History As It Happens

Subscribe for early access, ad-free listening, and bonus content! History As It Happens Premium subscribers got this episode on Thursday, Feb. 26. Twenty-six years after coming to power, Vladimir Putin is prosecuting a ruinous war in Ukraine and tightening the screws of repression at home. How much longer can his rule endure under these suffocating circumstances? In this episode, historian Nina Khrushcheva shares what she saw during her recent trip to Russia — in a society descending into tyranny, but where some expressions of discontent are still permitted. Khrushcheva teaches at the New School. She is an editor of and a contributor to Project Syndicate. She's the author of several books, including one about her great-grandfather: Nikita Khrushchev: An Outlier of the System (2024). Recommended reading: Russia's Descent into Tyranny by Nina Khrushcheva in Foreign Affairs, the official publication of the Council on Foreign Relations. Subscribe to the podcast at https://historyasithappens.supercast.com/

Subscribe now for early access to this episode and all future shows. Early access is the newest benefit of becoming a History As It Happens Premium subscriber. You'll get new episodes a day or two ahead of everyone else, plus ad-free listening and bonus content! The Russian invasion of Ukraine is entering its fifth year with no end in sight despite several rounds of U.S.-mediated negotiating sessions. The battlefield dead and wounded have reportedly surpassed a million men, yet neither side is on the brink of military or political collapse. Neither side is close to victory. In this episode, historians Michael Kimmage and Mark Galeotti try to place this tragic and unnecessary conflict in historical perspective, as the opposing armies send a generation of their young to fight and die over piles of rubble in eastern Ukraine. Michael Kimmage is the founding director of the independent Kennan Institute. He is the author of "Collisions: The War in Ukraine and the Origins of the New Global Instability." Mark Galeotti is an Honorary Professor at University College London, an expert on Russian military history, and the author of many books, including "Forged in War: A Military History of Russia From Its Beginnings to Today." Subscribe at https://historyasithappens.supercast.com

Subscribe now to listen to this entire 28-minute episode (or preview 7 minutes). The United States may soon be at war in the Middle East — again! President Trump is weighing whether to attack Iran, although neither he nor any administration official has bothered to fully explain why. Congress seems unwilling or incapable of intervening, although there is little public enthusiasm for another unnecessary war in the Greater Middle East. