on public trust in institutions finds that Americans have little confidence in the government, news media, banks, big business, and more. Across the board, Americans do not expect their institutions to effectively perform in the public interest. Some of this distrust is warranted. The fabric of society has been torn by massive institutional failure and deceit. Some of the distrust is the result of cynical mis- and disinformation spread by politicians and demagogues, eroding trust even further. When did the "crisis of confidence" begin, and how might it abate? In this episode, The Washington Times culture report Sean Salai and Vanderbilt University historian Niki Hemmer discuss the reasons why Americans have lost faith in their leaders.

What If? Kennedy and Vietnam Sep 14, 2023

This is the first episode in an occasional series examining major counterfactual scenarios in history.

As the 60th anniversary of his assassination approaches, a question still hangs over John F. Kennedy’s legacy: had he lived and been reelected, would he have withdrawn from Vietnam? It’s a tantalizing counterfactual, not only because LBJ’s escalation led to an epic tragedy, but because of the relevant lessons we can apply to our foreign policy dilemmas today. In this episode, eminent Vietnam scholar Fredrik Logevall separates fact from myth concerning Kennedy's ideas and intentions for withdrawing U.S. military advisors from the Cold War theater of Southeast Asia.

Note: The source of the Kennedy audio tapes is millercenter.org at the University of Virginia.

War for Donbas / War for Ukraine Sep 12, 2023

Ukraine's leadership remains committed to liberating all territory now under Russian military occupation. This includes parts of the eastern Donbas region whose villages have been depopulated and its infrastructure destroyed in nearly a decade of war, if we date the origins of the current conflict to the outbreak of the separatist revolt in 2014. Historically, the Donbas was home to pro-Russian and pro-Soviet political forces who resisted integration with the West. This is why the political scientist Alexander Motyl once argued Ukraine "should let the Donbas go." Today, however, with a full-scale war underway for 18 months, Motyl argues Ukraine simply cannot cede territory to Russia. Moscow aims to subjugate Kyiv, not merely occupy the eastern fringes on the country. Much of the Donbas may be rubble, but ceding it to Putin would not bring Kyiv a lasting peace, Motyl contends.

The Mug Shot Sep 07, 2023

After four felony indictments, the first ever presidential mug shot, two impeachments, and the trashing of the peaceful transfer of power, Donald J. Trump has worn out the word unprecedented. Next spring, as he stands trial on criminal charges alleging he tried to steal the 2020 election, Trump may also cement his party's nomination for the presidency. And what if he's convicted? Unprecedented, indeed. But rather than focus solely on how none of this has ever happened before, in this episode historians Jeremi Suri and Jeffrey Engel discuss the origins of the grievances and resentments that drive Trumpism. Trump has become a symbol for those who resent federal authority and cultural liberalism, namely the white working class left behind by deindustrialization and unsettled by demographic change.

Putin's Mafia State Sep 05, 2023

In the aftermath of Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine, there has been an overdue reckoning with the fact that many historians, foreign policy analysts, politicians, and others underestimated Vladimir Putin and overstated Russia's decline. This was despite the fact that Russia’s forever-president habitually broadcast his grievances about "the West." It is, therefore, critical to understand what drives Putin today and how he’s holding his regime together. In this episode, Catholic University historian Michael Kimmage describes what he calls Russia's "mafia state" following the death of mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin. It is now apparent that Putin’s ruling clique has survived Prigozhin’s aborted challenge from June, and remains determined to fight a long war in Ukraine in the face of high casualties and economic sanctions. Also discussed in this episode is the unexpected popularity of the war inside Russia after 18 months of combat, how Russia is globalizing its war efforts to survive Western sanctions, and what it would take to get the Kremlin to the negotiating table.

Counteroffensive Aug 31, 2023

Ukraine's counteroffensive, launched three months ago amid increasing pressure to turn the tide of the war, has made meager gains on its eastern and southern fronts against tough Russian defenses of minefields and trenches. Russia's war of aggression is now a war of attrition, and it's unclear which side may crack first. The high casualty figures -- an estimated 500,000 dead and wounded since the war began 18 months ago -- and lack of offensive progress are drawing comparisons to the First World War, whose aggressors also believed it would be over quickly. In this episode, Anatol Lieven of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft discusses what it will take to bring the war to an end, and why we should all be concerned with the darker parallels to the Great War a century ago.

Operation Ajax Aug 29, 2023

Anniversaries have a way of concentrating our minds on important events, but most Americans paid little attention to a certain date in history when it crossed their calendars this month. On August 19, 1953, the CIA toppled Iran’s democratic prime minister Mohammad Mossadegh and installed the Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, an event whose consequences haunt U.S.-Iran relations to this day. For Iran, the detested Shah’s rule, backed by billions in U.S. military aid, led to an Islamic Revolution in 1979. For the U.S., the 1953 coup was the first such operation pulled off by the new CIA, which under eight years of the Eisenhower administration perpetrated dozens of covert operations in 48 countries. Meddling in the internal affairs of other nations would become standard U.S. procedure during the Cold War following the “success” of 1953. In this episode, Eurasia Group oil historian Gregory Brew discusses the remarkable series of events that led to Mossadegh’s demise and the enduring relevance of the coup in today's geopolitics. Note: Excerpts of the documentary COUP 53 are courtesy Amirani Media.

The Radicalism of the March on Washington Aug 24, 2023

The massive gathering of Americans on the National Mall sixty years ago, on August 28, 1963, is best remembered by the final few minutes of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s soaring call for racial harmony, "I Have A Dream." But there was much more to the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. In this episode, historians Thomas Jackson and William P. Jones recover aspects of Black intellectual history and a radical economic agenda that are invisible in sanitized retrospectives on the revolution of ‘63. (Note: The source of the Kennedy audio tape on civil rights is the Miller Center at the University of Virginia, excerpted by Thomas Jackson).

Oppenheimer: The Missed Opportunity Aug 22, 2023

This is the final episode in a three-part series about “Oppenheimer” and the historical debates raised by the blockbuster film.

By the time he left office in early 1961, President Dwight Eisenhower had overseen the expansion of the nation’s nuclear arsenal to 20,000 weapons. The United States had dramatically outpaced the USSR in the opening years of the arms race. The Soviet Union had roughly 2,000 bombs after the first full decade of the Cold War. The “missile gap” notwithstanding, both superpowers had more than enough nuclear firepower to destroy the world many times over, and this was the actual point of the policy of “mutually-assured destruction.” Robert Oppenheimer and like-minded scientists had hoped to avoid this outcome by trying to influence national defense policy after the Second World War. Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster film “Oppenheimer” shines a light on the physicist’s opposition to the H-bomb program and his support for international arms control and openness, rather than secrecy, in national security policy. In this episode, historian Gregg Herken, author of “Brotherhood of the Bomb,” discusses whether the U.S. missed a chance to avoid an arms race and decades of Cold War by ignoring Oppenheimer’s advice in the late-1940s and early 1950s.

Oppenheimer: Dropping the Bomb Aug 17, 2023

This is the second episode in a three-episode series about “Oppenheimer” and the historical debates raised by the blockbuster film.

When Robert Oppenheimer accepted the job to lead the top-secret Manhattan Project, he and his fellow physicists expected any bomb would be used against Nazi Germany. But by the time the A-bomb was ready in late July 1945, Hitler was dead and Germany had surrendered. Some scientists questioned whether it was necessary to use "the gadget" against Japan, whose weakened military and industrial capacities could no longer project power across the Pacific. Christopher Nolan's cinematic masterpiece has revived interest in this contentious debate: could the Second World War had been won without destroying Hiroshima and Nagasaki? In this episode, eminent historian David M. Kennedy discusses the difficult circumstances of August 1945. For Americans who look back on it as "the good war," the destruction of Japan may raise uncomfortable moral and ethical questions.

Note: Audio excerpts of the "Oppenheimer" film are courtesy Universal Pictures. The source for Harry Truman's speeches is the Miller Center at the University of Virginia.

Oppenheimer: New Weapon, New Age Aug 15, 2023

This is the first episode in a three-episode series about “Oppenheimer” and the historical debates raised by the blockbuster film.

On November 16, 1945, Robert Oppenheimer delivered an address to the American Philosophical Society about the changed world ushered in by a “most terrible weapon.” The father of the atomic bomb cautioned his audience at the University of Pennsylvania that international cooperation was necessary to avoid future use of hundreds if not thousands of bombs in aggressive war. But Oppenheimer did not express regret – neither in 1945 nor for the rest of his life – about leading the A-bomb project to its successful completion. Yet he was haunted by its use against “an essentially defeated enemy.” The complicated scientist was brought to life on the big screen by actor Cillian Murphy in director Christopher Nolan’s cinematic masterpiece, “Oppenheimer.” In this episode, national security analyst and arms control expert Joe Cirincione discusses the enduring consequences of the discovery of nuclear fission in 1939 and of the manufacture of weapons of mass destruction capable of destroying human life. Note: Audio excerpts of the "Oppenheimer" film and of director Christopher Nolan are courtesy Universal Pictures.

Florida's Slavery Lesson Aug 10, 2023

A single sentence in Florida's new K-12 social studies curriculum caused a political uproar: "Instruction includes how slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit." People on the left say Florida, under Republican Governor Ron DeSantis, is trying to teach kids that Black people benefited from slavery. People on the right are defending the new standards. But what's omitted from -- or downplayed in -- the African American history section is a far more important problem. The Florida standards almost entirely ignore the centrality of property rights in enslavement. There's no mention of proslavery ideology. The role of racism, while not ignored, may not be sufficiently emphasized. In this episode, historian Bob Hall widens our perspective to understand the complexities of racial slavery in North America.

Origins of U.S. Empire Aug 08, 2023

A new exhibit at the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery is compelling its viewers to reflect on the roots of U.S. hegemony. "1898: Imperial Visions and Revisions" is a superbly presented and thought-provoking collection of portraits, paintings, political cartoons, old newspaper clippings, and other artifacts that tell the story of overseas expansion through the eyes of Americans and the people over which they would rule, after defeating Spain in a short war, in Puerto Rico, Guam, Cuba, and the Philippines. Congress annexed Hawaii against the will of Hawaiians the same year. At a time when the U.S. role in the world is subject to considerable debate, the exhibit -- co-curated by Kate LeMay and Taina Caragol -- confronts us with the controversial origins of America's global reach. Did you know an Anti-Imperialist League, whose members included Mark Twain and Andrew Carnegie, protested U.S. domination of overseas territory?

Strike Aug 03, 2023

In 2023 labor is striking back. In a resurgence of labor militancy after decades of dormancy, tens of thousands of American workers are walking off their jobs as they demand better pay, conditions, protections, and dignity from their employers -- from Hollywood to hotels. In this episode, Michael Kazin, a distinguished historian of social movements at Georgetown University, discusses the long fight for economic rights that is central to American labor history. Unions existed before the Great Depression and New Deal, but it was not until the cataclysms of the 1930s that industrial workers in steel and autos achieved recognition of their right to organize, framing their demands in language that would fit today's conflicts.

Russia and Cuba, Together Again Aug 01, 2023

On today's geopolitical chessboard, most eyes are watching Eastern Europe or the Indo-Pacific. Somewhat unnoticed is what's happening in Cuba. Russia has turned to an old ally for help in its “clash with the West.” Beginning early this year, high-level Russian officials began visiting Cuba to deepen economic, military, and diplomatic ties with the Communist island. In this episode, historian Jeremi Suri discusses why Russia intends to use Cuba as a counter-balance to U.S. support for Ukraine, drawing parallels to the Cold War relationship between Cuba and the Soviet Union. As they did in the early 1960s, both nations today see an interest in cooperating against the U.S. But unlike the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, today’s Russian military assistance to Cuba should not be viewed as an existential threat but rather as a realpolitik ploy to antagonize Washington, Suri says.

George's Farewell Jul 27, 2023

Historian Alexis Coe wants you to read George Washington's Farewell Address. She's been reading it repeatedly, and describes it as a "shockingly modern document." Coe, whose short biography of our first president, "You Never Forget Your First," was a best-seller, says Washington's warnings about factionalism and despotism have burning relevance for our current times. In this episode, Coe talks about why our foremost founding father warned posterity about the "dangers of party" to national unity.

Korea's Forever War Jul 25, 2023

Thursday, July 27, marks the seventieth anniversary of the Korean War armistice. It ended three years (1950-1953) of brutal combat between North Korea and its Communist allies, namely Mao's China, on one side, and South Korea, the U.S., and more than a dozen allies fighting under the U.N. banner on the other. It was an armistice, not a peace treaty. And to this day real peace remains a distant possibility. In this episode, The Washington Times' reporters Guy Taylor and Andrew Salmon discuss why North Korea remains an isolated, unpredictable, nuclear-armed country while South Korea is a flourishing democracy and an important American ally in Asia.

Clarence Thomas and the Fourteenth Amendment Jul 20, 2023

In his concurring opinion supporting the majority ruling striking down race-based affirmative action in college admissions, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas argued for a race-neutral reading of historical efforts to remediate the effects of slavery and racism. In his view, the formerly enslaved “freedmen,” who were supposed to be cared for under the Freedmen’s Bureau established after the Civil War, was formally a “race-neutral category." Thomas has spent his judicial career arguing the Fourteenth Amendment bars any form of race-conscious policymaking, and he has taken a narrow view of the rights protected under the amendment's clauses. Does he have his history right? The eminent historian of the Reconstruction era Eric Foner joins the conversation.

Whole and Free: NATO and Ukraine Jul 18, 2023

There's been talk of Ukraine possibly joining NATO since the early years of post-Cold War Europe, but it never happened. And the allies aren't quite ready to go ahead with membership now, as evidenced by their vaguely-worded commitment issued at the Vilnius summit "to extend an invitation to Ukraine to join the Alliance when Allies agree and conditions are met." From the moment the post-Soviet world started coming into view, when and where NATO should expand has aggravated relations between the U.S. and Moscow. When it came to Ukraine, the country got the worst of both worlds: it was left on the wrong side of Europe's dividing line and Russian leaders were angered by the mere idea of Ukraine entering NATO. In this episode, historian Jeffrey Engel discusses the origins of today's debate about Ukraine's future, whose circumstances could compel the U.S. and its European allies into direct conflict with Russia.

Witches No More Jul 13, 2023

Nearly four centuries ago, authorities in Windsor, Connecticut hanged Alice Young, the first recorded execution for witchcraft in the British colonies. In all, twelve people were charged and convicted of witchcraft in Connecticut; eleven were hanged. This year, after persistent lobbying by descendants of the wrongly accused, state legislators exonerated them all, an act of moral restitution for a bizarre and terrifying chapter in American history. Historians differ as to why the witch-belief craze exploded in the mid-1500s in Europe, and it isn't entirely clear why it quickly died down in the late 1600s before the Enlightenment began to take hold. In Europe and America, an estimated 50,000 people were executed for witchcraft. In this episode, historian Kate Carté discusses why religious fanaticism and paranoia consumed entire communities.

Otto and Miep Jul 11, 2023

Note: Audio clips of "A Small Light" are courtesy NatGeo.

Anne Frank's 'A Diary of a Young Girl' has been read by tens of millions of people in dozens of languages. It is an entry point for Holocaust studies for each new generation of school students. Her tragic story has been the subject of stage plays and movies, too. And now the young Dutch woman who tried to hide the Frank family from the Nazis in occupied Amsterdam is the subject of a moving dramatic series produced by NatGeo and streaming on Hulu. 'A Small Light' depicts the story of Miep Geis, who took care of Otto, Edith, Margot, and Anne Frank along with four other Jews as they hid in a secret annex until being betrayed and arrested in August 1944. In this episode, three people who befriended Otto and Miep after the war talk about the importance of telling this story, even if parts of the NatGeo series took some dramatic license. Cara Wilson-Granat, Ryan Cooper, and Father John Neiman each took different journeys to reach the same destination, inspired by Otto and Miep's strength and humanity.

Bonus Ep! Our Radical Declaration w/ Denver Brunsman Jul 09, 2023

This is a bonus episode in a three-part series on the radicalism of the Declaration of Independence. The video version will air on C-SPAN 2's American History TV on July 15. George Washington University historian Denver Brunsman joins Martin Di Caro in a conversation about the contested meanings of the American Revolution and the enduring radicalism of the ideals embodied in the Declaration of Independence.

Our Radical Declaration w/ Annette Gordon-Reed & Joseph Ellis Jul 06, 2023

This is the last in a three-part series of episodes about the radicalism of the Declaration of Independence and enduring importance of the American Revolution.

Whatever its authors meant by them at the time – in the summer of ‘76 while at war with Great Britain – the words the American revolutionaries wrote in the Declaration of Independence would inspire generations of Americans of all races and creeds to fulfill the promise of fundamental human equality and liberty, the most radical idea of the 18th century and today. And that's despite the fact that the document’s primary author didn’t live up to his words. Thomas Jefferson was a lifelong slaveholder. In this episode, historians Annette Gordon-Reed and Joseph Ellis discuss the power of the promissory note signed by the founders. They also consider the pitfalls of approaching the American past through the personal failings of men like Jefferson.

Our Radical Declaration w/ Jack Rakove Jul 04, 2023

This is the second in a multi-part series of episodes about the radicalism of the Declaration of Independence and enduring importance of the American Revolution.

The Declaration of Independence contains the most recognizable words in American history, a source of egalitarian inspiration that transcends time. But at the time they drafted the document, the Continental Congress was absorbed with more earthly matters than debating Enlightenment philosophy. They had a war effort to oversee and politics to deal with. The British were landing thousands of troops in New York. Public opinion was split. Inflation was soaring. In this episode, historian Jack Rakove discusses the pragmatic and ideological concerns of the 18th-century revolutionaries whose efforts would have a radical influence on world history.

Our Radical Declaration w/ Sean Wilentz & Jim Oakes Jun 29, 2023

This is the first in a multi-part series of episodes about the radicalism of the Declaration of Independence and enduring importance of the American Revolution.

All Americans recognize the famous words of the Declaration of Independence. "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." For generations, these words served as a common source of inspiration to achieve the promise of fundamental human equality. Today, however, competing narratives about the American founding are a cause of division, mostly over the issue of slavery. In this episode, eminent historians Sean Wilentz and Jim Oakes discuss how a revolution whose animating principles were embodied in the Declaration, fundamentally changed American society and triggered lasting political conflicts over the radical idea of egalitarianism.

Prigozhin vs. Putin Jun 26, 2023

What just happened in Russia? In a stunning although not entirely surprising turn of events, Wagner mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin turned his troops and tanks toward Moscow after spending weeks criticizing Russia's abysmal performance in the Ukraine war. A violent confrontation was averted, however, when Prigozhin struck a deal with the Kremlin to abort his mutiny and leave for Belarus. The crisis left Russian president Vladimir Putin looking weak and humiliated after the gravest challenge to his authority since he took power in 1999. In this episode, historians Michael Kimmage, Vladislav Zubok, and Sergey Radchenko offer historical perspective and clear-eyed analysis of the cracks forming in Putin's regime.

The Jeju Incident Jun 22, 2023

In the early years of the Cold War, as the Korean peninsula was divided and then embroiled in a hot war, an orgy of killing took place on a small island off the southern tip of present-day South Korea. Villages were liquidated. Civilians were massacred. And it began while the U.S. military government still ruled over post-war southern Korea. But the Jeju Incident, known as 4/3 in native tradition, and its bloody aftermath were memory-holed for decades. Today, however, South Koreans want the U.S. to acknowledge its alleged complicity in the suppression of a left-wing uprising that began on April 3, 1948. Rebels attacked police posts across Jeju, provoking a ferocious response from Seoul. In this episode, Washington Times Asia bureau chief Andrew Salmon discusses his reporting on the ghosts of Jeju.

The End of Trumpism? Revisited Jun 20, 2023

The Republican Party’s disappointing showing in the midterm elections renewed grumbling that former president Donald Trump was a drag on the party. After all, the GOP might have won back the Senate had it not been for the inept campaigns of Trump-preferred candidates such as Herschel Walker. But Mr. Trump’s popularity somehow survived. Eight months later, following his second indictment on felony charges, Mr. Trump seems to be again defying the conventional political wisdom, or what remains of it since 2016. No matter what he does or says or is accused of, polls indicate the former president’s popularity among Republicans remains steadfast. In this episode, political journalist Damon Linker of "Notes From the Middleground" on Substack revisits the question of whether Trumpism is on the decline. At this point, the answer is clearly no. Why has Trump succeeded where past right-wing populists like Pat Buchanan or George Wallace failed?

Two-State Fantasy: Israel and the Palestinians Jun 15, 2023

If a two-state solution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is dead, does this mean Israel exists as a "one-state reality?" Do Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank live in conditions tantamount to apartheid? In an essay in Foreign Affairs, four scholars of the Middle East argue that analysts and policymakers should drop the illusion a two-state solution is possible as long as Israel's military occupation of the West Bank and blockade of Gaza continue. In this episode, one of the scholars, George Washington University political scientist Michael Barnett, defends their position against criticism that they're ignoring Palestinian responsibility for the absence of peace.

Finding Imad Mughniyeh Jun 13, 2023

Note: Clips of 'Ghosts of Beirut' are courtesy Showtime. Audio of Lebanon at war is from the Associated Press archive.

As Lebanon sank into the abyss in the 1980s, few people noticed a teenager who had worked as a bodyguard for Yasser Arafat's PLO. But his deeds would soon start making international headlines. Long before Osama bin Laden became a household name, this unknown young man began a decades-long crusade of bombings, kidnappings, and assassinations that would leave hundreds of people dead in dozens of attacks across the globe. Few knew what he looked like or his actual name. Known as "the ghost," Imad Mughniyeh was a founding member of Hezbollah in Lebanon. Mughniyeh remains a mysterious figure, but he made an enduring impact on history. His rise and fall are the focus of the new Showtime dramatic series “Ghosts of Beirut.” In this episode, director Greg Barker discusses why he made a film about the terrorist whose mark on global events far surpassed his notoriety, a shadowy figure whom the CIA and Mossad hunted for a quarter-century.

The Plumbers Jun 08, 2023

Note: Audio clips of "White House Plumbers" are courtesy HBO. Audio of the "smoking gun" Nixon tape is from millercenter.org.

Will Americans ever tire of Watergate? The notorious scandal that brought down a president – the scandal against which all future cases of presidential malfeasance would be measured – continues to bubble up in pop culture. The HBO series “White House Plumbers” is a comedic depiction of the bumbling burglars who were caught breaking into the DNC headquarters inside the Watergate hotel in 1972. In this episode, historian Ken Hughes, a renowned expert on secret presidential recordings and author of two books on Richard Nixon’s criminality, talks about the ongoing fascination with Watergate, and whether comedy or satire is as effective as drama in portraying the extraordinary events that wrecked Nixon's presidency.

After D-Day Jun 06, 2023

June 6, 1944 continues to hold a central place in Americans' popular memory of the Second World War. It is synonymous with D-Day, the Allied invasion of Normandy, which took place 79 years ago today. The largest amphibious assault in human history, immortalized in pop culture by epic films such as “The Longest Day” and “Saving Private Ryan,” initiated the battle for France and the downfall of Hitler’s Third Reich in the Western theater of operations. In this episode, military historian Cathal Nolan discusses what took place after D-Day, the overshadowed difficulties encountered by U.S., British, and Canadian armies as they drove east toward the Rhine. The Allies didn’t cross the Rhine until March, 1945 – a testament to the strength of German resistance, Allied logistical challenges, mistakes by Allied commanders, and the typical vagaries of war fought on a massive scale. The war, contrary to contemporary hopes, would not end by Christmas.

From Grozny to Bakhmut Jun 01, 2023

The images of Bakhmut, the latest Ukrainian city to be left in ruins after months of Russian shelling, evoke memories of the Second World War. Every building reduced to piles of pulverized concrete or a flimsy facade with windows blasted out, streets clogged by rubble and wrecked vehicles. But you don’t have to peer back into the 1940s for parallels to what’s happening in Ukraine today. In the mid-1990s and early 2000s, Russia destroyed Grozny, the largest city in Chechnya, twice. Tens of thousands of civilians died. It was in the Second Chechen War when newly empowered Vladimir Putin, then 47, crushed Chechen independence on his way to reestablishing Russian state power after the enervating turmoil of the prior decade. As in Grozny a decade ago, Russian military commanders are showing no qualms about using massive violence against urban areas, an unsettling indication of where the current war is headed. In this episode, historian Mark Galeotti, the author of more than 25 books on Russia, discusses the parallels between the first major war of the post-Soviet era (prosecuted by Boris Yeltsin against Chechnya) and Putin’s destructive bid to subjugate Ukraine.

Constitutional Myth May 30, 2023

Americans – many of them, anyway – revere the Constitution and the men who framed it. We can recite its preamble with its aim of securing "the blessings of liberty” for future generations. But more than 230 years after its ratification, historian Jack Rakove contends we’re still laboring under damaging myths about what the Constitution does and does not mean. Rakove, who has written or edited dozens of books on the founding era, identifies the role played by myths, spurious claims, and lies in distorting constitutional debate and American politics in general. Jack Rakove is emeritus professor of history and political science at Stanford University.

Kissinger and Cambodia May 25, 2023

Henry Kissinger, sage of American diplomats, is celebrating his milestone 100th birthday on May 27. To some, Kissinger is the embodiment of realpolitik whose shrewd diplomatic efforts left an enduring mark on the global order. To others, he's a war criminal. During the Vietnam War, Kissinger was a driving force behind the secret bombing of neutral Cambodia in 1969. He also backed the coup that toppled the democratically-elected leader of Chile. In this episode, historian Thomas Schwartz parses Kissinger's record, as the man has become a symbol of what's right and wrong with U.S. hegemony. Why are views of Kissinger still so polarized decades after he left power? Does your opinion of Kissinger say more about you and your politics than it says about his actual deeds? Are your views of Kissinger an index of your broader worldview concerning U.S. foreign policy – or imperialism?

King's Socialism May 23, 2023

Martin Luther King Jr. had serious problems with American capitalism. He considered himself more of a democratic socialist as he demanded the federal government spend billions to eradicate poverty, and as he worked to build a multiracial working-class movement. Today, as the share of American workers in labor unions continues to decline and as income inequality worsens, one wonders if the country will undergo a national reckoning on class as it has with regard to race. Over recent years Americans have been debating the role of race and slavery in national origins, but there’s been relative silence when it comes to class issues. This problem extends to popular remembrances of King. His crusade to end racism and legal segregation overshadows these other aspects of his philosophy and legacy. In this episode, historian Thomas Jackson discusses the importance of MLK’s economic outlook in his overall civil rights agenda.

Multipolarity May 18, 2023

American allies in the Indo-Pacific are in a difficult spot. They have economic ties to Beijing, but China's rising influence and coercive methods underscore the importance of their long-standing military pacts and trade relationships with the United States. The visit by South Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol to Washington in April opened a window into this complex diplomatic problem. The warm reception Mr. Yoon received and his moves to more closely align his nation’s interests with the U.S., met a cooler response in his own country. The escalating friction between the U.S. and China also complicates Seoul’s economic ties to the latter. In this episode, The Washington Times' national security team leader Guy Taylor and Asia editor Andrew Salmon talk about the complexities of a multipolar world, where America's days as the sole superpower in East Asia are over.

From Saddam to the Sanctions May 16, 2023

This is the fourth episode in a multiple-part series marking the 20th anniversary of the Iraq War, which began on March 20, 2003. Earlier episodes were published in March.

From 1990 to 2003 the United States, through the U.N. Security Council, imposed the most punishing sanctions on a sovereign state in modern history. The sanctions on Iraq caused the deaths of hundreds of thousands of children from inadequate food, medicine, and public health infrastructure. They flattened Iraq's economy and tore at the fabric of its society. But the humanitarian catastrophe remains somewhat of an "invisible war." When Americans reflected on the twentieth anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, their minds focused on what happened after March 20, 2003, rather than on the fourteen years of economic warfare that preceded it. In this episode, Sarhang Hamasaeed of the U.S. Institute of Peace discusses life under Saddam, surviving the sanctions, and his work as a peacebuilder in Iraq today.

Khrushchev’s Gamble, Putin’s Hubris May 11, 2023

Russian president Vladimir Putin, who sees himself as an astute student of history, once more exploited his nation’s victory over Nazi Germany to justify his unprovoked invasion of Ukraine. In his annual speech on May 9 – Victory Day in 1945 – Mr. Putin said Russia would continue its war against “torturers, death squads, and Nazis,” repeating his fantasy version of reality. "Once again, we see war that is afoot, but we have been pushing back, fighting against international terrorism to protect the people in the Donbas region and to protect our country." Russia’s autocrat is overlooking a more important, accurate history lesson. In the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, a Soviet leader impulsively gambled, brought the world to the brink of nuclear war, but then stepped back from the precipice by compromising a peaceful way out. In this episode, historians Sergey Radchenko and Vladislav Zubok discuss the origins of Nikita Khrushchev’s move to send nuclear missiles to Cuba. They unearthed astonishing accounts of mishaps and miscalculations in recently declassified Soviet documents, which they detailed in an essay for Foreign Affairs, the official publication of the Council on Foreign Relations. Radchenko and Zubok say the “unlearned lessons” of the Cuban Missile Crisis include the roles of misperception, miscalculation, chance, and other unpredictable factors that influence the outcome of events. In 1962, they contend, the world got lucky.

Section 4 May 09, 2023

Can the 14th Amendment save the U.S. from defaulting on its debts if Congress fails to raise the federal government's borrowing limit? That may depend on who you ask. Like so much else in the Constitution, Section 4 of the 14th Amendment means different things to different people today as it did in the 1860s when it was ratified. In this episode, historian Jeremi Suri discusses Section 4's enduring relevance, and the importance of civics in understanding past and present political conflict. The 14th Amendment is arguably the most consequential one ever ratified after the Bill of Rights. It was passed in a certain historical context – in the immediate aftermath of the Civil War – but its words stand for all time. It was designed to make a more perfect union.

HAIH at Monticello, Part 2: The History Wars May 04, 2023

This is the second in a two-part series of conversations recorded at Thomas Jefferson's Monticello as History As It Happens goes on location, with special guests historian Alan Taylor and Brandon Dillard, Monticello's director of historic interpretation and audience engagement.

The "history wars" have reached Monticello. Visitors to Thomas Jefferson's old plantation in rural Virginia often bring their emotional or ideological baggage. But is it possible to talk too much about slavery at a historic plantation? How does an institution such as Monticello present Jefferson's successes and failures to the hundreds of thousands of Americans who visit each year, many of whom revere Jefferson, his radical ideals, and his remarkable mind? Listen to Alan Taylor and Brandon Dillard talk about the challenge of interpreting the past in our divisive political environment.

HAIH at Monticello, Part 1: What Jefferson Wanted May 02, 2023

This is the first in a two-part series of conversations recorded at Thomas Jefferson's Monticello as History As It Happens goes on location, with special guests historian Alan Taylor and Brandon Dillard, Monticello's director of historic interpretation and audience engagement.

Thomas Jefferson wrote the most famous, inspiring words in all of American history. "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." From the moment the ink dried on the Declaration of Independence, Americans have been in a perpetual state of argument over its meaning. Democracy for whom? Freedom and equality for whom? No founding father better articulated the ideals or personified the paradox of the American Revolution. In this episode, Alan Taylor and Brandon Dillard discuss why Jefferson still matters, from his views on the nature of democracy to whether white and Black people might one day live together as equals.

The Next Crimean War Apr 27, 2023

As Ukraine prepares to launch its spring offensive to break the stalemate against the Russian invaders, it's unclear if Ukrainian forces will be able to reach Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula which for centuries has been of vital strategic importance. In this episode, the Quincy Institute's Anatol Lieven, who spent three weeks in Ukraine reporting on public opinion toward the war, talks about Crimea's historical relevance to today's conflict. First taken by the Tsarist Empire in the late-18th century, the Soviets transferred Crimea to the Ukraine S.S.R. in 1954. More than a half century later, the Kremlin seized it back in the aftermath of the 2014 revolution that ousted a pro-Russia president from Kyiv.

A Decent Interval Apr 25, 2023

Fifty years ago the U.S. agreed to withdraw the last of its forces from Vietnam. After years of excruciating negotiations held as the combatants lost tens of thousands of casualties, the Paris Peace Accords of 1973 were heralded by President Richard Nixon as "peace with honor." But everyone who signed the accords knew peace was not in the offing. Two years later, in late April 1975, Saigon fell to the Communists. In this episode, historian Carolyn Eisenberg of Hofstra University and peace-building expert Andrew Wells-Dang of the U.S. Institute of Peace reflect on the meaning of the Paris Accords and the restoration of diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Vietnam more than twenty years later. Is it possible to heal war's wounds?

The Daniloff Affair Apr 20, 2023

Nearly 40 years before Russian security agents arrested Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and falsely charged him with spying, the KGB did the same to Nicholas Daniloff, whose plight became an international incident. The Moscow bureau chief for U.S. News and World Report, Daniloff was nabbed in the summer of 1986 as the Reagan White House was negotiating the terms of the next nuclear arms summit with the Kremlin, to be held in Iceland. Reagan personally pleaded with Gorbachev to free the American journalist. Today, President Biden and Russian leader Vladimir Putin are hardly on speaking terms. What will it take to free Evan Gershkovich?

Heritage of Treason Apr 18, 2023

April is Confederate Heritage Month in Mississippi. Since the Confederacy was created by secession with the aim of protecting human chattel slavery, one wonders what kind of heritage Mississippians are supposed to celebrate. Maybe Governor Tate Reeves' bland proclamation, which makes no mention of slavery, treason, or the ruin brought on by Confederate defeat, is less a statement about history than current politics. Americans are deeply divided across a range of issues, and many people view their own government as the enemy of freedom, an attitude that echoes in the words of Confederate leaders. Historian James Oakes discusses what the Confederacy was all about.

Decade of Drift? Apr 13, 2023

The 1990s began with the collapse of the Soviet Union and expulsion of Saddam Hussein’s armies from Kuwait. As the world’s only superpower, the U.S. would intervene militarily – on humanitarian grounds – in countries most Americans knew little about: Somalia, Haiti, Bosnia, and Kosovo (but not Rwanda). President Clinton worked with Russian president Boris Yeltsin on establishing a stable U.S.-Russia relationship. China was welcomed into the world’s rules-based trading system. Democracy and capitalism appeared to be on the march. The decade ended with Russia’s economy in ruins and Vladimir Putin in charge of the Kremlin prosecuting a brutal war in Chechnya. In this episode, historian Michael Kimmage discusses the faulty assumptions that underpinned U.S. foreign policy during the pivotal decade between the Cold War and onset of the global war on terrorism. If the past 20 years of failed war-making and nation-building in the Greater Middle East are cause for reflection, the origins of this strategic drift may be found in the decade where U.S. leaders hoped to shape a “new world order.”

Pardon Me, Mr. President Apr 11, 2023

Few things in life, let alone politics, are truly unprecedented. When it comes to the American presidency, Donald Trump did make history as the first former chief executive to be charged with a crime. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg got a grand jury to indict Trump on 34 felony charges of falsifying business records. Trump's case comes half a century after President Gerald Ford pardoned Richard Nixon, preventing the latter from facing any legal consequences for the Watergate scandal. While Ford hoped to put the "long national nightmare" in the past, the pardon deprived the country of establishing any precedent for prosecuting rogue presidents. But no two cases will ever be the same, and in this episode, historian and Watergate chronicler Michael Dobbs discusses the major similarities and differences between then and now.

The Long 1960s Apr 06, 2023

Historian Michael Kazin, a distinguished scholar of the American left, says American politics are caught in "the long 1960s." For decades Congress has been unable to pass sweeping measures desired by the progressive left to fundamentally reform American capitalism. They simply don’t have the votes. In fact, neither major party recently has dominated Congress the way, for instance, Democrats did during the New Deal era, with more than 70 seats in the Senate and a massive advantage in the House. Why a partisan stalemate has endured since the 1960s is a complicated problem to unpack, but the answer leads to today’s congressional math. Throughout U.S. history, very few periods of one-party dominance have occurred, periods where great legislative activity was possible.

Star Wars Apr 04, 2023

Forty years ago, 'Return of the Jedi' opened in movie theaters, but 1983 also was a big year for another kind of 'Star Wars.' Two months before the movie premiered, President Ronald Reagan delivered a nationally televised address announcing an initiative to build a space-based missile shield that would use lasers to shoot down incoming ICBMs. Derisively dubbed "Star Wars" by skeptics -- skeptics who were right to doubt its feasibility -- Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative never amounted to anything useful. It was, however, part of Reagan's vision for a world free of nuclear weapons, a vision he successfully pursued in negotiations with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. In this episode, Joseph Cirincione, an expert on nuclear non-proliferation and national defense, discusses how the world has moved a long way in the wrong direction from the "golden age" of nuclear arms reduction treaties.

Waco Mar 30, 2023

Former President Donald Trump held his first rally of the 2024 campaign near a special place in far-right mythology. Thirty years ago in Waco, Texas, federal agents lay siege to the Branch Davidian compound where charismatic religious leader David Koresh awaited the end of the world. In this episode, historian Nicole Hemmer contends Trump's choice of location was a deliberate move to stoke anti-government vibes among militias, white supremacists, sovereign citizens, and similar groups whose visibility dramatically grew during his presidency. Their ideas have bled into the mainstream of American political life, but their origins date to the 1970s -- mostly from the Mountain West and Pacific Northwest. Trump may be drawing a direct line from Waco to January 6 as a campaign motif. He ended his presidency by embracing political violence to attempt to overthrow the 2020 election, and then used his first rally of the 2024 election cycle to glorify the people serving time for the attack on the Capitol.

Enter Beijing Mar 28, 2023

One consequence of the United States’ massive military failures in the Greater Middle East is its waning influence in a region where U.S. leaders once dreamt democracy would spread outward from Kabul and Baghdad. As the U.S. presence and its credibility have shrunk, regional powers are looking elsewhere to resolve entrenched disputes. Enter Beijing. In this episode, the Quincy Institute’s Trita Parsi discusses a potential paradigm shift that's been decades in the making. Without firing a shot or taking sides – without any military presence at all in the Middle East – China helped broker a deal between Saudi Arabia and Iran that will restore diplomatic relations between the two nations. The U.S. has moved a long way in the wrong direction from the days of the Camp David Accords in 1978 and the Oslo Accords of 1993.

Bonus Ep! The Iraq War w/ Melvyn Leffler Mar 25, 2023

This is the third in a multi-part series of episodes examining the 20th anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, which began on March 20, 2003. The video version of this episode will air on C-SPAN 2's American History TV on April 1. Melvin Leffler, an eminent historian of U.S. foreign policy, joins Martin Di Caro in a conversation about Leffler's new book, "Confronting Saddam Hussein." The historian argues the Bush administration was influenced by fear, overconfidence in U.S. power, and hubris rather than outright dishonesty when it drove the country to war in 2003.

The Iraq War w/ Ghaith Abdul-Ahad Mar 23, 2023

This is the second in a multi-part series of episodes marking the 20th anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, which began on March 20, 2003.

Iraqi voices are largely absent from U.S. retrospectives on the war and its consequences. In this episode, Baghdad native and The Guardian journalist Ghaith Abdul-Ahad reflects on everything he witnessed over the past 20 years -- the fall of Saddam, military occupation, civil war, torture, the rise of ISIS -- through the eyes of the "liberated." Despite what some American commentators claim, Iraq is not a democracy today and neither is it "better off" thanks to the U.S. invasion. Corruption now reigns and the fabric of Iraqi society was permanently damaged. Abdul-Ahad's new book, "A Stranger in Your Own City," is a superb reporter's account of the catastrophe seen through Iraqi eyes.

The Iraq War w/ Andrew Bacevich Mar 20, 2023

This is the first in a multi-part series of episodes marking the 20th anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, which began on March 20, 2003.

Have Americans truly learned the lessons of the failed war in Iraq? Catherine Lutz at Brown University's Costs of War Project and historian Andrew Bacevich of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft contend that the war's disastrous consequences, including hundreds of thousands killed and millions displaced, have been memory-holed. Rather than reckon with a misplaced confidence in the efficacy of military power projection, most Americans are indifferent to or generally supportive of U.S. hegemony. In Bacevich's words, a reckoning that wasn't.

WWWFB(uckley)D? Mar 16, 2023

Conservative icon William F. Buckley died fifteen years ago as the George W. Bush presidency was in its last year. The movement to which Buckley had dedicated his prodigious energies and remarkable mind faced an ordeal as Bush's "compassionate conservatism" foundered on massive failures: the war, the response to Hurricane Katrina, the subprime mortgage crisis. Today, conservatives and populists are somewhat split over another major foreign policy question: should the U.S. continue to support Ukraine? Buckley's movement is also being pulled further to the right by populists, media personalities, and cranks. What would Buckley do? In this episode, National Review senior writer Daniel McLaughlin discusses the past and future of conservatism.

Turkey's Man-Made Disaster Mar 14, 2023

Earthquakes in Turkey and Syria killed at least 50,000 people. In four Turkish provinces, hundreds of buildings collapsed in seconds, trapping their occupants while government rescue teams failed to adequately respond. This was not entirely a natural disaster. Over the past several decades, Turkish governments offered builders "amnesties" allowing them to ignore safety codes, including the stronger building codes enacted after a devastating 1999 quake. The most recent amnesty occurred in 2018 under the increasingly despotic President Recep Erdogan, who now faces the most acute crisis of his two decades in power. In this episode, historian Howard Eissenstat discusses Turkey's history of shoddy construction and the political future of Erdogan's AKP party.

Three Years of Covid Mar 09, 2023

It's been three years since the unchecked spread of a novel coronavirus upended our daily lives. In March 2020, offices began closing, sporting events were canceled, and frightening numbers of people started dying from Covid-19. As of today, the virus has claimed the lives of more than one million Americans and at least seven million worldwide, although experts estimate as many as 20 million may have succumbed to the virus globally. In this episode, historian John Barry, an expert on the 1918 flu pandemic and a distinguished scholar at Tulane University, delves into what the world now knows about Covid's origins, masks, vaccines, and more.

Evangelicals and the Road to Trump Mar 07, 2023

As the race for the 2024 Republican nomination intensifies, it's unclear whether an important GOP constituency will continue steadfastly supporting Donald Trump, because his influence appears to be waning. Whoever wins the nomination, though, will need the backing of conservative evangelicals. They've become a dominant force in Republican politics, evidenced by the emphasis on appointing conservative judges and the relentless culture war against liberalism. In this episode, historian Darren Dochuk discusses the origins of evangelicals' rightward move and the politicization of faith -- from the aftermath of the First World War to the Cold War through the presidency of George W. Bush and the embrace of "faith-based" initiatives.

Best of HAIH: Frederick Douglass and the 4th of July Mar 02, 2023

This episode was first published on June 30, 2022. New episodes of History As It Happens will resume next Tuesday, March 7, 2023. Make sure to sign up for our weekly newsletter at historyasithappens.com.

On July 4, 1852, Frederick Douglass delivered remarks of enduring significance and American eloquence to an audience of abolitionists. He mixed condemnation of the nation's tolerance of slavery with hope and uplift. He embraced the founding fathers and defended the Constitution while attacking his fellow citizens for hypocrisy and inaction. "What, To The Slave, Is The Fourth Of July?" was quintessential Frederick Douglass. Historian James Oakes discusses the ideas behind Douglass' rhetorical tour de force, his relationship with Abraham Lincoln, and the critical importance of antislavery politics in bringing about the destruction of slavery.

Best of HAIH: The Munich Fallacy Feb 28, 2023

This episode was first published on Dec. 13, 2022. New episodes of History As It Happens are coming soon. Since British prime minister Neville Chamberlain attempted to avoid war with Hitler in 1938, the word appeasement has been synonymous with moral weakness and wishful thinking. While the failure to appease the Nazi dictator offers important lessons, politicians -- and even some historians -- often invoke the infamous Munich Conference as a political cudgel with which to bash their foes. It happened during Vietnam, the wars in Iraq, and it's happening again to justify Western support for Ukraine, even though its predicament differs in significant ways from that of Czechoslovakia in 1938. In this episode, military historian Cathal Nolan differentiates propaganda from history.

One Year of War w/ Anatol Lieven Feb 23, 2023

This is the second episode in a two-part series marking the anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which began on February 24, 2022.

The war in Eastern Europe will determine whether Ukraine can maintain its sovereign independence achieved in 1991 with the collapse of the Soviet Union. Russia’s war is a direct war against Ukraine, and an indirect conflict with the U.S., NATO, and “the West.” Indeed, over the past year, it has become increasingly difficult to separate Ukraine’s interests from those of the U.S., as both rhetoric about maintaining the liberal world order and material assistance for Ukraine’s defense have flowed from Washington. Barack Obama, in an interview with The Atlantic near the end of his presidency, envisioned a different set of priorities for U.S. foreign policy. Ukraine was a core Russian interest, not an American one, he cautioned. Two years prior, Mr. Obama dismissed Russia as a “regional power” as it annexed Crimea. Fast forward to February, 2022. Days before Russia's invasion began, President Joseph R. Biden announced the U.S. would stand by Ukraine but not only for Ukraine’s sake. Democracy itself was at stake. In this episode, Anatol Lieven of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft discusses what to expect as the war enters its second year and the dangers inherent in the potential escalation of conflict.

One Year of War w/ Michael Kimmage Feb 21, 2023

This is the first episode in a two-part series marking the anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which began on February 24, 2022.

One year ago, Russian president Vladimir Putin may have believed he was on the precipice of a legacy-defining victory. His superior troops and tanks would roll into neighboring Ukraine – in a “special military operation” – beyond the areas of the eastern Donbas region, where Russian forces had been backing separatist groups in a stalemated conflict since 2014. Mr. Putin’s armies would reach Kyiv in days, decapitate the Ukrainian government, and be greeted as liberators. Within weeks, Mr. Putin’s war aims were exposed as a fantasy. In this episode, The Washington Times national security team leader Guy Taylor and Catholic University historian Michael Kimmage discuss what to expect in the coming year as well as the origins of the war, still a hotly debated topic on both sides of the Atlantic. Also, Mr. Kimmage, who worked on the Russia-Ukraine portfolio for the U.S. State Department in 2014-16, discusses the ways in which U.S. leaders talk about national interests, as Congress has approved billions in military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine.

The 1619 Hustle Feb 16, 2023

No publication in recent memory has provoked more debate and political hand-wringing than the New York Times’ 1619 Project. Much of the attention has focused on its specious claims that "some colonists" broke with the crown to defend slavery and its slighting of Abraham Lincoln. The 1619 Project is now a major Hulu docuseries, but it continues to present a distorted view of slavery and capitalism in an effort to showcase the importance of Black people in fighting for American democracy. In this episode, one of the project's most vocal critics, economic historian Phil Magness of the conservative American Institute for Economic Research, discusses what the New York Times' award-winning project still gets wrong.

America's Man in Pakistan Feb 14, 2023

Most Americans hadn’t seen or heard the name of former Pakistani military ruler Pervez Musharraf for many years before news broke of his death earlier this month. Musharraf had been ill, living a quiet existence in self-imposed exile in Dubai, a long way in space and time from his once esteemed position as an important U.S. ally in the war against the Taliban and al-Qaeda in Afghanistan. Musharraf’s reluctant embrace of the U.S. war helped lead to his downfall, as it riled segments of Pakistan’s population of fundamentalist Islamists who opposed helping the U.S. oust the Taliban from Kabul. As the backlash to his policies escalated, Musharraf became increasingly despotic, ultimately suspending the Pakistani constitution and imposing emergency rule in 2007. In this episode, New America national security expert Peter Bergen discusses the legacy of a ruler who, after coming to power in a bloodless coup in 1999, relented to U.S. "with us or against us" ultimatums. In the end, American interests could never align with Pakistan's strategy of backing a Pashtun force in Afghanistan for strategic depth against India.

Hurricane of Lies Feb 09, 2023

Seventy-three years ago today, Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy delivered a watershed speech in his young political career in Wheeling, West Virginia. He told the Republican Women's Club that he knew of more than 200 known Communists who had infiltrated the U.S. government. "Today we are engaged in a final, all-out battle between communistic atheism and Christianity. The modern champions of communism have selected this as the time. And, ladies and gentlemen, the chips are down—they are truly down," the Republican demagogue warned his audience. In this episode, historian and McCarthy biographer Rick Fried discusses his new book, "A Genius for Confusion," which illuminates the destructive power of lying in an atmosphere of heightened national angst and anti-communist paranoia. In our age of disinformation, McCarthyism has enduring relevance.

Bursting China's Balloon Feb 06, 2023

China's decision to fly a surveillance balloon over the United States led Secretary of State Antony Blinken to postpone his trip to Beijing at a time when U.S.-China relations are at a historic low point. But neither the balloon incident nor other recent controversies, such as Covid or the trade war, are solely responsible for wrecking once promising ties. The seeds of this burgeoning Great Power rivalry were planted decades ago, when U.S. policymakers believed helping China along its path to prosperity would lead to a more stable and peaceful world. It hasn't exactly turned out that way. In this episode, The Washington Times' Guy Taylor and Andrew Scobell of the U.S. Institute of Peace discuss the increasingly antagonistic relationship between two powers contending for primacy in the Pacific and beyond.

The Burden of German History Feb 02, 2023

After weeks of criticism for refusing to send its tanks to Ukraine, Germany relented. Chancellor Olaf Schultz had hesitated in approving shipments of the Leopard 2 battle tank, although Germans citizens have steadfastly supported Ukraine in its war against Russia, and despite the fact that Schultz’s government already delivered more than $1 billion in aid and arms to Ukraine the prior year. But the tank issue caused a rift in German politics over whether the country was going too far in its support for Ukraine in a war with no end in sight against a nuclear-armed foe. Germany, while not a pacifist nation, still has prominent pacifist or anti-interventionist voices in its politics who point to the country’s history as the reason for avoiding deep involvement in foreign wars: Hitler, genocide, and catastrophic defeat in 1945. In this episode, historian Chris Browning brings his expertise on Nazi Germany and the Holocaust to a discussion about the burden of the German past on current politics.

When Ukraine Had Nukes Jan 31, 2023

When Ukraine acceded to Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in 1994, the country’s leaders fulfilled a vow they had made as soon as Ukraine became an independent state in 1991. Ukraine would relinquish the thousands of nuclear warheads and intercontinental ballistic missiles on its territory – it’s “nuclear inheritance” after the collapse of the USSR. Looking back at that decision through the lens of Russia’s invasion one year ago, some observers now contend that Ukraine made a mistake by voluntarily ceding its potential nuclear deterrence, although Ukraine never had independent operational command and control over the weapons. Moreover, as political scientist and nuclear historian Mariana Budjeryn demonstrates in her new book, “Inheriting the Bomb,” the majority of Ukrainian political and military leaders in the early 1990s viewed holding onto the nukes as more dangerous than it might be worth. In this episode, Budjeryn discusses the momentous events and decisions that resulted in Ukraine transferring all its nuclear weapons to Russia to be dismantled. She illuminates an important chapter in international relations that left Ukraine in a diplomatic and political no man’s land from which it could not completely extract itself over the next 30 years.

When the Press Was Partisan Jan 26, 2023

In these politically polarized times, Americans have a partisan media that suits the circumstances. Or do biased news and information sources drive the polarization? Whatever the case, public trust in the mass media to accurately report the news is about as low as pollsters have ever found it. The marked ebbing of trust comes as people consume information, credible or not, from more sources than ever before: social media, blogs, podcasts, web sites, YouTube channels, etc., etc. But before you pine for the good ol' days of a neutral press, the notion that journalism should be professional and independent rather than partisan, is relatively new in U.S. history. In fact, from the start of the republic, newspapers and pamphlets were openly partisan and often supported by political patronage. In this episode, historian Jeff Pasley talks about the ways in which the early partisan newspapers bolstered democracy, and how today's media landscape is corroding it.

Church Committee(s) Jan 24, 2023

One of the first moves House Republicans made upon assuming the chamber’s majority was to create, in a party-line vote of 221-211, the “Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government.” But rather than use that unwieldy moniker, GOP leaders appropriated the name of an iconic investigative committee from a bygone era. In 1975, in an 82-4 vote, the Senate created the Church committee, which was chaired by Idaho Democratic Sen. Frank Church, to investigate the FBI, CIA, and NSA. (Its official title was the Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities). Church’s panel examined decades of egregious abuses, which were brought to light as Americans recovered from the traumas of Vietnam and Watergate. In this episode, historian Sam Martin, the Frank and Bethine Church Endowed Chair of Public Affairs at Boise State University in Idaho, compares and contrasts the historically important work of the original Church committee with the aims of today's House GOP.

A World Without US? Jan 19, 2023

What if the U.S. had taken a more active and constructive role in international affairs after the First World War, rather than reject the Treaty of Versailles and refuse to join the League of Nations? In the view of historian Robert Kagan, another global conflict would have been avoided, and Adolph Hitler might never have been appointed German chancellor as he was in January 1933. This is the subject of Kagan's latest book, "The Ghost at the Feast," and in this episode, he defends his thesis concerning the importance of U.S. leadership, or its absence, after the seismic shifts in global power caused by the war of 1914-18. As Kagan, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, put it in a recent essay in Foreign Affairs about U.S. support for Ukraine, "Only American power can keep the natural forces of history at bay." Is that true today? Was it true between 1919 and 1939?

Useless Resolution Jan 17, 2023

For all the legitimate concern about the fate of American democracy and our governing institutions, relatively little attention is paid to Congress' inability or unwillingness to check the war powers of the "imperial presidency." The War Powers Resolution of 1973, passed in the aftermath of the Johnson and Nixon administrations' abuses during the Vietnam War, was supposed to empower Congress to end endless wars, but a half century later we can see that the U.S. still intervened in many crises often with disastrous consequences. And the most recent attempt to use the war powers ended in failure, when Senator Bernie Sanders withdrew his resolution to stop U.S. support for Saudi Arabia's cruel war in Yemen, which has left thousands of civilians dead while producing an epic humanitarian crisis. In this episode, historians Jeremi Suri and Jeffrey Engel reveal the reasons why the War Powers Resolution has never been used to end a U.S. military adventure, and what might be done to end "endless American war".

House Divided w/ Manisha Sinha Jan 12, 2023

As politics grew increasingly violent in the 1850s, Americans understood that unresolvable conflicts over the extension of slavery and the disproportionate political power of the slaveholders could lead to disunion and war. In the view of some historians, activism outside Congress, driven by radical abolitionists as well as pro-slavery ruffians, forced the major parties to seek compromises to hold the country together, only to fall short because of the immensity of the problem and intransigence of the Slave Power. This political turmoil produced prolonged and acrimonious contests for House speaker, a history that suddenly became relevant again when the House needed 15 ballots over five days to elect California Rep. Kevin McCarthy. In this episode, University of Connecticut historian Manisha Sinha, a leading authority on the history of slavery and abolition, talks about the parallels between past and present as Americans witness today's political polarization worsening.

House Divided w/ Sean Wilentz Jan 10, 2023

The election of California Rep. Kevin McCarthy as House speaker after five days and 15 ballots exposed divisions within the Republican Party that may not portend well for the immediate future of his party, the chamber, or the country. With one exception (1923), no speakership election since the Civil War needed more than one ballot. And in the antebellum U.S. is where we might find parallels to today's political turmoil. Before the Civil War, speakership fights were often acrimonious, extended affairs reflecting the nation's violent, deep political divisions over slavery. The 1855-56 speakership election took 133 ballots! In this episode, historian Sean Wilentz, author of The Rise of American Democracy, discusses which lessons from those long-ago fights apply to today's crisis of democracy.

Biden Doctrine Jan 05, 2023

As President Biden enters the third year of his presidency, his only obvious foreign policy success lies in Ukraine, where U.S. and NATO support has proved decisive in stopping -- at least so far -- Russia's war of aggression. Mr. Biden has framed his foreign policy by saying the U.S. is in a global contest pitting democracies versus autocracies. Is that a Biden Doctrine? In this episode, we examine the history of presidential doctrines, and The Washington Times' reporters Guy Taylor and Ben Wolfgang talk about the foreign policy challenges that lie ahead for the Biden administration as 2023 unfolds.

Understanding Emancipation at 160 Jan 02, 2023

January 1 marked the 160th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, a major step in a process of world historical importance, the abolition of slavery in the United States. Yet nowadays some historians argue that the proclamation was illegal, unconstitutional, or without important consequences for the enslaved. Others contend that the antislavery amendment that followed in 1865 was a betrayal of Black Americans, because it allowed for their "re-enslavement" in prisons. In this episode, historian James Oakes reminds us of the real meaning of Lincoln's proclamation, as it was part of a decades-long effort to rid the U.S. of human chattel slavery and fulfill the promise of our founding documents.

Putin Problems Dec 15, 2022

Note: This is the final episode of 2022. History As It Happens will be back with new episodes the first week of January, 2023. Enjoy the holidays!

In his misguided drive to reassert Russian power by trying (and failing) to turn Ukraine into a vassal state, Vladimir Putin has exposed his country's weakness while doing incalculable damage to his neighbor. Yet despite his epic miscalculation, Putin retains the support of Russia's elites, some of whom fear that defeat in Ukraine will lead to state collapse in Moscow. In this episode, Russia expert Thomas Graham of the Council on Foreign Relations explains how history informs the Russian imagination about its place in the world and its relationship to Eastern Europe.

The Munich Fallacy Dec 13, 2022

Since British prime minister Neville Chamberlain attempted to avoid war with Hitler in 1938 by agreeing to carve up Czechoslovakia, the word appeasement has been synonymous with moral weakness and wishful thinking. While the failure to appease the Nazi dictator offers important lessons, politicians -- and even some historians -- often invoke the infamous Munich Conference as a political cudgel with which to bash their foes. It happened during Vietnam, the wars in Iraq, and it's happening again as the West supports Ukraine. In this episode, military historian Cathal Nolan differentiates propaganda from history.

Voices of Iran Dec 08, 2022

Since September thousands of ordinary Iranian citizens have risked their lives -- and hundreds have lost their lives -- protesting the ayatollahs' rule after the death in police custody of Mahsa Amini. The 22-year-old woman had been arrested by the clerical regimes' morality police for not wearing her hijab the way the clerics have prescribed. The street protests are said to be the biggest challenge for the regime since the Islamic Revolution in 1979, but it remains unclear if the demonstrators can compel their government to embrace fundamental change. In this episode, historian John Ghazvinian explains why the Islamic Republic's power has endured despite widespread domestic discontent and international isolation.

Commercialization of Christmas Dec 06, 2022

Merry Christmas! Or is it Happy Holidays?! Either way, the most intense shopping season of the year is underway. American consumers' senses are being assaulted by non-stop commercials for Christmas gifts. Songs, movies, and other forms of pop culture lend a secular element to what is for many Christians a religious celebration, too. There's also Santa Claus and Christmas trees and yule logs and more. Our modern version of Christmas is an amalgam of traditions that developed over many centuries with input from an array of cultures. And as historian Ruth McClelland-Nugent tells us in this episode, the commercialization that took off in the 19th century is what made Christmas so popular.

Voices of China Dec 01, 2022

Remarkable scenes are unfolding across China. Ordinary citizens are taking to the streets to protest the regime's "Zero Covid" strategy that has locked millions of people in their homes and disrupted the country's economic output. The demonstrations are the largest show of resistance to the Communist Party's power since the pro-democracy movement that flowered in Tiananmen Square in 1989. In this episode, China analyst Weifeng Zhong of the Mercatus Center explains the roots of the regime's missteps under president Xi Jinping and whether the protests might coalesce into a movement for change.

One-Term Presidents Nov 29, 2022

It's a small group no one wants to be a member of. Since the dawn of the republic only 10 elected presidents have been rejected by voters in their bids for a second term. Only one of those, Grover Cleveland, was able to win a non-consecutive term after losing his first re-election campaign. This is another way of saying that history doesn't offer many guides to help us understand our turbulent politics today, as Donald Trump seeks another shot at the White House after his bitter 2020 defeat. And the man who unseated him, Joe Biden, has left open the door to stepping aside come 2024 -- another rarity in presidential politics. In this episode, historian Jeffrey Engel focuses our attention on the election of 1912 when a popular former president tried to win another term after four years away from the White House.

Bonus Episode! HAIH Live w/ David Silverman Nov 28, 2022

This conversation with George Washington University historian David Silverman was featured on C-SPAN's 'American History TV.' Silverman talks about the history of Thanksgiving and the importance of mythic origin stories in American society and culture.

Reagan's Vision Nov 24, 2022

After some of the coldest years of the Cold War came a thaw in U.S.-Soviet relations that witnessed historic summits and the signing of groundbreaking disarmament pacts. In this episode, historian William Inboden discusses the pillars of Ronald Reagan’s foreign policy and why, in his view, his strategy of “peace through strength” brought about a peaceful end to the Cold War and a world without Soviet Communism. By bolstering U.S. alliances and supporting anti-Communist insurgencies throughout the Third World, Inboden contends the Reagan administration’s statecraft pressured the USSR to produce a reform-minded leader willing to negotiate. In 1985, that was Mikhail Gorbachev. In Inboden's work is an argument that Republicans today would be wise to reclaim Reagan's approach of engaging with the world and embracing multilateral agreements and collective security alliances.

The First 'America Firsters' Nov 22, 2022

Donald Trump's announcement that he will seek the presidency once more has brought a renewed focus on his worldview, his vision for the U.S. role in a complicated world. 'America First' has a long lineage in our politics, reaching back to a time when isolationism was the dominant foreign policy constituency in the country. In this episode, historian Christopher McKnight Nichols explores the continuities and major differences between the America First attitudes of the interwar period and today's Trumpist populism of the post-Cold War era.

History Makers Nov 17, 2022

Is it possible for an individual leader to change the course of history? This question is as important today as it was in the past century, when “charismatic” rulers made an enormous impact, often with catastrophic consequences. In this episode, historian Ian Kershaw talks about how certain political leaders obtained and exercised power in 20th century Europe, in an effort to solve the question of the role of individual decision-makers in determining historical change. As Kershaw writes in his new book, “Personality and Power: Builders and Destroyers of Modern Europe,” “the character traits of twentieth century authoritarian leaders and the structures that underpinned their rule… can perhaps at times be glimpsed in the rule of their twenty-first-century counterparts.” This is not "Great Man Theory." Rather it is a timely conversation about the interplay between human agency and impersonal forces, the conditions and contexts that allow certain individuals -- democrats and dictators -- to play a decisive role, and the constraints holding them back.

The End of Trumpism? Nov 15, 2022

Voters largely rejected Donald Trump's slate of favored candidates in the midterm elections, and Democrats avoided the "red wave" many pollsters and pundits expected. The surprise outcome has led to recriminations on the right, with some conservatives calling on the GOP to move on from Trump's toxic brand of populism. In this episode, political journalist Damon Linker, the author of the "Eyes on the Right" substack, says it's too early to know if Trumpism is receding from the political mainstream. Regardless what many voters may think, Trump is not going away quietly anyway.

When Volcker Ruled Nov 10, 2022

In the late 1970s, the national mood was dark. In the words of President Carter, Americans faced a "crisis of confidence." Inflation reached double digits. Stagflation entered the lexicon. An OPEC price increase led to an energy crisis. And there was the Iran hostage fiasco of 1979. As his presidency strained to regain its footing, Carter made an appointment that would leave a lasting mark on history. He picked Paul Volcker to lead the Federal Reserve. Volcker took up his new post by taking a sledgehammer to inflation, sending interest rates soaring above 20 percent and tipping the economy into recession in the election year of 1980. Volcker’s policies loom large today as Federal Reserve chairman Jay Powell struggles to curb the worst inflation since the early 1980s. In this episode, economist and Volcker biographer William Silber talks about the towering legacy of the Federal Reserve chairman, as well as the historical lessons Powell might heed.

Antony Beevor on the Tragedy of Russia's Wars Nov 08, 2022

In Vladimir Putin’s warped view of the past, Ukraine was only able to seek independence in 1991 because of a mistake made by another Vladimir nearly 70 years before. In his zeal to obscure Ukrainian national identity, Russia's dictator blames the Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin for “creating” an independent Ukraine in 1922 “by separating, severing what is historically Russian land.” These two events – the Bolshevik revolution and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – are not connected only in Putin’s imagination. They are linked through a history of appalling violence and destruction. The place names of battles of the Russian civil war a century ago are familiar to anyone following today’s news of Russia’s military fiasco in Ukraine. In this episode, the esteemed military historian Antony Beevor discusses the parallels between the civil war that birthed the Soviet Union and Putin’s drive to turn Ukraine into a client state – a plan that has, thus far, failed. Moreover, the Bolshevik coup d’etat of October, 1917, far from an obscure bit of history, shaped the course of the twentieth century as few other events did. Antony Beevor is the author of "Russia: Revolution and Civil War, 1917-1921."

Getting Wilson Wrong Nov 03, 2022

On April 2, 1917, President Woodrow Wilson asked a joint session of Congress for a declaration of war against Germany. Wilson declared, "The world must be made safe for democracy. Its peace must be planted upon the tested foundations of political liberty." In the century since, most U.S. presidents have echoed Wilson to one degree or another. And, especially in the years after the Cold War, Americans took it for granted that their nation must promote or defend democracy across the globe because, with Soviet Communism relegated to the dustbin of history, people everywhere would naturally gravitate to freedom and capitalism. Today, it has become an axiom among many public intellectuals and political figures that fundamental freedoms are on the line at home and abroad, from Ukraine to Taiwan. President Joseph R. Biden frequently frames U.S. foreign policy in terms of a global confrontation between democracy and autocracy. In this episode, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian David M. Kennedy explores the origins of the Wilsonian idea that now permeates our basic political thinking. We may be getting Wilson wrong in one important respect. Declaring that the “world must be made safe for democracy” is not the same as saying “we must make the world democratic.”

The Taiwan Conundrum Nov 01, 2022

As China escalates its intimidation of Taiwan, provoking speculation that President Xi Jinping wants the People’s Liberation Army to invade the island sometime in the next few years, Taiwan’s government is preparing the population of nearly 24 million for the possibility of war while calling on the world’s democracies for assistance. In this cauldron of international tension, The Washington Times' national security reporter Guy Taylor visited Taiwan to interview government officials and business leaders about the future of the island’s de facto independence. In this episode, Taylor discusses how the outcome of the Chinese civil war in 1949, followed by the normalization of U.S.-China relations in the 1970s, laid the groundwork for today’s dispute. Beyond the historic or ideological reasons behind Xi’s vow to absorb Taiwan, the presence of advanced semiconductor manufacturers makes Taiwan an enticing geopolitical target which President Biden has vowed to defend in the case of attack.

Buchanan's Party Oct 27, 2022

A generation before Donald Trump triumphed over the detested "establishment," a pugnacious media personality sensed that conservative Americans were ready to move the Republican Party to the right. Pat Buchanan didn't succeed in his insurgent campaign to defeat President Bush in the 1992 GOP primaries, but he may have set the stage for Trumpism nonetheless. By railing against illegal immigration, free trade, and cultural liberalism -- and by appealing to racial grievances -- Pat Buchanan began splintering the far right from the party of Reagan. Historian Nicole Hemmer, an expert of the rise of the New Right, discusses Buchanan's enduring, illiberal influence.

Flirting with Armageddon Oct 25, 2022

Sixty Octobers ago the world narrowly avoided nuclear conflict. After 13 tense days, the Cuban Missile Crisis ended with a compromise deal rather than war. President Joseph R. Biden’s remark that the war in Ukraine represents humanity’s closest brush with nuclear Armageddon since the 1962 crisis may at first seem overwrought, but there’s nothing like an anniversary to focus our minds on such a dreadful possibility. The war in Eastern Europe is escalating, and there is no sign it will come to a decisive conclusion before the onset of winter. Hanging over all of this is Vladimir Putin’s threat to use tactical nuclear weapons inside Ukraine. In this episode, military historian Max Hastings, author of “The Abyss: Nuclear Crisis Cuba 1962”, discusses the critical parallels between the two conflicts.

When America Failed the Jews Oct 20, 2022

Years before Adolph Hitler obtained power, and in the decades before the Third Reich brought “the manufacture of mass death to its pitiless consummation” in the words of the late military historian John Keegan, the seeds were planted of America’s callous and ineffective response to the Nazi persecution of Europe’s Jews. As the filmmakers Ken Burns, Lynn Novick, and Sarah Botstein show in their searing new documentary “The U.S. and the Holocaust,” hostility to immigration coexisted with America’s reputation as a land of opportunity during an era that saw millions of Europeans make their way to Ellis Island. But a long-simmering nativist backlash combined with the junk science of eugenics to produce federal legislation in 1924 severely restricting emigration to the United States based on nation of origin. These quotas, which enjoyed widespread public and political support, would prevent hundreds of thousands of Jews from escaping Europe when they had a chance. In this episode, author and historian Rebecca Erbelding, an expert on the U.S. response to the Nazi genocide at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and an independent scholarly advisor to the Burns documentary, discusses the ways in which antisemitism, nativism, and isolationism contributed to the failure to save more Jewish lives. Americans expressed revulsion at Nazi violence, but the outrage did not lead to a more welcoming attitude toward refugees.

The War That Never Ended Oct 18, 2022

One-hundred fifty-seven years after Appomattox, Americans are still grappling with a question that hung over the post-Civil War period: what kind of democracy are we going to be? That is the central question of historian Jeremi Suri's new book, "Civil War By Other Means," which traces the violent controversies of Reconstruction over voting and citizenship to our current dilemmas. It was no accident that one of the Jan. 6, 2021, rioters carried a Confederate flag into the U.S. Capitol as his fellow "patriots" marauded the halls. The flag remains a powerful symbol of rebellion and the racism underpinning the notion that the "wrong people" voted in the 2020 election. Wars do not end; they migrate to our minds.

HAIH at Mt. Vernon, Part 2: The History Wars Oct 13, 2022

This is the second in a two-part series of conversations recorded at George Washington's Mount Vernon as History As It Happens goes on location, with special guests historian Joseph Ellis and Doug Bradburn, Mount Vernon's president and chief executive.

Is it possible to talk too much about slavery at a historic plantation? How does an institution as popular and important as Mount Vernon interpret the past to hundreds of thousands of Americans who visit each year, many of whom revere George Washington as a hero? Listen to Joseph Ellis and Doug Bradburn discuss the problems with the "history wars" -- the endless conflict over who owns the past.

HAIH at Mt. Vernon, Part 1: What Washington Wanted Oct 11, 2022

This is the first in a two-part series of conversations recorded at George Washington's Mount Vernon as History As It Happens goes on location, with special guests historian Joseph Ellis and Doug Bradburn, Mount Vernon's president and chief executive.

If you read George Washington's 1796 Farewell Address, you might sense our first president could foresee our current troubles. As he prepared to retire to his plantation, Washington warned the young republic about the dangers of faction, or what we might call hyper-partisan passions. He cautioned against getting entangled in Europe's affairs, passing onerous debt onto future generations, and the dangers of foreign meddling in our domestic affairs. And when he died in 1799, Washington left behind a nation that would not solve the problem of racial slavery for another 65 years. Listen to Joseph Ellis and Doug Bradburn place Washington's complicated legacy and enduring wisdom in their proper historical contexts -- a necessary task if we are to seek guidance from our most famous founder.

The "Fake" Populists Oct 06, 2022

Why would a U.S. senator pen a polemical attack against a history professor? Florida Senator Marco Rubio labeled Princeton's Sean Wilentz a "cisgender white male" who "reeks of privilege" after Wilentz wrote an op-ed accusing Rubio of standing "in the sorry tradition of the great propagandists” who are guilty of “the deliberate manipulation and falsification of events for political purposes.” In early August Wilentz had been among a handful of esteemed scholars invited to the White House to talk to President Biden privately about threats to democracy at home and abroad. Rubio was not at that meeting, but he claimed to know -- without evidence -- that the historians told the president to ignore "working everyday people and their common sense." In this episode, Wilentz, a preeminent scholar of American democracy, discusses what he describes as the "fake populism" espoused by many right-wing politicians. Unlike the genuine populists of the past, who fought for the economic rights of ordinary Americans against powerful interests such as monopolistic railroads, today's "fake populists" are concerned with vilifying "elites" and "snobs" from the halls of academia to "deep state" bureaucrats.

From Mussolini to Meloni Oct 04, 2022

The Italian elections went in favor of a right-wing coalition led by Giorgia Meloni and her party, Brothers of Italy. After winning only four percent of the vote in 2018, Brothers of Italy earned enough votes to lead what will be the most right-wing Italian government since 1945. In fact, Meloni's party has a historic connection to post-war fascists, and she praised Mussolini as a teenage neo-fascist activist. Does this mean fascism is on the march in Italy again? If not fascism, what is it? In this episode, Roger Griffin, a foremost expert on the history of fascism at Oxford Brookes University, explains why right-wing populism is winning at the ballot box not just in Italy but across much of Europe.

Wars of Soviet Succession Sep 29, 2022

War has been the rule in the former Soviet domains. The collapse of the USSR unleashed previously bottled-up ethnic and territorial conflicts. Some countries were rocked by revolution. The Russian Federation, meanwhile, sought to dominate slices of the old Soviet empire with the aim of creating Novorossiya, literally "New Russia." In this episode, Catholic University historian Michael Kimmage argues Putin's hot wars and frozen conflicts in Moldova, Georgia, Crimea, and the Donbas are part of a larger strategy to reassert Russian dominance in its backyard after the humiliations of the 1990s. The collapse of the USSR was not only an event; it triggered a process still unfolding in violent ways today.

Annexation Sep 27, 2022

Russia is trying to accomplish in a sham process what it can’t achieve on the battlefield, which is to conquer eastern Ukraine. In Kremlin-engineered referenda, Ukrainian citizens of four southern and eastern regions are being forced to vote to join Russia so that Vladimir Putin may formally annex them. Should he announce the regions as part of Russia, the window for any peace negotiations will close. That is because no Ukrainian government would recognize the results of the voting, and therefore could see no alternative to trying to regain the annexed regions by military force. In this episode, the Quincy Institute's Anatol Lieven discusses this frightening escalation of a war that Ukraine appeared to be winning after retaking more than 2,000 square miles of territory.

What the U.N. Cannot Do Sep 22, 2022

By design the United Nations cannot stop the war in Ukraine. The world body chartered in 1945 to promote peace and cooperation has a decidedly mixed record in those areas, but that is mostly because the great powers from the start kept for themselves the authority to sanction or veto international efforts to prevent war. In this episode, Karen Mingst, an expert on diplomacy and global governance, explains where the U.N. has been effective in building a better world, and where it has failed to live up to its principles.

The Queen's Empire Sep 20, 2022

The death of Queen Elizabeth II provoked in her home country an outpouring of grief and pride while in other parts of the world – the independent nations of the former British Empire – her passing prompted a more ambivalent reflection on the imperial aspects of her legacy. That is because the queen was a symbol not only of stability and monarchical grace. Elizabeth II was also a symbol of empire and colonialism, and a reluctance on the part of some of her subjects to fully reckon with that bloody, rapacious history. In this episode, historian Dane Kennedy discusses the reasons for the mixed reactions to the death of the United Kingdom’s longest-serving monarch. Not everyone is feeling nostalgic for the world in which Elizabeth became monarch, which was in the throes of violent struggles for national liberation.

Semi-fascism? Sep 15, 2022

President Biden told supporters at a reception for the Democratic National Committee that Donald Trump and his loyalists within the GOP -- "MAGA Republicans" -- subscribe to an extreme philosophy that Mr. Biden described as "semi-fascism." If you spend any amount of time on social media, you'll see fascism everywhere. Pundits, political scientists, historians, anyone with a Twitter account -- are offering their takes on whether Republicans are steering the United States toward fascism. In this episode, the scholars Jeffrey Bale and Tamir Bar-On argue Trump's critics are dangerously distorting history. Fascism is a distinct ideology from other forms of populism or illiberalism or ultra-nationalism, whatever one thinks of Trumpism. Moreover, they contend the threat to democracy posed by right-wing fringe groups has been egregiously exaggerated for cynical political purposes.

The Carter Comparison Sep 13, 2022

Inflation, high gas prices, foreign policy failures, and the deep mistrust of leadership by American citizens -- these problems and more dogged President Jimmy Carter throughout his one term in the White House. Although faced with difficulties not entirely within his control, Carter committed plenty of unforced errors, none more defining than his address on live TV on June 15, 1979 -- the "malaise" speech. A half century later, President Biden's first two years in office are evoking memories of Carter's struggles. Democrats are said to be whispering that they would prefer someone else run for president in 2024 because Biden's approval ratings are so poor. Is the comparison fair? In this episode, historian and Carter biographer Scott Kaufman takes us back to the late 1970s to see if Biden might be following in Carter's footsteps as a one-term president.

Resurrecting John Brown: When Is Violence Justified? Sep 08, 2022

Americans not only expect more political violence. Polls show that a growing number of Americans, though still a minority, believe violence against the government is acceptable in certain circumstances. Ours is a country simmering with rage and mistrust toward wrongs real and perceived. In late 1859, a fanatical abolitionist believed in the righteousness of his cause so deeply that he sought war against the government by inciting a slave revolt in the Virginia mountains. John Brown's raid at Harpers Ferry accomplished nothing, but Brown became a symbol meaning different things to different people over time. But in our post-January 6 climate, Brown may serve as a cautionary tale of the dangers of unhinged belief in a crusade against injustice, real or imagined.

The Man Who Ended Communism Sep 06, 2022

When Mikhail Gorbachev died on August 30, obituaries and remembrances lauded his legacy of reform that ended Communism and the peaceful means that allowed the Eastern Bloc to go its own way without bloodshed. But the last Soviet leader is still often misunderstood, because his most important reforms eroded the very foundations of his power, leading ultimately to the dissolution of the state. In this episode, Oxford's Archie Brown, who has studied Soviet Communism for a half century, takes us inside the mind of Mikhail Gorbachev, who was unique among leaders of the USSR.

Taliban Redux Sep 01, 2022

It’s been said that history does not repeat but it does rhyme. A generation after seizing power for the first time in an Afghanistan destroyed by war, the Taliban returned to Kabul last August after enduring another long conflict with foreign invaders. As ever, the Taliban mystify observers who do not understand how these fanatical holy warriors prevailed against a militarily superior opponent and over a population that disapproves of its authoritarian edicts and brutal repression. In this episode, Andrew Watkins, a senior expert on Afghanistan at the U.S. Institute of Peace who has conducted extensive field research in Taliban country, discusses the group’s origins in the early 1990s and the reasons for their staying power.

Peter Bergen on Ayman al-Zawahiri and Future of al-Qaeda Aug 30, 2022

The man who succeeded Osama bin Laden at the top of al-Qaeda, the Egyptian jihadist Ayman al-Zawahiri, was not a driving force or key planner in the group's early days, despite reports that made him out to be the brains behind the 9/11 terrorist attacks. That is according to Peter Bergen, an expert on international terrorism at New America and one of a handful of Western journalists who interviewed bin Laden. In this episode, Bergen discusses the assassination of al-Zawahiri by a U.S. drone; the future of al-Qaeda after 21 years of global war; whether the wave of Islamic fundamentalism that swept the Muslim world in the 1970s is waning; and Afghanistan one year after the U.S. completed its withdrawal. Men like bin Laden and al-Zawahiri wanted to change the world, but they reaped the whirlwind from their indiscriminate ferocity and violent fanaticism.

The Espionage Act Aug 25, 2022

The FBI investigation into possible Espionage Act violations by former president Donald J. Trump for keeping top-secret documents at his Florida resort, has sparked curiosity in a WWI-era law rarely used to prosecute actual spies. In the 1950s, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were tried, convicted, and executed under the Espionage Act for sharing top-secret information about the atomic bomb with the Soviet Union. They were the only American citizens ever executed as spies during peacetime, and their case remains controversial to this day. But, for the most part, the Espionage Act has rarely been used to punish espionage. In this episode, historian Christopher Capozzola discusses the law’s sordid origins. Congress passed it in a climate of xenophobia and anti-Red hysteria in 1917, the year the U.S. entered the First World War. But because many Americans opposed fighting in what they viewed as a war between European colonial powers, Congress included provisions allowing the federal government to crack down on dissent. Socialists, immigrants, peace activists, newspapers, and early filmmakers were targeted in this shameful chapter of American history.

Ex-Presidents Aug 23, 2022

Unprecedented may be the most overused word in political discourse, but it applies to the post-presidency of Donald J. Trump. More than a year and a half since he left office, Trump's legal problems, political ambitions, and unrelenting grievances command the headlines and even overshadow the legislative accomplishments of the current occupant of the White House. In this episode, historian Jeremi Suri discusses why there's never been anything like it in American history. Many former presidents maintained a public profile after leaving the White House, but none dominated his party and held onto the loyalty of his base despite being embroiled in so many allegations of corruption as Trump.

Why War Doesn't Work Aug 18, 2022

As Russia prepared in the opening weeks of 2022 to invade its neighbor, many observers expected a quick victory. Russia’s modernized army vastly outnumbered the Ukrainian defenders, and Ukraine as a non-NATO member could not expect direct intervention from the Atlantic alliance to save it. Six months later, Russian forces find themselves in a war of attrition in southern Ukraine, having made little progress in seizing additional territory in the north and east of the country. A long stalemate looms. That is hardly what Russian president Vladimir Putin envisioned in February. In this episode, military historian Sir Lawrence Freedman discusses the reasons why war fails, from Russia in Ukraine to the U.S. in Iraq and Afghanistan, to France’s colonial war in Algeria a half century ago. Certain kinds of conflicts, such as wars of occupation, have exposed the inadequacy of sheer military dominance, yet powerful states keep trying to make war work. Even if Russia batters its way to something it can call victory, its presence in Ukraine will never be seen as legitimate.

Slavery and the Constitution: Kevin Roberts Aug 16, 2022

This is the fifth installment in an occasional series focusing on slavery, the Constitution, and the current debate over the meaning of America’s founding.

Visitors to Monticello, Thomas Jefferson’s mountaintop plantation in Virginia, are shown in exhibits and tours a skewed interpretation of his life, according to a report by the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank that decries the “hyper-revisionism” and “racialist agenda” emphasizing slavery at the expense of Jefferson’s many enormous accomplishments. In this episode, Heritage Foundation president Kevin Roberts, who is a scholar of early American history, discusses the exhibits at Monticello as well as the ongoing “history wars” over conflicting interpretations of the early republic's slavery dilemma.

The Problem With Prohibitions Aug 11, 2022

For decades neither side in the abortion debate had to test its position in the democratic arena. The Supreme Court in 1973 had settled it: the Constitution guaranteed a right to an abortion. But now, in post-Roe America, opponents of abortion rights must convince public majorities that the procedure must be severely restricted or banned entirely. In conservative Kansas, the pro-life movement was decisively defeated when nearly 60 percent voted to uphold abortion rights as enumerated in the state constitution. The conflict over abortion will likely take years to play out in legislative elections or public referenda. But one important aspect is already coming into focus. That is, now that the possibility of criminalizing abortions has moved out of the abstract, ambivalent Americans may recoil at laws aimed at imprisoning doctors, or fencing women into their home states by punishing them for traveling to where abortion is legal. In this episode, Georgetown historian Michael Kazin, an expert on American political and social movements, compares today’s conservative Christian movement to outlaw abortion to the temperance crusaders of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, armies of Christian evangelists who convinced a large majority of voters to outlaw booze in the Eighteenth Amendment. Prohibition, an attempt to enforce a strict moral code on millions of unwilling people, was a disaster.

New World Order Aug 09, 2022

On Sept. 11, 1990, President George Bush addressed a joint session of Congress to explain why the U.S. and its allies had sent their armies to the Arabian peninsula. Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in August of that year was an act of aggression, but the president also made clear that it was the first test for the new world order emerging from the long decades of the Cold War. "New world order" -- those words still resonate as Russia invades Ukraine and China threatens to absorb Taiwan. What do they actually mean? Are we still living in the post-war order that American leaders invoke? In this episode, historian Jeffrey Engel talks about why Bush's vision for an order built on peace and cooperation never came to be.

Our Wall of Separation Aug 04, 2022

The U.S. Supreme Court is redrawing the boundary between church and state. In several major rulings, the court came down on the side of the free exercise clause of the First Amendment, provoking critics to charge that the conservative justices are obliterating an important foundation of American life, the separation of church and state. It is the unresolvable conflict in our politics, and today's combatants draw on the founding generation for ammunition for their arguments. In this episode, historian Katherine Carté tries to untangle the conflicting meanings of religious liberty at the center of the legal and cultural struggles.

What We Owe Grant Aug 02, 2022

For most of the 137 years after his death in 1885, Ulysses S. Grant was remembered by historians as a failed president who led a hopelessly corrupt administration. In recent years, however, Grant’s reputation has undergone a scholarly renaissance that has set straight his record of accomplishments, not least in the area of civil rights for the newly emancipated slaves. In this year marking the bicentennial of his birthday, Grant scholars say the eighteenth president deserves a place next to Abraham Lincoln and Lyndon Johnson in the decidedly small pantheon of civil rights presidents. In this episode, constitutional lawyer and historian Frank Scaturro says generations of historians were negatively influenced by the myth of the Lost Cause and the Dunning school interpretation of Reconstruction. Scaturro is also the president of the Grant Monument Association by virtue of his work in the 1990s, while he attended college in New York City, to successfully pressure the federal government to repair the dilapidated, vandalized mausoleum on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. Like the tomb, Grant’s reputation has undergone a major rehabilitation. But the effort to overturn a century of tendentious scholarship must continue.

Forgotten Afghanistan Jul 28, 2022

Nearly a year since the U.S. completed its withdrawal from Afghanistan, Americans' attention has long since drifted to other problems. Twenty years of failure to remake Afghanistan as a stable, democratic country have been memory-holed. The Taliban-led country remains mired in difficulties, dependent on outside aid to feed its people. Sanctions and frozen foreign exchange reserves continue to hurt an economy left in ruins by four decades of violence and foreign interference. Drug addiction is worsening and poverty is everywhere. In this episode, the Quincy Institute's Adam Weinstein joins us from Islamabad, Pakistan to discuss the consequences of forgetting Afghanistan, recalling the years after the Soviet withdrawal when the West abandoned the country.

The Declinists Jul 26, 2022

Is America in decline? We've lost wars in the Middle East and our international standing because of the disgrace of torture. Experts believe China will soon have the world's largest economy. At home our problems seem unsolvable and our political divisions intractable. In this episode, Catholic University historian Michael Kimmage argues declinism is overrated. It’s become a self-satisfying trope that thwarts real progress in solving problems. And it may be impossible to actually measure. Decline is not an event, it is a process that can play out over centuries. So, is America in decline? Kimmage looks to Edward Gibbon's history of the Roman Empire for answers.

George Wallace Populism Jul 21, 2022

George Wallace was a segregationist. He was a pro-union Democrat who railed against federal power and pointy-headed bureaucrats. He demanded law and order while standing up for downtrodden, working class whites. He ran for president as an independent in 1968, winning 13 percent of the popular vote and five states. George Wallace was a right-wing populist with a talent for performative politics. And at a time of frequent comparisons between the crisis of American democracy and the rise of fascism in 1930s Europe, Wallace's enduring influence is overlooked today. His inheritors have found a home in the prevailing, pro-Trump wing of the GOP. In this episode, historian and Wallace biographer Dan Carter discusses the politics of rage eating at the body politic in the age of Trump.

1979 Jul 19, 2022

During his visit to the Middle East, President Biden explained the larger strategic purpose behind several agreements that he announced from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. "The bottom line is this trip is about once again positioning America and this region for the future. We are not going to leave a vacuum in the Middle East for Russia or China to fill,” Mr. Biden said. In his focus on thwarting foreign influence in a region where the U.S. has spent the better part of the past two decades fighting wasteful wars, there are echoes from a bygone era of American leadership. In 1979 the Greater Middle East was rocked by two seismic events whose consequences continue to shape the region’s politics and the U.S. role in it. In this episode, Bob Vitalis, an expert on Middle Eastern politics at the University of Pennsylvania, discusses the important parallels between 1979 and the geopolitical knots Mr. Biden is trying to untangle today.

Phyllis Schlafly Prevails Jul 14, 2022

When the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the ruling affirmed a half-century of political activism by conservative grassroots organizers, religious and legal groups, and Republican politicians and strategists. Few members of this right-wing coalition were more important than the late Phyllis Schlafly, who dedicated her formidable organizing and rhetorical talents to campaigns against cultural liberalism. In this episode, historian and Schlafly biographer Donald Critchlow discusses the crusader’s legacy in light of the conservative movement’s success in ending a constitutional right to an abortion. It is a timely reminder about the importance of persuasion in politics, because although young Americans have only known the Republican Party as monolithically opposed to abortion, it took decades of work by Schlafly and like-minded activists to push the GOP further to the right.

To Cede or Not To Cede Jul 12, 2022

Nearly five months since Russia invaded Ukraine, the war in the eastern Donbas region appears to be a grinding stalemate. Civilians are being pummeled by Russian missiles, but little land is changing hands. Neither side seems willing to cede an inch, so a diplomatic settlement is not in the offing. But how much longer must the war grind on before the combatants are convinced further bloodshed is pointless? In this episode, former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine William Taylor and Quincy Institute analyst Anatol Lieven discuss what it will take to end hostilities.

Patterns Jul 07, 2022

Building off recent episodes concerning U.S. involvement in the war in Ukraine, this conversation seeks to understand deeper patterns in U.S. foreign policy from the dawn of the Cold War. It may be possible to understand the United States' dilemma by viewing international relations as a donor-receiver dynamic, where the donor believes they possess exclusive knowledge that must be shared with others. The question to consider is why do some people think they know what's good for others? Ithaca College political theorist Naeem Inayatullah joins the conversation.

The Right to Privacy, 1789 to ? Jul 05, 2022

In 1987 the Senate rejected President Reagan's nominee for the Supreme Court, Robert Bork, because his views were considered dangerously outside the mainstream. Among other things, Bork believed the Constitution did not contain a right to privacy. Today, some of Bork's ideas have been validated by the conservative majority on the Supreme Court. By striking down Roe v Wade, the court killed the notion that any implied right to privacy in the Fourteenth Amendment or elsewhere in the Constitution protects access to abortion. In this episode, esteemed Yale constitutional scholar Akhil Amar traces the history of the right to privacy in the law from colonial times to the 1973 landmark ruling that the Roberts court has relegated to history.

Frederick Douglass and the 4th of July Jun 30, 2022

On July 4, 1852, Frederick Douglass delivered remarks of enduring significance and American eloquence to an audience of abolitionists. He mixed condemnation of the nation's tolerance of slavery with hope and uplift. He embraced the founding fathers and defended the Constitution while attacking his fellow citizens for hypocrisy and inaction. "What, To The Slave, Is The Fourth Of July?" was quintessential Frederick Douglass. Historian James Oakes discusses the ideas behind Douglass' rhetorical tour de force, his relationship with Abraham Lincoln, and the critical importance of antislavery politics in bringing about the destruction of slavery.

January 6 in the Shadow of Watergate Jun 28, 2022

As the fiftieth anniversary of the Watergate break-in crossed our calendars, the congressional committee investigating ex-President Trump's 'Stop the Steal' scheme revealed new and damaging findings. Past and present are intersecting again: the Jan. 6 hearings are painting a picture of a rogue executive willing to try almost anything to remain in power, including manipulating the Justice Department to interfere in an election. In this episode, journalist and historian Garrett Graff, the author or 'Watergate: A New History,' discusses the parallels between Nixon's crimes and Trump's effort to steal an election.

Is Putin a Fascist? Jun 23, 2022

What is Vladimir Putin? Russia's dictator has been called a gangster, an autocrat, a Marxist-Leninist, an ultra-nationalist, or a fascist by different historians, political scientists, and editorialists over the past several weeks. There seems to be little agreement over what ideas and ideologies motivate the man in his crusade against the West. Fascism remains a slippery term, often used as a slur to denigrate one's political opponents. In this episode, Oxford's Roger Griffin, a leading scholar on fascism, talks about why it is mistaken to label Putin a fascist, despite some similarities to the fascist regimes of the twentieth century.

An Impossible Divorce Jun 21, 2022

President Biden's upcoming trip to Saudi Arabia is an example of reality imposing itself on a situation Mr. Biden vowed to change. In November 2019, Democratic candidate Biden said the kingdom should be punished and treated as a pariah, because its de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, had been implicated in the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. But as Middle East expert Bob Vitalis explains in this episode, the Americans and Saudis still need each other, thereby maintaining a decades-long relationship shaped by oil, war, terrorism, and political expediency.

Bonus Episode! HAIH Live w/ Michael Kimmage Jun 20, 2022

This conversation with Catholic University historian Michael Kimmage was featured on C-SPAN's 'American History TV.' Kimmage discusses U.S.-Russia relations since the end of the Cold War, the rise of Putin, and events leading to the war in Ukraine.

The Fate of Res Publica Jun 16, 2022

It may surprise you to learn how much we have in common with Americans of the 1790s: extreme political polarization, crazy conspiracy theories, partisan news media, foreign interference, and fears of violence and disintegration. As the Jan. 6 Committee hearings refocus our attention on the day Donald Trump's effort to overturn the election reached its violent nadir, historian Joseph Ellis joins the podcast to explain why he believes the fate of the republic -- res publica, the public interest -- is in danger.

Andrew Bacevich Has Seen This Movie Before Jun 14, 2022

There is a pattern in U.S. history of a nation seeking redemption through war, attempting to restore its global standing and credibility after a humiliating defeat. By backing Ukraine's effort to repel the Russian invasion, some American intellectuals say the U.S. is also fighting for the fate of democracy and the world order it has led since 1945. In this reasoning, a victory by Ukraine over Russia helps erase the humiliating U.S. retreat from Afghanistan in 2021, which brought the curtain down on the failed post-9/11 project to spread democracy and U.S. hegemony. In this episode, historian and Quincy Institute president Andrew Bacevich deconstructs arguments elevating the Russia-Ukraine war to one of "cosmic importance" for the United States.

Choosing War Jun 09, 2022

In February Russia chose war with Ukraine. In response, the U.S. chose to dramatically increase aid and arms shipments to Kyiv. But now that a frozen war is descending on the eastern Donbas region, one that is likely to drag on for months, certain questions about the U.S. commitment can no longer be ignored. How long can the U.S. support Ukraine? Can the U.S. control any escalation caused by a Russian reaction to its support? What if no amount of material or intelligence support is enough to thwart Vladimir Putin's ambitions? In this episode, historians Jeremi Suri and Jeffrey Engel discuss the potential consequences of an open-ended U.S. commitment to Ukraine's independence.

What Went Wrong on D-Day (And How the Germans Nearly Won) Jun 06, 2022

On this 78th anniversary of the D-Day invasion of Nazi-occupied France, military historian Cathal Nolan discusses the chaos and confusion that prevailed over the early hours of the largest amphibious assault in history. Yet despite mishaps and setbacks that are unavoidable in major combat, the Allied forces captured the five beaches along the Normandy coast by the end of June 6, 1944. The Germans missed their chance to repel the invaders, but was it a decisive battle on the road to victory in the Second World War? Nolan argues decisive battles are almost always a mirage.

How Democrats Lost Blue-Collar Labor Jun 02, 2022

With the midterm elections approaching and Democrats expecting to be drubbed, it's time to ask whether the party has made any progress fixing its white working-class voter problem. But something that took decades to develop, caused in part by massive structural changes in the global economy, cannot be undone in a few short years. In this episode, Georgetown University historian Michael Kazin, author of "What It Took To Win: A History of the Democratic Party," discusses the rise and fall of the Democrats' working-class dominance from the triumphs of the New Deal to emergence of Trumpism.

Dred Scott, the Worst Ruling Ever May 31, 2022

The U.S. Supreme Court, one of our bedrock judicial institutions, has been on the wrong side of history time and again. But as the arbiter of the Constitution, the Supreme Court is indispensable to the functioning of democracy. In this episode, esteemed constitutional scholar Akhil Amar discusses some of the court's most notorious rulings, starting with Dred Scott in 1857. And as the current court appears poised to overturn Roe v. Wade, Amar draws parallels between Roe and Dred Scott that explain why the robed justices have never been beyond the reach of criticism for, in the eyes of the critics, botching the Constitution.

NATO Forever May 26, 2022

Take a look at a map of the NATO countries today and compare it to one from 1989. It's a remarkable change. And what once seemed far-fetched is now close to becoming reality. That is, almost all of Europe will belong to NATO right up to Russia's borders. But Finland's and Sweden's applications to join the alliance, prompted by Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, may be blocked by NATO's only Asian member, Turkey. In this episode, historians Timothy Sayle and Howard Eissenstat break down Europe's changing geopolitics. Learn why Sweden and Finland are shedding decades of non-alignment and why Turkey, one of NATO's earliest members, is moving closer to the Kremlin.

America's First Replacement Theorists May 24, 2022

Replacement theory -- the racist ideology that claims elites are abetting immigrants to disempower or eliminate native white people -- has been around in one form or another for a long time. The current iteration has gone mainstream, leading to widespread condemnation of some Republican politicians and conservative commentators who have embraced the theory's central premises. Fear and suspicion of foreigners underpins nativism, and America's first nativist movement took hold in the 1850s. Who were the Know Nothings? They weren't around for long but they left their mark.

The History of Abortion May 19, 2022

Long before Roe v. Wade established a constitutional right to an abortion -- indeed, centuries before abortion became one of the most divisive issues in American society -- ending a pregnancy before "quickening" was commonplace in the colonial era and not very controversial, either. That began to change in the mid-nineteenth century when some medical professionals joined a campaign to criminalize all abortions, led by Dr. Horatio Storer. In this episode, historians Anna Peterson and Eric Foner discuss the history of abortion before Roe and the origins, purposes, and legacy of the Fourteenth Amendment, which laid the foundation for Roe v. Wade a century after it was ratified in the wake of the Civil War.

Slavery and the Constitution: Kate Masur May 17, 2022

This is the fourth installment in an occasional series that will focus on slavery, the Constitution, and the ongoing debate over the meaning of the American founding.

When President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, he invoked the historic struggle to make America a more equal society. The civil rights movement to which Johnson referred did not begin, however, in the twentieth or even the nineteenth century. The first civil rights activists emerged from the radical impulses of the American Revolution, and they employed the language in the Constitution to make their case in newspapers, courtrooms, and state houses for equal rights and full citizenship for Black people. Historian and Pulitzer Prize finalist Kate Masur, author of "Until Justice Be Done," tells us about the achievements and setbacks that marked the fight for civil rights in the antebellum U.S.

Elon Musk and Our Free Speech Wars May 12, 2022

Elon Musk's anticipated acquisition of Twitter sent a major ripple across America's endless debates over free expression. The fact is, the question of who gets to say what and where has always been thorny in American society. Not until the twentieth century did the Supreme Court embrace our current, expansive view of the First Amendment. Today the battle is being fought in the cultural space, where social media platforms -- all private companies with their own First Amendment right to moderate posts -- are under pressure to remove "offensive" content and mis- and disinformation. In this episode, Lynn Greenky, author of "When Freedom Speaks," discusses why Americans are fighting one another over this precious freedom.

China's "Zero COVID" Fantasy May 10, 2022

Chinese president Xi Jinping, the country's most powerful leader since Mao, is inflexibly pursuing a policy to eliminate the transmission of COVID-19. Shanghai, population 26 million, is locked down. People are virtual prisoners in their own homes and the lockdowns are crushing the economy. But world health experts say it is impossible to eradicate the highly contagious coronavirus. The Mercatus Center's Weifeng Zhong, who analyzes reams of Chinese state propaganda to discern policy shifts, explains what's behind Xi's fanatical campaign to achieve the impossible.

To End a War May 05, 2022

History teaches us that the war in Ukraine will most likely end in a negotiated settlement. The Second World War was an anomaly insofar the Allies demanded unconditional surrender from their enemies, and then conquered Germany and Japan in total victory. Most wars fought since 1945 dragged on for years in indecisive fighting until some kind of settlement was reached, often unsatisfactory to all involved. In this episode, Texas Tech military historian Ron Milam, who is a Vietnam combat veteran, talks about the deal that ended U.S. involvement in the war he fought, as well as where the war in Ukraine may be going.

The Looming Conflict May 03, 2022

The Biden administration's efforts to revive the 2015 nuclear accord with Iran are on the brink of collapse, leading experts to fear the two countries could enter a new era of suspicion and even outright conflict. Since 1979 the U.S. and Iran have had no formal diplomatic ties, their relationship marked by distrust and hostility. The ongoing animosity has created a self-fulfilling prophecy where Iran is now closer to having enough enriched uranium to build a bomb than it had before the U.S. pulled out of the 2015 deal. In this episode, historian John Ghazvinian and foreign policy expert Trita Parsi discuss the potential consequences for the world if the latest negotiations end in failure.

Vladimir the Historian Apr 28, 2022

Vladimir Putin's version of history is the foundation of his war in Ukraine. According to Russia's dictator, an independent Ukrainian state is a mistake of history and the notion of Ukrainian nationhood, with a distinct culture and language, is a fiction. In this episode, Anna Reid, a former Kyiv-based journalist and expert in Ukrainian history, takes us through Putin's distortions covering a thousand years, from the reign of Volodymyr the Great to the October Revolution and the killing fields of the Second World War. Ukraine may have achieved true statehood for the first time in 1991, but the Ukrainian nation goes back centuries.

Nuclear Terror Redux, or How I Learned to Stop... Apr 26, 2022

During the Cold War, the fear of nuclear war suffused the culture in hundreds of books and movies, in classroom "duck and cover" drills and in debates on college campuses, and in the arena of international relations. But that cultural awareness has faded over the past 30 years -- until now. As Russia's war in Ukraine grinds on, the possibility, however remote, of a nuclear exchange is more front of mind that it has been in decades. In this episode, national security expert Joe Cirincione, who has spent 40 years working on non-proliferation, discusses why the world may be closer to a nuclear crisis now than at any time since the Cold War. Calling Dr. Strangelove!

The Problem of War Crimes Apr 21, 2022

The odds are against anyone being brought to justice for atrocities committed in Ukraine. Despite mounting evidence that Russian forces executed civilians and targeted residential neighborhoods for bombardment, a successful prosecution of the perpetrators -- from military commanders in the field all the way up to Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin -- before an international tribunal will be difficult. In the 76 years since the Nuremberg trials, which set the standard for punishing individuals for crimes against humanity, war crimes investigators have faced many obstacles. In this episode, former International Criminal Court prosecutor Alex Whiting explains the challenges confronting those seeking justice for victims of wars of aggression and atrocities.

Why Yeltsin Chose Putin Apr 19, 2022

History is full of what-ifs. What if in 1999 Russia's fading president Boris Yeltsin had handpicked someone other than Vladimir Putin to be his successor? What we do know is that Putin and his ruling circle steered Russia toward autocracy, and 22 years later the former KBG lieutenant colonel still rules with dictatorial powers. In this episode Julie Newton, an expert on Russian history and politics at Oxford University, discusses the set of circumstances that led Yeltsin to make his fateful choice, and the many reasons why the renewal of authoritarianism under a powerful state -- at odds with liberal Western traditions -- was not inevitable.

Francis Fukuyama Says Liberalism is in Peril Apr 14, 2022

Is Ukraine the front line in a global struggle pitting democracy versus autocracy, liberalism versus illiberal nationalism? Political scientist Francis Fukuyama, author of the famous "The End of History and the Last Man," says liberal democracy is in recession across the globe, ceding the historic gains of the post-Cold War period. His view is meant to rebuke the arguments of the foreign policy realists, who contend that Ukraine's fate is not a vital U.S. national security interest. But Fukuyama says democratic states need one another, so what happens in Ukraine matters at home.

Slavery and the Constitution: Sean Wilentz & James Oakes Apr 12, 2022

This is the third installment in an occasional series that will focus on slavery, the Constitution, and the ongoing debate over the meaning of the American founding.

Was the Constitution pro- or anti-slavery? Maybe that is the wrong question to ask, even though it remains the question at the heart of public discourse about the founding generation. In this episode, Sean Wilentz and James Oakes -- two major scholars of eighteenth and nineteenth century America -- argue the Constitution was a contested document that marked the beginning of a political conflict over the future of slavery and, therefore, the nature of American democracy. They reject race-centered interpretations that elide early political conflicts over enslavement and the hard-fought progress won by Black Americans and their white allies. The American Revolution was an event of world-historical importance, marking a turning point in the history of human enslavement because it gave life to the world's first abolitionist movement.

Obama and Russia Apr 07, 2022

When Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 the Obama administration responded with condemnation and sanctions. But the U.S. president refused to authorize the government sale of lethal weapons to Ukraine (although private arms exports were permitted). Obama viewed Russia as a regional power that could not be stopped from trying to military dominate Ukraine, if it so chose. He was not interested in containing Russia as if the Cold War hadn't ended. Today, some critics say Obama underestimated Vladimir Putin while failing to fully help Ukraine defend itself. In this episode, historian Jeremi Suri, the host of "This is Democracy" podcast, discusses the thorny relationship between foreign policy and domestic pressures. Obama may have misjudged Putin, but was he right about the limits of American power in Eastern Europe?

A Peace Plan For Ukraine Apr 05, 2022

History provides some examples of what a peace settlement might look like between Russia and Ukraine. Finland's treaty with the Soviet Union in 1948 and the Austrian State Treaty of 1955 established neutrality for Finland and Austria during the Cold War. They would not join NATO or the Warsaw Pact. In this episode, Anatol Lieven of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft discusses the reasons why geopolitical realism, not idealism about democracy, must carry the day if Russia's war of aggression is to end with an agreement all sides can live with. Ukraine would agree to never join NATO in exchange for a Russian guarantee on its sovereignty.

The Abasement of SCOTUS Mar 31, 2022

An overwhelming majority of Americans agree the Supreme Court is an important institution, yet the confirmation process for its lifetime appointments has devolved into all-out partisan warfare and absurd political theater. Less is learned about the SCOTUS nominees than about the politics of the Senate inquisitors and the influence of outside activists. In this episode, political scientist Lawrence Baum, who has been following the high court for nearly 50 years, discusses the effects of hyper-partisanship on the credibility of the court and public perceptions. From Robert Bork in 1987 to Ketanji Brown Jackson in 2022, a confirmation process that once rarely rejected nominees now proceeds almost entirely along party lines.

Democracies & Dictatorships Mar 29, 2022

If you meander through the history of the 1930s, you will find any number of possible parallels with today's crisis in Eastern Europe. Aggressive powers, namely Germany and Italy, challenged the existing order by attacking or annexing weaker nations. Today some American politicians are warning that "appeasing" Vladimir Putin -- which is meant to invoke the infamous Munich Conference of 1938 -- will only lead to more war. But such parallels are weak, says historian Ian Kershaw, the author of an unparalleled, two-volume biography of Hitler. If there is anything to learn from the 1930s, it is the importance of not drawing the wrong lessons. Still, some comparisons may work. That is, the inherent weaknesses of democracies, then and now, in facing up to the threats of dictators. And Kershaw stresses the importance of ideological motivations on the part of such figures as Hitler and Putin -- motivations that were overlooked by the West.

Why Kyiv May Fall Mar 24, 2022

Military historian Max Hastings, an acclaimed chronicler of the twentieth century's terrible wars, says Ukraine's defenders are inspiring the world with their courage and resilience in the face of Russia's unprovoked onslaught. But Hastings says Russia remains enormously powerful compared to Ukraine, and therefore may batter its way to something Putin can call victory. In this episode, Hastings discusses the Russian way of war, the prospects for a negotiated settlement, the ideas motivating Putin's revanchism, and the parallels with the previous century's ethno-nationalist conflicts.

Slavery and the Constitution: Alan Taylor Mar 22, 2022

This is the second episode in an occasional series that will focus on slavery, the Constitution, and the ongoing debate over the meaning of the American founding. The first episode with historian Joseph Ellis dropped on Feb. 1.

In a sense it may seem odd that Americans continue to argue over what the Constitution says about slavery. After all, the South’s “peculiar institution” was forever abolished in 1865. But we know this is not merely an academic issue or legalistic debate. The racism that underpinned human chattel slavery in the antebellum United States persisted in new forms after the Civil War. New interpretations, from The 1619 Project on the left to 1776 Unites on the right, have emerged amid a tumultuous reckoning with the nation’s past, forcing us to revisit the morally unresolvable contradictions of the founding generation. In this episode, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Alan Taylor weighs in on why the Constitution's compromises over (and protections for) slavery often overshadow the importance of abolition in modern discourse.

This New Cold War Mar 17, 2022

Cold War historian Mary Elise Sarotte says a new, more dangerous form of that 20th century conflict may descend upon Europe because of Russia's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine. The nuclear weapons are still around, although fewer in number, but gone are the climate of detente, mutual trust, and most of the major arms control treaties that marked the end of the Reagan years and the early 1990s. The author of "Not One Inch: America, Russia, and the Making of Post-Cold War Stalemate," Sarotte argues the way NATO expanded to the east helped ruin U.S.-Russia relations, but it is far from the only explanation for a war launched by Russian revanchists.

Why Russian Democracy Failed Mar 15, 2022

What if Russia were a thriving democratic society today? Would there be war in Ukraine? Maybe these are impossible questions to answer at the moment, but important as it is to consider the factor of NATO enlargement after the Cold War, it is equally vital to understand Russian's internal dynamics when assessing the causes of Russia's unprovoked war in Ukraine. When the USSR left the historical stage, the new Russian state tried to complete the transition from Communist dictatorship and a command economy to democracy and free market capitalism. Well before Vladimir Putin rose to power, this transition, which would have been difficult under the best of circumstances, had already disastrously failed. In this episode Veronica Anghel, an expert on Eastern European politics and security, discusses the critical 1990s in Russia, as well as what the war in Eastern Europe today will mean for "strongman politics" and refugees.

Bonus Episode! HAIH Live w/ Michael Kazin Mar 14, 2022

This conversation with Georgetown University historian Michael Kazin was featured on C-SPAN's 'American History TV.' Kazin discusses his new book, "What It Took To Win," which is about the history of the Democratic Party from its 19th century origins to present.

Putin and the American Right Mar 10, 2022

"There is no room in this party for apologists for Putin," former Vice President Mike Pence is said to have told an audience of GOP donors in the days after Russia invaded Ukraine. Why would a major Republican politician need to clarify that? The de facto leader of the party, Donald Trump, had praised Putin in a radio interview, and then at CPAC Trump defended his remarks. Things have gotten so strange that Rep. Liz Cheney, stalwart conservative, says her party now has a "Putin wing." In this episode, The National Review's Charles C. W. Cooke discusses why some figures on the right have taken this illiberal lurch. Most conservatives, Cooke says, disdain Putin for a ruthless tyrant, not someone worthy of admiration.

The Chinese Century? Mar 08, 2022

When Nixon opened doors to China a half century ago, that country was reeling from the cascading disasters of Mao's rule. Today, China is vying to surpass the U.S. position in global leadership. If the American empire is itself in terminal decline, then what of the broader world order established by American power after 1945, an order based on the inviolability of national borders and the principle of universal human rights? In this episode, historian Alfred McCoy argues the world is witnessing a historic shift from the West to the East, and China will soon be the preeminent economic and military power on the Eurasian landmass. But will climate change upend China's ambitions? The science on rising seal levels and warming temperatures is clear: yes.

Lenin, Stalin, Putin Mar 03, 2022

Russian president Vladimir Putin is "a very dangerous beast," says preeminent military historian Antony Beevor. As war rages in Ukraine, an unpredictable dictator may risk expanding the war to involve NATO members such as the Baltic states. Putin has fallen into the same trap as past Russian and Soviet leaders, obsessed with a perceived encirclement by implacable, hostile powers to the west. In this episode, Sir Antony Beevor explains the deep historical roots of the conflict in Eastern Europe, and the ways in which Putin is trying to turn back the clock to an imperial past.

The Road to War in Eastern Europe Mar 01, 2022

The Russian invasion of Ukraine is raising questions left unresolved in the immediate aftermath of the Cold War, when President George Bush hoped to bequeath to his successors a peaceful, stable Europe whose nations would remain part of NATO. Among those questions is whether Russia would integrate with Europe, as the Soviet Union’s former republics (such as the Baltic states) and satellite states (such as Poland) joined the Western military alliance. With its unprovoked attack on Ukraine, Russia has turned into a pariah state as President Vladimir Putin attempts to reverse his nation’s diminished geopolitical status. In this episode, historian Jeffrey Engel discusses the causes of the first major war in Eastern Europe since 1945. It was not inevitable that relations between the West and the former Soviet Union would deteriorate, but certain problems – such as NATO's enlargement, Ukraine's pro-West revolution in 2014, and Putin’s revanchist ideas – helped pave the road to war in 2022.

When Both Parties Backed Voting Rights Feb 24, 2022

In 1965, after overcoming the threat of a filibuster, large bipartisan majorities in Congress passed the landmark Voting Rights Act. The act was reauthorized five times from 1970 through 2006 with the support of both Democratic and Republican presidents. But in the America of 2022, Democrats' two major voting rights bills have almost no Republican support. The GOP says the bills amount to a partisan power grab and are unnecessary because voter turnout has been strong. Democrats argue minority voting rights are under threat. How did we get to this point? Historian Peniel Joseph explains why the bipartisan consensus around voting rights has dissolved.

The Rabbis Who Prayed For Democracy Feb 22, 2022

Did you know that since 1860 more than 400 rabbis have delivered the opening prayer or blessing that starts each day of Congress? In a nation founded upon religious toleration, articulated in George Washington's letter to the Jews of Newport in 1790, some remarkable rabbis have prayed at the very center of American democracy. We now know more about this overlooked slice of history because of Howard Mortman, the communications director at C-SPAN. His first book, "When Rabbis Bless Congress," documents the life and times of Jewish leaders who left their mark on the U.S. Capitol.

Biden and the Betrayal of Yemen Feb 17, 2022

One year after President Biden pledged to end U.S. support for Saudi Arabia's offensive capabilities in Yemen's civil war, the war continues with no end in sight, and the U.S. remains just as complicit in one of worst humanitarian crises in the world. In this episode, Dr. Annelle Sheline of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft guides us through Yemen's recent history to explain what led to the disastrous Saudi intervention in 2015. Yemen is a place most Americans think little about, yet the Biden administration sent more than $1 billion in arms to Saudi Arabia in 2021 alone, so it could continue its deadly air campaign meant to drive Houthi rebels from power in Sana'a.

'Not One Inch': Eastern Europe on the Precipice Feb 15, 2022

As U.S. officials issue daily warnings that a Russian invasion of Ukraine is imminent, each side in the crisis is claiming history as an ally. For the United States, NATO, and Ukraine, the post-WWII international order allows Kyiv to freely choose which alliances to join, free from Russian interference. For Moscow, old promises that NATO would expand 'not one inch' toward Russia's borders have been broken, needlessly antagonizing Russia in the same way Russian missiles in Canada would threaten the U.S. In this episode, former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine Bill Taylor and the Quincy Institute's Anatol Lieven discuss and debate the reasons why Europe could be on the road to war.

Invisible Carnage Feb 10, 2022

The civilian toll of America's endless wars in the Greater Middle East is receiving fresh scrutiny. Reports detailing systemic weaknesses in the targeting of suspected militants spurred Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to order the Pentagon to improve its protections for the ordinary people who have died by the thousands in U.S. airstrikes since September 11, 2001. A series of reports by the New York Times documented several cases in which military officials covered up the unintentional slaughter of civilians. These tragedies, which are only sporadically noticed by ordinary Americans in the ongoing global war on terrorism, raise a deeper question: why does the public seem so indifferent to the deaths of others? In this episode, historian John Tirman explains the reasons why Americans have mostly ignored, downplayed, or even justified the deaths of civilians in the nation’s post-WWII conflicts starting with the Korean War, when the U.S. military carpet bombed North Korea, up to and including the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The Generation Gap Feb 08, 2022

Can a generation gap help explain our problems? Among our seemingly intractable, even existential, dilemmas is the lack of trust among Americans toward our institutions and toward one another. Thanks to internet algorithms and hyper-partisan television channels and radio programs, it is possible to consume information 24/7 that only confirms, rather than challenges, one’s political views or conceptions of science. This media landscape did not exist in the 1960s, when a generation gap was at the center of the nation’s upheavals, when many Baby Boomers rejected the values of their parent’s generation – the age cohort Tom Brokaw in 1989 dubbed the Greatest Generation. In this episode, historian Paul McBride takes us on a trip from the nineteen thirties to the sixties, explaining how events and movements shaped the different attitudes and outlooks of two distinct generations.

Two Years of COVID: What Have We Learned? Feb 03, 2022

In the two years since the first known COVID-related death occurred in the United States, Americans have relentlessly argued about masks, school closings, business restrictions, and vaccinations, with personal politics often determining where one stands. The most important constant, however, has been a virus that pays no heed to political bickering or anti-vaccine fanaticism. Two years into the deadliest pandemic in a century, more than 2,200 Americans are dying daily from COVID-19, giving the United States a sharply higher death rate than other wealthy nations. The overwhelming majority of the deaths were unvaccinated people. In this episode, historian John Barry discusses what Americans, from political leaders to public health authorities and ordinary citizens, got right and what they got wrong about the pandemic, as the spread of the highly-transmissible Omicron variant begins to subside in some parts of the country.

Slavery and the Constitution: Joseph Ellis Feb 01, 2022

This is the first episode in an occasional series that will focus on slavery, the Constitution, and the ongoing debate over the meaning of the American founding. Each new episode will feature an interview with a different historian whose expertise covers the early Republic.

In a sense it may seem odd that Americans continue to argue over what the Constitution says about slavery. After all, the South’s “peculiar institution” was forever abolished in 1865. But we know this is not merely an academic issue or legalistic debate. The racism that underpinned human chattel slavery in the antebellum United States persisted in new forms after the Civil War. New interpretations, from The 1619 Project on the left to 1776 Unites on the right, have emerged amid a tumultuous reckoning with the nation’s past, forcing us to revisit the morally unresolvable contradictions of the founding generation. In this episode, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Joseph Ellis discusses the deliberately ambiguous manner in which the Constitution was written, so it would reflect a series of compromises over, not an immediate solution to, slavery.

The Great Inflation Jan 27, 2022

Thomas Hoenig has been worried about the Fed's easy money policies and inflation since the 1970s, the last time rising prices seriously ate into Americans' earnings before now. The former president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, Hoenig was known for his lone dissenting votes against Ben Bernanke's money-printing policies in 2010. Price inflation -- what you pay for groceries or gasoline -- was not Hoenig's sole concern. All along he has cautioned against fueling asset bubbles -- real estate, stock, houses -- by pumping too much money into the economy in the name of fighting unemployment and increasing demand. Now, as inflation spikes, Hoenig explains how to escape the inflationary disaster.

When America Built Big Things Jan 25, 2022

From the Erie Canal to the intercontinental railroad, from rural electrification projects to the interstate highway system, Americans built the massive infrastructure befitting a modern, wealthy nation. The benefits are undeniable, although dams and highways have complicated legacies of environmental degradation and urban displacement. Moreover, over the past several decades the old infrastructure has absorbed enormous sums just to maintain it, and the nation's new infrastructure plans have shrunk. In this episode, transportation historian Jonathan English discusses why it has become so difficult for American to build big anymore.

Weimar America Jan 20, 2022

Why do serious historians fear American democracy is hanging by a thread, with parallels to the fall of the Weimar Republic? In this episode, Christopher Browning, an expert on Nazi Germany and the Holocaust, argues eerie similarities exist between our current problems and the hyper-polarized environment of 1920s-30s Germany. The gravediggers of the Weimar Republic used the levers of power to undermine a system they despised, leading to the rise of Adolph Hitler. The United States today faces no such future, but Browning says Republicans loyal to Donald Trump are attacking the legitimacy of American elections while running for key local and state offices that oversee voting -- a kind of legal revolution to disadvantage their electoral opponents.

The End of NATO Jan 18, 2022

Formed by treaty in 1949 to defend Western Europe against the threat, real or perceived, of Soviet aggression, NATO has become the de facto defender of Ukraine's territorial integrity 30 years after the end of the Cold War. In this episode, historian Andrew Bacevich, the president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, discusses NATO's strategic drift and the folly of its eastward expansion. The alliance's mission evolved from the containment of the USSR to humanitarian interventions and fighting terrorism, first in the Balkans and then in Afghanistan and Libya. And now, as Russia threatens to invade Ukraine, fundamental questions surround NATO's ultimate purpose. Bacevich says the U.S. should leave the alliance, recognizing that Ukraine's territorial integrity is not a vital national security interest.

Back to 1776 Jan 13, 2022

After The 1619 Project sparked a scholarly uproar over its provocative reinterpretation of U.S. history, the longtime activist and social conservative Bob Woodson decided it was time for the public to hear from Black scholars, intellectuals, and activists who rejected The New York Times’ controversial arguments. So he created the '1776 Unites' initiative. In this episode, Woodson discusses his approaches to activism, the study of history, and navigating America’s relentless culture wars and racial antagonisms. Instead of rejecting the nation's founders and its founding principles because they were denied to generations of Americans, Woodson says we must unify around them to battle oppression.

Atoms for Iran Jan 11, 2022

On December 8, 1953, President Eisenhower laid the groundwork for the international diplomacy that would create Iran's nuclear program. In his "Atoms for Peace" speech before the U.N. General Assembly, Eisenhower said the U.S. should lead the way in helping the poorer nations of the world develop nuclear power for peaceful purposes, at a time when the Cold War had many fearing the possibility of nuclear war. Nearly 70 years later, Iran and the U.S. are once again arguing over nuclear power, as the parties to the JCPOA are meeting in Vienna to attempt to restore the 2015 Obama-era accord. In this episode, historian John Ghazvinian explains why the 2015 deal may be dead, and how Atoms for Peace remains at the core of this international dispute.

The Capitol Riot, One Year Later Jan 06, 2022

One year has passed since Donald Trump egged on a mob to attack Congress, the violent culmination of his months-long effort to overturn the presidential election. One year later, the wound still festers. Americans remain divided, living in realities of their own creation. Reconciliation seems out of reach. It is 1860 redux, but instead of civil war, Americans are witnessing a virtual secession from one another. In this episode, historian Paul Quigley of the Virginia Center for Civil War Studies discusses the importance of the House Select Committee's investigation into the perpetrators and organizers of the Stop the Steal rally that preceded the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. But although the truth must be known, the search for it may further divide us.

Biden's Foreign Policy, Year Two Jan 04, 2022

President Joseph Biden is beginning his second year in office facing many of the same foreign policy problems that awaited his arrival in the White House, some with the potential to explode into full-blown conflict despite his efforts to restore calm and confidence among U.S. allies and partners in Europe and the Indo-Pacific. From China’s threats to absorb Taiwan, to Russia’s troop buildup on the Ukrainian border, a number of simmering conflicts are testing the strength of the United States’ extensive overseas commitments after 20 years fighting a global war on terrorism to little positive effect. In this episode, The Washington Times' national security correspondent Ben Wolfgang discusses the president’s approach to these foreign policy dilemmas. The world scene is dramatically different than the one Biden knew when he was elected to the Senate, or even when he served as Barack Obama's vice president. That is, the U.S. is no longer a hegemonic power that can get whatever it wants from whoever it wants, if that were ever the case.

The Future of Work, Part 2 Dec 30, 2021

What will work look like in 2022, or 2032? Will your job still exist? Will you ever have to leave your home for the office again? Or will the robots leave you unemployed? The pandemic has fueled any number of utopian or dystopian visions about the American workplace. In this episode, the second part of a two-part series, futurist Brian David Johnson offers a vision grounded in reality and suffused with optimism. Your job may change or even become obsolete, but that does not mean you will be robbed of a livelihood.

The Future of Work, Part 1 Dec 28, 2021

As millions of Americans workers join the "Great Resignation," expectations are changing for pay, benefits, on-the-job treatment, work-life balance, and the relationship between capital and labor. The coronavirus pandemic has thrown into relief long-running problems with American capitalism, and many workers are responding, at least for now, by quitting or demanding more from their employers. The pandemic has also accelerated technology-driven changes affecting the very nature of the workplace. Will the future of work look dramatically different than the present? In part one of a two-part series, labor economist Sylvia Allegretto tells us the truth about the "Great Resignation."

Christmas Day, 1991: Extinction of the USSR Dec 23, 2021

Born of revolution in 1917, the Soviet Union dominated Eurasia for more than 70 years until its dramatic, though largely peaceful, collapse in 1991. On Christmas Day that year, Mikhail Gorbachev in a televised address announced his resignation as Soviet president, completing the dissolution of the Soviet state that he had tried to avoid. Also gone was the Communist economic system that failed generations of people in Russia and Eastern Europe. In this episode, Archie Brown discusses the reasons why Soviet Communism which had faced no existential crisis in 1985, the year Gorbachev took power, disintegrated in a matter of years. Hailed as a historic victory in the West, the death of the USSR is lamented by many Russians today because they feel betrayed by their country's experiment with democracy and market economy in the 1990s.

Do We Need Heroes? Max Hastings on Winston Churchill Dec 21, 2021

Young activists in the U.K. do not view Winston Churchill as a hero. Older generations revere Churchill as the greatest Englishman of the 20th century because he stood up to Nazism during the darkest days of the Second World War, when the U.K. fought the Axis alone in 1940. But as Black Lives Matter protests roiled American cities in 2020, activists in Britain began defacing Churchill statues. Leftist academics are also questioning whether the Last Lion still deserves reverence given his racist attitudes toward Indian and Africans, epitomized by his failure to respond to the Bengal famine in 1943. In this episode, world-renowned military historian Max Hastings challenges us to embrace a balanced view of Churchill's accomplishments and failures. If we do not need heroes, we might also resist ransacking history to satisfy our present-day political causes.

Let's Rank the Presidents! Part 2 Dec 16, 2021

This is the second episode in a two-part series, Let’s Rank the Presidents! Part one covered the most successful presidents in U.S. history. This episode will discuss the worst presidents (and those who fall somewhere in the middle).

We've been lucky to have had some special leaders during difficult times. But our country has also elected some awful presidents, as well as men who might have succeeded if not for unforeseen crises which they wound up badly mismanaging. In this episode, scholars Jeremi Suri of the University of Texas at Austin and Jeffrey Engel of Southern Methodist University return to share their views on the presidents who occupy the bottom rungs of the White House rankings. They also discuss presidents who defy easy judgment, leaders who excelled in one area while catastrophically failing in another.

Let's Rank the Presidents! Part 1 Dec 14, 2021

This is the first episode in a two-part series, Let’s Rank the Presidents! Part one covers the most successful presidents in U.S. history.

What makes a great president? Americans may agree that intelligence, influence, integrity, communication skills, vision, and successful domestic and foreign policies are among the right qualities to measure a presidential administration. But determining which presidents rate highly in these categories is a matter of endless debate, one that often reflects our own political biases rather than the actual accomplishments (or failings) of an individual leader. In this episode, scholars Jeremi Suri of the University of Texas at Austin and Jeffrey Engel of Southern Methodist University share their views on the presidents who sit at or near the top. FWIW, in its most recent survey, the Siena College Research Institute had George Washington at the top, followed by FDR and Abraham Lincoln.

The Tyranny of the Minority Dec 09, 2021

Is majoritarian rule -- the bedrock of democracy -- in trouble? In this episode, Princeton historian Sean Wilentz discusses the tension between the imperative of majority rule and the necessity of protecting minority rights. The tension dates to our founding in the battle between federalists and anti-federalists. Our current problems also have antecedents in the controversy over nullification in the early 1830s and in the secession crisis of 1860-61. Today, Wilentz warns, Republican officials loyal to former President Donald Trump are deliberately eroding public confidence in the election system. They are falsely claiming the 2020 election was rigged, thereby rendering Joseph R. Biden’s electoral majority "invalid." Moreover, the combination of gerrymandering and restrictive voting laws passed in several battleground states, and the threat of the filibuster to thwart voting rights legislation in the Senate, threatens to make permanent a “rule of the minority,” according to the Princeton scholar.

Pearl Harbor, 80 Years On Dec 07, 2021

The Japanese attack on U.S. forces at Pearl Harbor 80 years ago, the date which will live in infamy in the stirring oratory of President Franklin Roosevelt, brought the United States into a world war from which it would emerge four years later as an unrivaled economic and military power. This new global status achieved in 1945 stood in stark contrast to the state of the nation in the prewar years. In 1940 Americans were still in the throes of the Great Depression, having suffered through a decade of economic and social paralysis. In this episode, military historian Ron Milam discusses the events that placed Japan and the U.S. on the road to war. Conflict was not inevitable, and it would have seemed unnecessary in the 1930s that a dispute over China, where the U.S. had no vital strategic or material interest, should culminate in the events of Dec. 7, 1941.

Misunderstanding Slavery: The 1619 Project's Egregious Errors Dec 02, 2021

Amid a national debate over history curricula and the importance of racism and slavery in shaping the American past, The 1619 Project has returned in expanded book form as an immediate bestseller. With its new and longer essays packing sweeping claims about the character of our national origins, the book expands upon the project’s initial, central argument: a transhistorical white supremacy defines American society. But this is pseudo-history, according to James Oakes, a preeminent scholar of slavery and nineteenth century U.S. politics. Upon reading the new 1619 Project book, Oakes explains its errors and distortions as well as its larger purpose, which is to advance an interpretation of American history through a cynical, racial lens. This lens distorts the very issues the project purports to shine light upon, namely slavery and its relationship to capitalism.

Putin's Gamble: Russia and Ukraine Nov 30, 2021

The massing of Russian troops on the Ukrainian border is raising the specter of war between two countries that share a complex history of ethnic, linguistic, and political conflict and coexistence. Seven years after annexing Crimea and instigating a separatist revolt in eastern Ukraine, Russian president Vladimir Putin may be gambling that he can easily annex further territory -- or he might be bluffing about war to win concessions elsewhere. Whatever Mr. Putin’s motivation, the possible incursion is exposing the failure of NATO’s post-Cold War eastward expansion. In this episode, the Quincy Institute's Anatol Lieven discusses the deep historical roots of the Russia-Ukraine dispute -- a history lost on U.S. military analysts who advocated pushing NATO into Russia’s historic backyard.

Myths of the First Thanksgiving Nov 25, 2021

Is there an American origin story than evokes more good feelings than the first Thanksgiving? Pilgrims and Indians, having survived a harsh winter, sitting around the table, the cornucopia, and peace and harmony at Plymouth Rock. The story taught to every American school kid is a myth that obscures the nastiness of colonialism and portrays Native Americans as passive players in a sugar-coated version of the past. In this episode, historian David Silverman discusses the significance of that small feast in 1621 -- and how it became linked to the Thanksgiving holiday two centuries later -- and why relations between European settlers and native peoples disintegrated into a "bloody, complex, colonial process" with atrocities committed by all sides.

Xi Jinping Forever Nov 23, 2021

The Chinese Communist Party elevated president Xi Jinping into the pantheon of revered leaders, alongside Deng and Mao. This means the autocratic Xi is now poised to extend his rule for at least another 5-year term, as he faces no serious opposition. Like all nations and all people, China and Xi are using a revised history to chart the way forward in their rivalry with the United States, drawing on the past to guide policy today. This includes maintaining Mao's historic stature despite his fanatical campaigns that left millions dead. In this episode, Weifeng Zhong of the Mercatus Center takes us inside China's fascinating politics, and offers his analysis on the recent summit between President Biden and Xi.

King George Was Not Mad Nov 18, 2021

In the American origin story, King George plays the role of the villain. In the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson accuses the monarch of establishing “an absolute tyranny” over the thirteen North American colonies. School textbooks uncritically adopted this view, teaching generations of students that George (and Parliament) trampled the colonists’ rights before waging a cruel war against them. Two centuries later, newspaper articles and editorials continue to refer to George as a “power-mad little petty tyrant” and America’s “last authoritarian ruler.” And in the musical “Hamilton,” the King is depicted as pompous and comically incompetent. What if almost none of this were true? It could mean America’s origin story has more than a few holes in it. Acclaimed biographer Andrew Roberts, author of The Last King of America, says George III was no tyrant or despot, and the colonies were not oppressed under his reign. Why has George III been so badly misunderstood?

Critical Race Theory and the Fight Over History Nov 16, 2021

The controversy over whether Critical Race Theory is being taught to kids has turned history classes into the front line in the culture wars. While CRT seemingly came out of nowhere to become one of the most divisive issues in America -- one that is deciding the outcome of elections -- battles over history curricula are nothing new. Historian Eric Foner, who has written some of the most important books on the history of racism in the U.S., discusses why the CRT controversy could thwart the necessary teaching of uncomfortable subjects. Long before there was CRT, there was the Dunning School. Listen to learn why it remains relevant in 2021.

Heading Toward Herd Immunity Nov 11, 2021

It has been two years since the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 entered the human population, and the world has marked another grim milestone: the death toll has surpassed more than 5 million people. That figure includes more than 750,000 Americans, of whom roughly 100,000 have died in the past three months despite the availability of safe, effective vaccines and boosters. Soon, however, Americans may reach the post-pandemic phase of this nightmarish saga. That is because herd immunity may be on the horizon, according to historian John Barry, the author of “The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History.” In this episode, Barry explains why at least 90 percent of the U.S. population could soon have at least some immunity to the deadly virus, and what "life after COVID" might look like.

The Conscience of an Anti-Trump Conservative Nov 09, 2021

One year after watching the Republican Party lose control of the White House and Senate as American voters made Donald Trump a one-term president, conservatives are celebrating again. Not only did Republican Glenn Youngkin defeat Democrat Terry McAuliffe in Virginia’s gubernatorial election (in a state where Joe Biden defeated Trump by 10 points), Republicans won decisive victories in other states. Moreover, some conservatives believe Youngkin’s campaign may have shown the GOP how to escape Mr. Trump’s grip, a necessity if the party wants to win back the White House in 2024, or so the argument goes. In this episode, anti-Trump conservative Barbara Comstock, a former two-term Republican congresswoman in Northern Virginia, shares her thoughts on what Youngkin’s victory means for the party, and why she believes the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol riot must complete its work.

'New Deal' or No Deal? Biden's Dilemma Nov 04, 2021

After months of negotiations between the moderate and liberal wings of the congressional Democrats, the fate of President Biden’s ambitious safety net, climate, and infrastructure agendas remains in flux. Whatever deal passes, it will not be the most expansive (or expensive) legislative package desired by liberals, and definitely not another New Deal in its depth and scope. Thus, anyone who believed Biden had an FDR-like moment upon taking office, an opportunity to usher in once-in-a-generation reforms to calm the vicissitudes of life in a capitalist society, must be disappointed. In this episode, renowned scholar David M. Kennedy tells us why Biden’s agenda is in trouble. It partly has to do with the basic math on Capitol Hill: Democrats have the slimmest of majorities and Republicans are nearly unanimously opposed to expanding the safety net. The more important reason has historical overtones: there have been but a few moments in U.S. history when Congress could push through fundamental reforms or major social welfare bills.

Nixon's Shadow Nov 02, 2021

The lessons of Watergate and the story of Richard Nixon's epic fall from power are as relevant as ever. Former President Donald Trump's ongoing campaign to undermine public confidence in our elections, after trying to remain in power despite decisively losing the 2020 race, raises parallels as well as important differences with Nixon's coverup of the Watergate scandal. In this episode, journalist and historian Michael Dobbs, author of King Richard: Nixon and Watergate -- An American Tragedy, discusses what led to Nixon's unraveling. But while Nixon was discredited across the political spectrum as he resigned in disgrace, Donald Trump now rules the Republican Party despite having been impeached (and acquitted) twice.

The Stunning Success of German Reunification Oct 28, 2021

Thirty-one Octobers ago, Germany suddenly, irreversibly reunited after more than 40 years of separation following the Second World War. The ensuing three decades have been Germany's best years, so it is easy to forget how much apprehension and outright opposition surrounded the move to end the division between West and East Germany, the latter a repressive, single-party satellite state of the USSR. In this episode, acclaimed historian Sir Ian Kershaw looks back at the fascinating series of events that made reunification a reality, and he looks ahead to Germany post-Merkel. After 16 years as chancellor, Angela Merkel is stepping aside after dedicating her career to upholding the values that the EU represents.

The Sorrow of Haiti Oct 26, 2021

Haiti, synonymous with generational poverty, misrule, and human misery, is reeling from a series of calamities as grave as any the island nation of 11 million people has suffered through. In July gunmen assassinated president Jovenel Moise, whom the opposition had accused of attempting to illegally prolong his term. The political crisis remains unresolved. In August a powerful earthquake killed more than 2,000 people and injured 12,000, recalling the devastating 2010 quake and the ensuing failure of donor relief to rebuild the country. And as the year draws to the close, Port-au-Prince is considered the kidnapping capital of the world as armed gangs operate with impunity. The weak central government is unable to control the gangs in a security vacuum caused by the departure of a U.N. lead peace-keeping force in 2019. In this episode of History As It Happens, historian Alan McPherson, an expert in U.S. foreign relations with Latin America and the Caribbean, discusses the roots of Haiti’s struggles, which date to its founding as the first free Black republic in 1804.

Bonus Episode! HAIH Live Oct 24, 2021

This episode was recorded live, featuring a conversation between History As It Happens host Martin Di Caro and American Historical Association executive director James Grossman at the Washington Times studios. It will appear on C-SPAN's American History TV in November. They discussed the current controversies over history curricula at America's schools: are children really being indoctrinated? Why did certain historical narratives come to dominant scholarship, such as the Dunning school's interpretation of Reconstruction? Di Caro and Grossman also covered the state of civics education in the U.S.

Remembering Colin Powell Oct 21, 2021

The death of the soldier-statesman Colin Powell threw into relief his remarkable public career and historic times, from his humble origins in the Bronx to his place in the halls of power at the transformative close of the Cold War era. When a major figure dies, historians have to weigh the person’s influence on events, or how events shaped the individual. They must also weigh accomplishments against failures. In this episode, historian Jeffrey Engel reflects on the legacy of a man who once was one of the most respected, admired, and trusted figures in American life. Powell's legacy, however, was marred by his false and misleading presentation to the United Nations in 2003 about Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction -- weapons that did not exist.

Origins of ROTC Oct 19, 2021

Today the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps is considered an important pillar of the U.S. military establishment. ROTC programs are offered at approximately 1,700 colleges, providing enrollees a path of upward mobility in exchange for their military service and good citizenship. Yet its prosaic presence in American life hides its controversial origins. In this episode, a sliver of an important story -- the rise of militarism in early 20th century America -- illuminates a larger dilemma. For when the ROTC was proposed as part of the National Defense Act of 1916, antiwar activists joined critics of imperialism in what would amount to a failed attempt to convince Congress to kill the bill. An organized and vocal peace movement once existed in the U.S. It warned that "Prussianism" would harm the country’s youth and the education system. In extensive congressional hearings, these voices clashed with powerful forces behind the Preparedness Movement, who argued the U.S. was unready to join combat in Europe because of the desultory state of its armed forces. In this maelstrom was born the ROTC and with it a marriage between two great American institutions: the military and academia.

How the U.S. Got Mired in the Middle East Oct 14, 2021

In 1990 the U.S. possessed one military base in the Middle East, a small naval installation in Bahrain. In August of that year Iraq invaded Kuwait, and the U.S.-led response in the Gulf War would lay the foundation for the “forever wars” of our own time. The United States would establish dozens of permanent army, air, and naval bases from which it would launch attacks across the region over the next three decades. The U.S. military presence in the Greater Middle East is now so prosaic that it is easy to forget the time when our leaders avoided sending large forces into that volatile region, which was viewed as strategically less important than Europe and Asia in the early years of the Cold War. But that started changing in the late 1970s and culminated in a key decision by the Reagan administration in 1983: to establish CENTCOM. Andrew Bacevich, the president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, discusses the importance of creating CENTCOM, whose imperium covers 21 nations from Egypt east to Afghanistan.

The Quad Oct 12, 2021

China’s wave of military exercises over Taiwan, which is raising the possibility of armed conflict, is overshadowing the development of the Biden administration’s soft power approach to confronting China’s coercive economic measures in the Indo-Pacific. In late September the White House hosted the first in-person meeting of “the Quad” leaders, where the prime ministers of Australia, Japan, and India met President Biden to coordinate action on a number of fronts. Vaccine diplomacy, climate change, infrastructure, and education were on the agenda; notably absent was any talk of military action or agreements. Following the humiliating U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, the alignment of the Quad is signaling a different approach to global power dynamics, at least in East Asia, even as China’s posturing toward Taiwan threatens to suck the U.S. into a potentially calamitous military confrontation. The U.S. Institute of Peace's Daniel Markey and Andrew Scobell, experts on U.S.-China relations, discuss why the U.S. cannot escape the past when it comes to Taiwan.

The Many Faces of Columbus Oct 07, 2021

Christopher Columbus, a Genoese navigator, never knew America existed. He did not step foot in North America; until his death he believed he had reached the outskirts of China. Yet Columbus became an American hero, the story of his voyages woven into the U.S. origin story by historians in the early nineteenth century. Today, his public image may be at its lowest point since Americans began celebrating the anniversary of his first trans-Atlantic voyage. Since the summer of 2020, dozens of Columbus statues were removed by local officials in cities and towns nationwide. This anti-Columbus sentiment flowed from the massive protests against racism and police brutality that broke out after the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police. Thus, if the story of America were one of racial oppression and genocide, then it began with Columbus in 1492. His history-changing accomplishments now seem to matter little in light of his failures and faults, especially at a time of highly racialized politics and Woke culture wars. In this episode, acclaimed biographer and historian Laurence Bergreen discusses the many faces of Christopher Columbus as well as the myths, good and bad, that continue to cloud our modern understanding of his life.

Our First Scourge Oct 05, 2021

What comes to mind when you think of the 1770s? The Revolutionary War, probably. As the war for independence from Great Britain raged, so did the worst epidemic in colonial American history. From 1775 through the early 1780s, more than 130,000 people -- European colonists, enslaved African-Americans, Native American tribes -- died from smallpox as the virus spread across the continent. The outbreak was so terrible it compelled General George Washington to require inoculations of all Continental Army soldiers, even though inoculations carried their own risks. In this episode historian Elizabeth Fenn, the author of Pox Americana, discusses how people coped with the ravages of the disease, and why most people know so little about it today.

Ignoring Eisenhower Sep 30, 2021

In his farewell address 60 years ago, President Eisenhower delivered a warning about the risks of war and the dangers of runaway military and intelligence budgets. Eisenhower himself had overseen the enormous buildup of the nation’s nuclear arsenal from fewer than 300 atomic bombs in 1950 to more than 27,000 nuclear weapons by the early 1960s. The former Supreme Allied commander had become a Cold Warrior, and had given the okay for two covert operations by the CIA to topple democratically elected leaders in Iran and Guatemala. But as he prepared to exit public life in January, 1961, Eisenhower lamented some of the consequences of America’s rise to global superpower because they threatened the health of democracy. “In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist,” said the 70-year-old statesman in his oft-quoted speech. Why did we ignore Eisenhower? Historian Jeremi Suri discusses Ike's complicated legacy and the forces underpinning the militaristic approach to world affairs.

America's Longest War (No, not Afghanistan) Sep 28, 2021

In the summer of 1971 President Richard Nixon declared “drug use public enemy number one,” signaling the dramatic escalation of punitive measures against users, peddlers, and makers of narcotics at home and abroad. Fifty years later, the toll of the all-out effort to criminalize narcotics is staggering. It has cost more than a trillion taxpayer dollars, yet over the past quarter-century more than 700,000 Americans have died of drug overdoses, according to Davidson College scholar Russell Crandall, a specialist in Latin American studies and author of “Drugs and Thugs: The History and Future of America’s War on Drugs.”

In this episode Crandall, who served as a national security aide to Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, discusses the drug war’s failures at a time when Americans are having an overdue reckoning on a number of fronts, from the war on terrorism to massive income inequality. Yet the drug war drags on without accountability or course correction.

Forgetting the Holocaust Sep 23, 2021

Is it possible for society to forget the Holocaust? As the war during which 6 million European Jews were murdered slowly recedes into history, survivors and their death-camp liberators are dying off. The world is losing its last remaining witnesses. And as far-right leaders in some of the nations where the Holocaust was perpetrated rewrite their national histories, there is an ugly and not unrelated resurgence of anti-Semitism. So although public surveys show most Americans and Europeans know at least something about the Holocaust, this knowledge is often superficial. Moreover, school curricula on both sides of the Atlantic face an array of challenges when education the younger generations about the Nazi persecution of the Jews. In this episode, a former educator in South Carolina, the daughter of Holocaust survivors, and a political scientist based in Europe share their views about the state of Holocaust studies and the never-ending fight against anti-Semitism.

Who Was Osama bin Laden? An interview with Peter Bergen Sep 21, 2021

Although no one in the United States could have realized it at the time, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in late 1979 was a seminal moment in the life of a young, devout Sunni Muslim whose father was a billionaire construction magnate in Saudi Arabia. Osama bin Laden, then 22, was “deeply upset” when he heard an “infidel” army attacked Afghanistan, an event that would turn out to be “the most transformative of his life, launching him into a full-time job helping the Afghan resistance,” writes Peter Bergen in his new biography, The Rise and Fall of Osama bin Laden. And few in the West noticed when bin Laden, a decade and a half later, issued his first public declaration of war against the United States, a vow of holy war repeated in 1997 during a television interview produced by this episode's guest. The journalist and al-Qaeda expert Peter Bergen discusses the purpose of his short, comprehensive biography of al-Qaeda's dead leader: to explain why and how bin Laden chose to dedicate his life to mass murder. Among the subjects covered in this episode: Islam at the heart of al-Qaeda; bin Laden’s battlefield exploits in Afghanistan; the myth of CIA-bin Laden cooperation; why so few people in the West noticed him prior to 1998; and his escape from Tora Bora in late 2001.

Paging General Washington Sep 16, 2021

When Ohio Congressman Jim Jordan tweeted “Vaccine mandates are un-American,” he immediately received a Twitter history lesson. Commenters pointed out that none other than General George Washington of the Continental Army required smallpox inoculations for all his troops as an epidemic of the dreaded disease killed off thousands of people across the colonies. Washington’s mandate worked, even if some soldiers had to be held down against their will to be inoculated. Vaccination mandates, and resistance to them, have been the norm across U.S. history, leading to the eradication or dramatic reduction of as many as 14 diseases that once ravaged humanity. In this episode, Dr. René Najera of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia discusses the history of vaccination and origins of the modern anti-vax movement at a time when President Biden is mandating shots for most of the American workforce. As summer turns to fall, more than a thousand Americans are dying daily from Covid-19, almost all of whom are unvaccinated.

The Supremes Sep 14, 2021

A slew of unsigned opinions from the Supreme Court, made from the "shadow docket" outside its normal procedures, have refocused Americans' attention on the importance of (and controversies over) whom is chosen to lead the judicial branch. With a 6-3 conservative majority after Donald Trump appointed three justices in his single term as president, the court is facing renewed allegations of excessive partisanship and ideological rigidity. SCOTUS expert Lawrence Baum, who has followed the court for more than a half century, discusses whether it is really more partisan and ideological than in past eras. That's because political battles over the federal bench go back to the dawn of the republic.

The Hubris of Post-9/11 Foreign Policy Sep 09, 2021

This is the final part of a three-episode series examining the post-9/11 world for the 20th anniversary of the al-Qaeda terrorist attacks.

At least 335,000 civilians in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and elsewhere “died violent deaths as a direct result of the war on terror,” according to Brown University researchers’ Costs of War project. The total number of people killed — civilians plus U.S. and allied troops, enemy fighters, contractors, journalists, and aid workers — approaches one million. Close to 40 million humans have been displaced by the ravages of war, and the cost from the destruction of buildings and infrastructure is incalculable. This road to this misery and mayhem was paved with good intentions: after al-Qaeda struck the U.S., the Bush administration, with the assent of Congress and other key American institutions, launched the Global War on Terror with the aim of eliminating terrorists and ending tyranny, as President Bush proclaimed in his second inaugural address in January 2005. In this episode, Brown University anthropologist Catherine Lutz and Southern Methodist University presidential historian Jeffrey Engel discuss how and why U.S. foreign policy took such a disastrous turn.

The Law of Unintended Consequences Sep 07, 2021

This is the second part of a three-episode series examining the post-9/11 world for the 20th anniversary of the al-Qaeda terrorist attacks.

The law of unintended consequences may explain why jihadists and "freedom fighters," as Ronald Reagan once referred to them, continue to haunt the U.S. in Afghanistan. Counterterrorism experts are warning Afghanistan will once again become a cradle for terrorism because of the U.S. withdrawal. But it is worth remembering how Afghanistan became a cauldron of jihadism in the first place. Anatol Lieven, who as a journalist traveled with the mujahideen during the late 1980s, discusses how foreign policy decisions under Presidents Carter and Reagan continue to cause problems today. In fact, some of the same warlords who benefited from U.S. covert support to fight the Soviets are still around. And it was Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, working with the U.S., who recruited tens of thousands of foreign jihadists to Afghanistan. One of them was Osama bin Laden.

Forever War, But No Peace Movement Sep 02, 2021

This is the first part of a three-episode series examining the post-9/11 world for the 20th anniversary of the al-Qaeda terrorist attacks.

In 1915 one of the most popular songs in America was a somber lament. "I Didn't Raise My Boy To Be a Soldier" inspired a peace movement of socialists, radicals, and civil libertarians in a nation whose people were deeply skeptical of military interventionism. It is hard to imagine such a song climbing to the top of the charts today.

The modern notion that America is obligated to dispatch thousands of troops across the oceans, to paraphrase Woodrow Wilson, to make the world safe for democracy, did not drive foreign policy then. Historian Michael Kazin discusses the absence of any major peace movement in the U.S. today compared to the influential antiwar activism of the past century. Unlike the 1960s, when the nation was roiled by massive demonstrations against the Vietnam War, antiwar activism in 21st century America is quiescent, despite the fact the U.S. has been in a state of constant war in multiple countries since the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

The Rise and Fall of Organized Labor Aug 31, 2021

Here comes Labor Day! Where are the unions? At a time when millions of Americans are unsatisfied with their jobs, when about 50 million laborers work in occupations with a median wage of less than $15 per hour (according to Brookings researchers), union membership remains low compared to its historic high reached in the quarter-century after the Second World War. In fact, the labor movement's achievements -- the reason to celebrate on this three-day weekend -- have receded as mega-companies run by billionaires, operating in a global economy, possess enough power to block their workforces from unionizing. Historian Nelson Lichtenstein discusses the economic, political, and cultural forces working against unions in the 21st century.

Understanding Jefferson Aug 26, 2021

Thomas Jefferson was our most confounding founder. He personified the contradictions extant at the dawn of the American republic, a man capable of eloquently articulating the Enlightenment ideals of liberty and equality as the primary author of the American creed -- the Declaration of Independence -- while also owning hundreds of slaves over the course of his long life. Moreover, it is widely accepted that Jefferson fathered several children with one of his slaves, Sally Hemings, with whom he had a relationship spanning nearly four decades. In this episode, Joseph Ellis, one of the leading scholars of early American history, discusses why Jefferson's complicated legacy remains relevant today. He tackles Jefferson's governing philosophy, his political skills, his views on race and human progress, and why the man means different things to different people, just as he did during his lifetime.

Arab Spring, 10 Years On Aug 24, 2021

In 2011 uprisings known as the Arab Spring burned across North Africa and the Middle East, toppling autocrats in four countries and igniting protests in several more. Leaders who had been fixtures in the region’s political landscape, such as Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak and Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi, were swept aside. Civil war exploded in Libya, Yemen, and Syria. The scenes were inspiring: public squares teemed with ordinary people demanding freedom in countries bereft of political tolerance and civil liberties during the century following the First World War and the treaties that carved up the Arab lands to the benefit of European colonial powers. With the partial exception of Tunisia, however, representative forms of government and pluralistic civil societies were stillborn, fueling additional grievances about the lack of human rights, corruption, and absence of economic opportunity and social mobility. In this episode, Dr. Elie Abouaoun, a human rights expert at the U.S. Institute of Peace’s offices in Tunisia, says the Arab Spring failed to produce fundamental change because the root causes of most grievances were left unaddressed.

Embracing Defeat Aug 19, 2021

The defeat in Afghanistan, punctuated by the chaotic evacuation from Kabul and sudden collapse to the Taliban, is also an opportunity for American leaders to reassess the fundamental assumptions underlying U.S. interventionism. Instead of asking how the nation-building project could have been prolonged or how it might have succeeded, the real question may be why did anyone think it could work at all? After twenty years of war and occupation, at the cost of more than $2 trillion and many thousands of American and Afghan lives, it may be time to face an uncomfortable truth: the project was doomed from the start. In this episode, former U.S. Marine Adam Weinstein, a research fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, discusses the root causes of the dramatic failures to defeat the Taliban and build a democracy in Afghanistan.

Charlottesville Says Goodbye to the Confederacy Aug 17, 2021

Four summers after white nationalists and neo-Nazis marched on Charlottesville, the Confederate statues that they sought to defend were quietly removed. On a Saturday in July, in front of a small, supportive crowd, workers used a crane to remove the figures of Generals Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson, a scene dramatically different than the one that unfolded on August 12, 2017. On that day, a ‘Unite the Right’ rally sparked violent clashes with counter-protesters. It was a defining moment of Donald Trump's early presidency, a source of deepening political division and racial awareness in a nation yet to fully reckon with the legacy of the Civil War and slavery. But on July 10 there were no Confederate flags or swastikas on display in Charlottesville. Instead, city leaders claimed a small victory over racism. Is this progress? James Grossman, the executive director of the American Historical Association, discusses why statues matter, when and why they were erected decades after the Civil War, and whether new state laws banning the teaching of critical race theory make sense.

Orbán's Allure Aug 12, 2021

Fox News' host Tucker Carlson's weeklong visit to Hungary to tout the rule of prime minister Viktor Orbán raised some pressing questions. What is it about this right-wing authoritarian that so enthralls some Americans on the right? Since returning to power in 2010, Orbán and his ruling Fidesz party have changed election laws to their own benefit, clamped down on press freedom, rejected Muslim immigrants, enraged the E.U., and -- arguably most unsettling of all -- invoked not the country’s escape from Communist authoritarianism in 1989 but its fascist past under Miklos Horthy, an antisemite and Christian nationalist who was directly complicit in Hungary's role in the Holocaust. In this episode, we examine how Orbán uses and misuses history to build a narrative about "true Hungarians." And we discuss where Hungary fits in what is perceived as a larger pattern of backsliding democracy in Central and Eastern Europe.

Reconsidering Hiroshima and Nagasaki Aug 10, 2021

Seventy-six years ago, in August, 1945, President Harry Truman made one of the most consequential decisions in history. He ordered U.S. warplanes to drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima and, three days later, Nagasaki, instantly incinerating tens of thousands of civilians. The bombings ended the Second World War while ushering in a new age, where human beings harnessed science and technology to create weapons of previously unimaginable power. In this episode, world-renowned war historian Sir Antony Beevor answers one of the most difficult questions to arise in the aftermath of the war: was it necessary to drop the bomb?

The Virus Is Still In Charge Aug 05, 2021

As the Delta variant rages across the United States, hospitals are filling up with unvaccinated patients. Americans are suffering and dying needlessly, because the country has enough doses to vaccinate every eligible person. But the pathogen has allies: right-wing fanatics on cable TV who sow mistrust in life-saving inoculations, social media charlatans pushing quack cures, and plain old stubbornness, laziness, ignorance, or complacency among the citizenry. Historian John Barry, author of 'The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History,' returns to the podcast to talk about Delta and the variants to come, the politics of pandemics, and reasons to be optimistic. Yes, optimistic!

Cuba, Biden, and the Burden of History Aug 03, 2021

Six years after President Obama tried to usher U.S.-Cuba relations into the 21st century, the two nations -- one a superpower, the other a small, weak island -- seem moored in a bygone era when international Communism consumed Cold Warriors on both sides of the ideological divide. The Biden administration is slapping another round of sanctions on Cuban leaders after they cracked down on protesters who filled the streets in early July, angered by food and power shortages and a botched Covid-19 inoculation program. Moreover, the U.S. embargo remains in place, a punitive measure perpetuated by domestic political pressures. Can the U.S. and Cuba move on from their ugly history? Ivan Eland of the Independent Institute, a scholar of U.S. foreign policy and critic of sanctions, joins the podcast to discuss why Communism endures in Cuba.

Are We Reliving the 1850s? Jul 29, 2021

The violent decade before the Civil War serves as a warning about the perils of political polarization and the ways we may rationalize violence when it fits our purposes. Americans in 2021 are not careening toward another civil war with armies on battlefields, but the congressional investigation, now underway in the House, into the Jan. 6 Capitol riot is a battle over the truth. Emerging narratives are becoming detached from reality, perpetuating a cycle of zero-sum polarization that is further dividing people into opposing camps. Are we reliving the 1850s? Paul Quigley, the director of the Center for Civil War Studies at Virginia Tech, returns to the podcast to discuss how Trumpist narratives about Jan. 6 are distorting reality, a day that evokes the history of the sack of Lawrence, Kansas, in 1856.

Religion and the American Revolution Jul 27, 2021

Few aspects of the American Revolution are as misunderstood as the role of religion. Current debates usually focus on whether the United States was founded as a Christian nation and, if true, what that would mean for public policy today. The founding documents have become a battlefield for competing claims about the faith, or lack thereof, of their authors, replete with cherry-picked quotes purporting to show that our early leaders did or did not want to privilege one religion over another. It's time to take a fresh a look at this debate. Historian Katherine Carté, author of Religion and the American Revolution reconstructs “the religious world into which the American Revolution intruded,” pitting protestant against protestant in what was an “empire of imperial protestantism.”

Understanding Populism Jul 22, 2021

Similar to fascism or socialism, the political ideology of populism has meant different things to different people at different times in history. Figures as diverse as Huey Long, William Jennings Bryan, George Wallace, Bernie Sanders, and Donald Trump have been described as populists, which may explain why populism defies easy explanation on the right and left. With its American roots planted in the nineteenth century, populism coalesced around the notion that powerful, even conspiratorial, forces were pitted against ordinary people, fueling grievances against elites and outsiders -- cultural, economic, and political elites as well as immigrants. Georgetown University historian Michael Kazin, an expert on social and political movements, joins the podcast to explain one of the most vexing issues of our day.

Vietnam Redux Jul 20, 2021

If a key lesson of the Vietnam War was the United States should avoid fighting guerrilla wars in faraway countries of little strategic importance, whose people, histories, and cultures we do not understand, then the U.S. failed to heed that lesson in Afghanistan. As the final American and NATO troops prepare to exit Afghanistan after 20 years of war and nation-building, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Fredrik Logevall of the Harvard Kennedy School joins the podcast to discuss the similarities and differences between the two lost conflicts. Logevall is a preeminent scholar of the French and U.S. wars in Southeast Asia.

Violence of the American Revolution Jul 15, 2021

The date upon which Americans celebrate their nation’s independence helps explain a curious act of forgetting, a whitewashing of a complicated past in favor of a mythic narrative of heroism and unity. It is on the Fourth of July when we mark the Continental Congress' adoption of the Declaration of Independence, whose opening words have come to embody the American ideal. We do not gather for barbecues or fireworks on, say, October 17. On that date in 1781 Cornwallis surrendered to Washington at Yorktown, effectively ending the Revolutionary War -- a rebel victory without which the words of the Declaration would have amounted to a footnote in history. By embracing the Fourth of July and celebrating the Enlightenment ideals articulated in Jefferson’s magisterial Declaration, we tend to obscure the war part of the Revolutionary War -- the internecine violence, civil war, cruelty, terror, destruction of private property, and outright misery that has accompanied most wars and revolutions. In this episode, Pulitzer Prize-winning University of Virginia historian Alan Taylor discusses why it is important to acknowledge the violence and terror that scarred the revolutionary years as well as tales of heroism and courage and the triumph of freedom and liberty.

Emulating Mao Jul 13, 2021

As the Chinese Communist Party marks its 100th anniversary, its leaders are using history to explain where the nation has been and where it intends to go. President Xi Jinping, eager to consolidate his authoritarian power, is paying his respects to Mao, conveniently ignoring the decades of violent chaos Mao instigated during his terrible reign. But Chinese youth are also looking to Chairman Mao for guidance -- for different reasons. They feel alienated in a society that is leaving them behind, where economic inequality is rampant and political freedoms scarce. Mercatus Center analyst Weifeng Zhong, an expert on Chinese domestic policy, joins the podcast to discuss China's contradictions and complexities.

Black Activism and the Olympics Jul 08, 2021

It is an iconic Olympic moment that resonates in our current climate of racial activism. At the summer games in Mexico City in 1968, American sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos raised their fists during the playing of the Star Spangled Banner as they stood on the awards podium, the “Black Power salute.” If that stands out as the most memorable act of political protest in Olympic history, it was also part of a long tradition of Black activism and sports. Politics and sports have always mixed, and the 2021 summer games in Tokyo will be no different. From Jesse Owens to Jackie Robinson, from Lew Alcindor (who would change his name to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) to Mohammad Ali, athletes have fought for their causes while winning medals and championships.

The Folly of American Empire Jul 06, 2021

It is time for fresh thinking about America's place in the world and the meaning of national security. As 2021 reaches its midway point, Americans are still clearing the wreckage of the past year -- a deadly pandemic has claimed nearly 600,000 lives in the U.S., racial protest continues to simmer -- while their government struggles to extricate its military from "forever wars" in the Middle East. U.S. Army veteran and historian Andrew Bacevich, who is currently the president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, says it is long past time to question the fundamental assumptions underlying "American exceptionalism." Our collective belief in the ability to manage history has led to folly, alienation, and national drift.

Bibi and 'The Bomb' Jul 01, 2021

In 1992 Benjamin Netanyahu, then Israel’s deputy prime minister, first warned the world that Iran was “three to five years” away from developing a nuclear bomb. In the three decades since, Netanyahu has repeated similar warnings countless times in interviews and speeches, alleging that Iran is led by irrational fanatics who dream of annihilating Israel in a nuclear armageddon. Bibi is out of power now, but his legacy on Iran lives on. No foreign politician had more influence over U.S. foreign policy over the past two decades. But Iran neither has a nuclear bomb nor does it want to produce one, according to historian John Ghazvinian. Was it all a cynical bluff to maintain U.S. support after the Cold War?

The Commission Jun 29, 2021

From the bombing of Pearl Harbor to the JFK assassination, from Watergate to the 9/11 terrorist attacks, special commissions and select committees have investigated traumatic events and political scandals throughout the past century. Their purpose was, to the extent possible, to set aside partisan politics and establish a comprehensive, factual record for history. So why are Senate Republicans blocking the creation of a 1/6 commission to investigate the mob attack on the U.S. Capitol? Historian Alvin Felzenberg, who was the chief spokesman for the 9/11 Commission, joins the podcast to discuss why the nation deserves all the facts.

Liberal Roots of the Republican Party Jun 24, 2021

If today’s Republican Party, from Ronald Reagan to Donald Trump, is known for fighting the left in the Congress, courts, and culture, the Republican Party of the 1850s rose to prominence by building on “the foundational left-wing social movement of the modern era,” which was the antislavery movement, according to Princeton historian Matthew Karp. Then a new party after the collapse of the Whigs, the antebellum Republicans fused social activism to end slavery with effective electoral politics. What can the the story of the abolitionists and antislavery men teach today's left-wing movements struggling to accomplish their goals? Karp joins host Martin Di Caro for a timely discussion tying the past to the present.

The Biggest Invasion Ever Jun 22, 2021

In this episode, we are joined by world-renowned war historian Sir Antony Beevor. When someone says the Soviet Union, not the Western allies, defeated Nazism, they can point to this date, June 22, 1941, as a pivotal moment in that narrative. Eighty years ago today, the largest invasion in history began as more than three million German soldiers attacked the USSR in Operation Barbarossa. The battle caused a cataclysm; millions of people were brutally killed, including more than a million Soviet Jews. But the USSR survived, and Barbarossa's outcome helped shape our modern world.

Where America and Russia Went Wrong Jun 17, 2021

One summit between President Joseph Biden and Russian president Vladimir Putin will not resolve 30 years of missteps, miscalculations, and meddling by both nations. When the Cold War ended and the Soviet Union vanished in 1991, the relationship between the two states appeared hopeful, signaling a future of cooperation and peaceful coexistence. In this episode, the Quincy Institute's Anatol Lieven, a seasoned journalist and expert on international relations, discusses why U.S.-Russia relations have sunk so low: the expansion of NATO, human rights abuses, and cyber sabotage are among the issues.

D-Day: History and Memory Jun 15, 2021

In the first 24 hours of the D-Day invasion on June 6, 1944, about as many French civilians were killed as Allied soldiers. From June 6 to August 25, in the areas of Northern France that saw the most fighting, “about twenty-thousand French civilians paid for liberation with their lives,” says University of Virginia historian William Hitchcock, the author of The Bitter Road to Freedom. In this episode, we compare history and memory of the invasion of Normandy and the power of liberation in our political vocabulary. By acknowledging the morally complicated nature of the liberation of France, U.S. leaders and citizens today might be more careful about invoking the Second World War to justify military missions of dubious necessity.

Why Third Parties Fail Jun 10, 2021

In the words of Richard Hofstadter, “Third parties are like bees: once they have stung, they die." What Hofstadter, a towering public intellectual who died in 1970, meant was that in American politics, third parties succeeded not by winning elections, but by pushing the major parties to reform, to adopt ideas circulating on the margins and bring them into the mainstream. Whether third parties are a help or a hindrance, there is an immovable reason why they have struggled to maintain relevance in U.S. history. Two political scientists, Lee Drutman of New America and Norm Ornstein of the American Enterprise Institute, discuss why third parties fail, and whether we could use some new parties today.

Why Tulsa Was Forgotten Jun 08, 2021

In the past week Americans marked the anniversaries of two major events that hold different places in the common memory. One evoked feelings of honor and pride, the other shame and revulsion. June 6 was the 77th anniversary of the D-Day invasion; May 31 was the centenary of the Tulsa race massacre, one of the most violent acts of domestic terrorism in U.S. history. But unlike D-Day, the Tulsa massacre had been largely forgotten until recent efforts succeeded in drawing attention to its relevance in a nation still grappling with a legacy of racial injustice. Northwestern University historian Leslie Harris explains why it is so difficult for Americans to reckon with the darkest chapters of our past.

Biden's Foreign Policy Jun 03, 2021

Host Martin Di Caro and The Washington Times national security team leader Guy Taylor discuss President Biden's foreign policy. During the Democratic primary debates in 2020, foreign policy was largely ignored. Reality has imposed itself in the early days of the Biden presidency, as the new administration juggles geopolitical dilemmas all over the globe. But as often as American presidents try to shape events to their advantage, unforeseen events shape presidencies. And how a chief executive manages crises not of his own making can determine whether a presidency succeeds or fails.

The Bitcoin Bubble Jun 01, 2021

Is Bitcoin a revolutionary currency or a speculative bubble about to pop? Depends on whom you ask! From cryptocurrencies to total return swaps to hedge fund short-sellers, the financial markets can appear a minefield loaded with dangerous bets and outright scams. In this episode, Harvard economist Benjamin Friedman discusses whether we should be worried about Bitcoin's wild gyrations, and whether it is possible to see the next crash before it hits.

Never-Ending Conflict: Israel and the Palestinians May 27, 2021

The fourth war between Israel and Hamas since the latter took power in Gaza 14 years ago killed hundreds of people, mostly Palestinians, and left unresolved the historical grievances between two peoples whose national aspirations compete for the same piece of earth. What will it take to end this conflict? Two people who work for the cause of peace, Lucy Kurtzer-Ellenbogen and former Ambassador Hesham Youssef, explain why the Israeli-Palestinian conflict seems so intractable.

The Democrats' Comeback May 25, 2021

In the quarter century after the Second World War, New Deal liberalism was riding high. But after LBJ's Great Society was sacrificed on the altar of Vietnam, and after Carter’s failed presidency gave way to the Reagan Revolution, Democrats were in disarray and liberal became a dirty word. A generation later, is Joe Biden leading a liberal comeback? Princeton historian Sean Wilentz returns to the podcast to talk about the possibilities and perils facing the Democratic Party after four years of Trump.

The 1619 Project and America's Schools May 20, 2021

An effort by Republican lawmakers in several states to prohibit the teaching of the New York Times’ 1619 Project in public schools has reignited the debate over who controls our understanding of the past. It has also refocused attention on the project’s numerous factual errors about a matter of such surpassing importance as the American Revolution. University of Virginia historian Alan Taylor shares both criticism and praise of the 1619 Project’s specific claims as well as its overall aim, which is to emphasize the importance of slavery and systemic racism in American history instead of the founding principles of liberty and freedom that were, as the project’s opening essay argued, betrayed by the crime of human bondage.

Checking On Democracy May 18, 2021

Is the liberal democratic order in real trouble? From Donald Trump's ongoing campaign to discredit the results of the 2020 election, to the emergence of authoritarian rulers across the globe, it can appear that democracy is on the retreat. The rise of China, a coup in Myanmar, Putin's staying power, and strongmen in Hungary, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and elsewhere -- all point to democracy's demise. But maybe things are not as grim as they seem. The Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft analyst Kelley Beaucar Vlahos joins the podcast to tackle the subject of our time.

Facebook vs. Free Speech May 13, 2021

Facebook, Twitter, Google, YouTube -- the digital behemoths have more unchecked power and technological capability to silence speech than any government. But because they are all private firms, they have the right to censor or stifle whoever they wish, from former President Donald Trump to ordinary citizens. Free expression is supposed to be a cherished value in liberal societies, yet it seems more people on both sides of the political aisle are calling for more online censorship. The ACLU's Vera Eidelman and Yale's Jack Balkin join the podcast to untangle the complexities of free expression in a social media world.

Liz Cheney and the Future of Conservatism May 11, 2021

Will Trumpism devour conservatism? As House GOP leaders oust Rep. Liz Cheney from her leadership post for defying ex-Pres. Donald Trump's bogus election claims, we ask National Review editor Rich Lowry to assess the future of the conservative movement. Lowry succeeded William F. Buckley as editor of a publication that helped propel conservatism to electoral success and cultural significance. Can the movement survive the personality cult enveloping the Republican Party?

Going Deeper on Immigration May 06, 2021

Maybe we are getting the "border crisis" all wrong. If you step away from the daily headlines and avert your eyes from the border for a moment, you will see that the underlying causes of illegal migration to the United States are overlooked or ignored. In this episode, Ithaca College professor emeritus Paul McBride, a specialist in immigration history, says the way many Americans, from political leaders to ordinary citizens, view Central and South American migration misses some important realities and produces misplaced confidence in ineffective remedies, such as a border wall.

Biden, Turkey, and the Armenian Genocide May 04, 2021

When President Biden became the first U.S. president to recognize the Armenian genocide, the massacres and deportations that took place in the Ottoman Empire in 1915 were suddenly back in the news. Past U.S. leaders refused to recognize the genocide to avoid angering Turkey, but times have changed. The relationship between the two NATO allies has turned icy. What happened in 1915 -- and why it matters -- with Middle East historian Howard Eissenstat.

McCarthyism Redux Apr 29, 2021

Like McCarthyism during the Red Scare of the 1950s, ex-President Donald Trump's "Stop the Steal" movement seeks to vilify powerful, internal enemies who are trying to undermine American society. In this episode, McCarthyism Redux, historian Gary Gerstle identifies the reasons why such conspiracy theories take hold in the public mind. It is no surprise, when politics are so polarized, that some people are quick to believe the worst about others with whom they disagree.

The American Way of War Apr 27, 2021

Do U.S. wars ever end? Although President Biden has announced the final withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan by Sept. 11, the use of military force authorization passed by Congress 20 years ago is still on the books. In this episode of History As It Happens, The American Way of War, the Cato Institute's John Glaser explains why Congress should reassert its constitutional prerogatives over war-making and end the country's endless military commitments in Afghanistan, Iraq, and elsewhere.

The Cold War, 30 Years On Apr 22, 2021

It is hard to believe the Cold War has been over for 30 years already, if we date its end to the final collapse of the Soviet Union on Dec. 25, 1991. The USSR lost. But what did the U.S. win? The notion that democracy and free markets were victorious, on the march, and the natural progression of human governments proved to be an illusion. In a wide-ranging interview, historian Jeffrey Engel discusses how the post-Cold War world turned out differently than many Americans assumed during those heady days of the early 1990s.

Enter Taliban Apr 20, 2021

President Biden's decision to withdraw the last U.S. troops from Afghanistan in September is raising questions about the future of a country that has seen little but conflict and humanitarian crises since 1979. The U.S. war could end the way it started: with the Taliban in power. Former U.S. diplomat Johnny Walsh took part in negotiations with the Talibs at the peace table, and was a senior advisor on the Afghan peace process for 10 years during the Obama and Trump administrations. He explains what we might expect if the Taliban seizes power in Kabul again.

D.C. Statehood Apr 15, 2021

Will history be made in the U.S. House? The Democratic-led chamber is expected to vote to make the District of Columbia the 51st state in the Union. Although the legislation faces poor odds in the Senate, the D.C. statehood movement believes it is closer than ever to achieving its goal. Opponents say the Constitution forbids Congress from acting because new states require ratification of a constitutional amendment. But what about taxation with representation? Let's look at the issues with D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton.

Jim Crow 2.0? The Fight For Voting Rights Apr 13, 2021

Republican lawmakers in state legislatures nationwide are proposing more than 250 measures that, critics say, are designed to curb access to the ballot or open the road to partisan interference in elections. Georgia's new election laws are ground zero in the fight for voting rights, provoking a corporate backlash and comparisons to Jim Crow, the system of white supremacy that grew from the ashes of Reconstruction. Eric Foner, one of the preeminent scholars in the U.S., joins the podcast to discuss what is at stake.

Filibuster Explained Apr 08, 2021

Filibuster, schmilibuster! The origins of the word filibuster seem to belie any claims that the tool of partisan warfare is really a pillar of senatorial greatness, and therefore must be guarded against efforts to weaken or eliminate it. Princeton historian Sean Wilentz returns to the podcast to discuss the pros and cons of doing away with the Senate's long-lasting accident. (Blame Aaron Burr!)

Woodrow Wilson's Epic Blunder Apr 06, 2021

University of Virginia historian Philip Zelikow says President Woodrow Wilson made the most consequential diplomatic error in U.S. history. In his new book, "The Road Less Traveled," Zelikow presents compelling evidence that Wilson could have avoided getting the U.S. involved in the First World War and brought the conflict to a negotiated end in 1916 in the process. The peace ball was in his hands, but he fumbled it. This reassessment of a critical chapter in history holds important lessons for a world troubled by enormous problems that require international cooperation.

Chasing China Apr 01, 2021

Fifty years after Nixon's move to open the door to Mao's China, the world's most populous country is vying to become the most militarily and economically powerful one. In 1971, few Americans might have foreseen the dramatic changes China would undergo, as it began incorporating market reforms into its one-party, Communist state. Is the door now open to conflict, competition, or cooperation? The Washington Times' Guy Taylor and Johns Hopkins University SAIS scholar Carla Freeman join the conversation.

The Border Surge, or the Intractable Problem of Human Migration Mar 30, 2021

Facing the biggest migrant surge in 20 years, the Biden administration is struggling to cope with the influx. Beyond its immediate causes tied to the president's new policies, however, the wave of unaccompanied children is part of a larger historical pattern fueled by varying “push” and “pull” factors and created by decades of political corruption, U.S. interventionism, civil war, and economic dislocations. The Washington Times' Stephen Dinan and Catholic University historian Julia Young join the discussion.

Is American Capitalism Broken? Mar 25, 2021

Is American capitalism broken? The 2020 presidential campaign, in the midst of an economy-shattering pandemic, reignited the debate over whether our version of capitalism needs some socialism to survive. Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders offered a full-throated defense of democratic socialism, for instance, while his opponents on the Republican side warned against tilting too far to the left. Harvard economist Benjamin Friedman, author of 'Religion and the Rise of Capitalism,' joins the podcast for a nuanced discussion about these competing economic systems.

Where are the Black Republicans? Mar 23, 2021

Since Richard Nixon won about 30 percent of the Black vote in 1960, at a time when Black people were disenfranchised wholesale in the South, no Republican presidential candidate has been able to crack 15 percent (Gerald Ford in 1976) for the past half century. Donald Trump won as much as 12 percent of the Black vote in 2020, but he left the Republican Party facing accusations that it embraces racism and white supremacy after four divisive years in the White House. What has to happen to change that?

Biden, Khashoggi, and the messy U.S.-Saudi marriage Mar 18, 2021

What's more important to U.S. foreign policy, human rights or oil and regional alliances? What should take precedence, morality or realpolitik? President Biden's decision not to directly punish Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for the murder of Jamal Khashoggi raises questions that date to 1945, when FDR became the first U.S. president to meet a Saudi king. Philip Zelikow, who was the executive director of the 9/11 Commission, joins the podcast to discuss balancing human rights with national interests in diplomacy.

COVID-19, One Year Later Mar 16, 2021

One year after the rhythms of daily life were upended by the unchecked spread of an invisible, deadly pathogen, Americans have a degree of optimism that the worst of the coronavirus pandemic is behind them. Glimmers of hope are mixing with dark realities, however, as more than 1,000 Americans people are dying each day. Historian John Barry, author of 'The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History,' joins the podcast to discuss the similarities between 1918 and today.

Ending the Forever War in Afghanistan Mar 11, 2021

The U.S. faces a May 1 deadline to withdraw its last 2,500 troops from Afghanistan, nearly 20 years after invading to avenge the 9/11 terrorist strikes by al-Qaeda. What will it take to end this forever war? Washington Times national security reporter Guy Taylor and the Quincy Institute's Adam Weinstein, a U.S. Marine veteran, join the conversation.

The Future of the GOP Mar 08, 2021

If the Reagan era is long over, and if the Tea Party has had its day, the makeup of a post-Trump Republican Party, as well as the broader conservative movement, remains unclear. Princeton historian Sean Wilentz, author of 'The Age of Reagan: A History 1974-2008' says Trump and the current GOP share important similarities but also differ sharply from the party during the Reagan era -- and that makes predicting the future impossible.

Lincoln and the Woke Left Mar 04, 2021

Abraham Lincoln was neither a faultless hero nor an irredeemable white supremacist. Remembered as the Great Emancipator who saved the Union, Lincoln's lesser-known views about race are coming under scrutiny as Americans reckon with their nation's history of racial injustice. Historian David S. Reynolds, winner of the prestigious Lincoln Prize for his biography of the sixteenth president, Abe: Abraham Lincoln in His Times, joins the podcast to clear up any confusion about what Lincoln stood for.

America and Iran Mar 02, 2021

President Biden’s decision to order airstrikes against targets in Syria, as a warning to Iran against backing militias in Iraq, served Americans an important reminder. The situation remains unstable and dangerous, and relations between the U.S. and Iran remain at a low point. But it does not have to be this way, says Middle East expert John Ghazvinian. He explains what the U.S. keeps getting wrong about its chief foe in the Middle East.

Crisis in Journalism Feb 25, 2021

More news and information is available at your fingertips than ever before, but journalism is in serious trouble. The problems run deeper than perceived partisan bias, social media chaos, and cratering public trust. Maybe the biggest issue of all is advertising-based journalism cannot survive, and we are drowning in misinformation as a result. This episode also features an interview with Washington Times executive editor Christopher Dolan.

Understanding Fascism Feb 23, 2021

What is fascism? The word brings to mind Mussolini, Hitler, and the catastrophes of the twentieth century. Nowadays, fascism -- like socialism -- is often hurled as an insult in American politics. NYU historian Ruth Ben-Ghiat, the author of Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present, explains fascism's roots and why the term retains so much potency in contemporary politics.

QAnon and Conspiracy Theories in American Politics Feb 18, 2021

Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Joseph Ellis joins the podcast to talk about conspiratorial thinking in American politics, from George Washington to QAnon. Wild theories and zany ideas have always been a part of the political landscape, even if the QAnon cult seems more outlandish than anything we have seen before.

Trump, Twitter, and free speech in the 21st century Feb 16, 2021

To paraphrase Noam Chomsky, you are either for free speech or you are not. Few issues in American culture today stoke such controversy as free expression, one of America's most cherished traditions. But at a time of Big Tech control over social media platforms, cancel culture, political correctness, and safe spaces, free expression is under attack.

Putin's Staying Power Feb 11, 2021

The popular unrest following the arrest of opposition politician Alexei Navalny provoked a heavy-handed police crackdown in Russia, where more than 10,000 demonstrators were arrested. More than 20 years after assuming power, Vladimir Putin continues to grip the reins of control, with the maintenance of Russia's global influence his primary goal. Call him Vladimir the Survivor. How does Russia's strongman do it?

Understanding Socialism Feb 09, 2021

Few words in the American political lexicon are as freighted with fear as socialism. It can conjure thoughts of diabolical Communism, the horrors of Stalin and Mao, and the Iron Curtain. In some quarters socialism is un-American because of its perceived threat to overturn capitalism and erode freedom. But attitudes are changing, especially among younger Americans who are embracing less narrow definitions of socialism. It is time for a better understanding of a word that has meant different things to different people throughout history.

Impeachment, Nixon to Trump Feb 04, 2021

The historian who drafted an open letter, signed by more than 1,000 scholars, calling for Donald Trump's impeachment explains why experts on the past should weigh in on the present. A must-listen, as the Senate prepares for the fourth presidential impeachment trial -- in this case, of an ex-President. There seems little doubt Donald Trump will be acquitted. Since Watergate, Americans politics have become more polarized and the media more partisan. Historian David Greenberg weighs in on the changed political and media landscape.

The GameStop Revolution Feb 02, 2021

A decade after the Occupy Wall Street protesters called out the reckless greed that brought down the economy, a different kind of anti-Wall Street, populist uprising is happening online -- on comment threads and in trading apps -- and these protesters are dumping equal parts money and defiance into their cause. The GameStop revolution also speaks to general frustration with the state of work in America.

Recovering the Radical King Jan 28, 2021

King sharply criticized capitalism. He condemned the Vietnam War, referring to the U.S. government “as the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today” in a powerful oration at a historic church in New York in 1967, a year before his death. King pointedly criticized white moderates who were “more devoted to ‘order’ than to justice.” Recovering the full profile of King’s activism and worldview is important because the events of our time resemble the tumultuous 1960s.

The First 1,000 Days Jan 26, 2021

The fate of President Biden's ambitious legislative agenda will depend on whether Congress embraces his FDR-like call for bold government action to deal not only with the immediate economic fallout of the pandemic during his first 100 days in office, but long running inequities in American society that will require work extending well into his term — more like 1,000 days and beyond.

Trumpism After Trump Jan 21, 2021

Donald Trump is out of power but it seems certain Americans will continue to talk and think about him, at least in the short term. How long what is already called Trumpism remains a force in American politics may depend on the strength of the Trump narrative of a stolen election. Historian Edward Ayers joins us to explain the power of narrative in the American past and present.

Inauguration Jan 19, 2021

The peaceful transition of power is a pillar of American democracy. But 2021 begins with a fear of violence hanging over Washington as Joseph Biden prepares to take the oath of office. Like Lincoln in 1861, Biden is inheriting a crisis which, although different in many respects from the Secession Winter, will confront his new administration with enormous problems. In ‘Inauguration,’ the premier episode of ‘History As It Happens,’ host Martin Di Caro talks to Washington Times White House reporter Dave Boyer and Virginia Tech historian Paul Quigley about the important parallels between then and now.

Welcome to 'History As It Happens' Jan 12, 2021

Journalists write the first draft of history. They also view our present times through the prism of the past. While it seems certain that future historians will consider the events of this era of American history extraordinary, we need not wait however many years for the arrival of their books before trying to make sense of our current controversies. The recent past can shed fresh light on today’s events.

‘History As It Happens’ reports the news in historical context. ‘History As It Happens’ debuts January 19, 2021, and is hosted by Martin Di Caro, an award-winning broadcast journalist and history enthusiast.

As Faulkner put it, the past is never dead. It’s not even past.

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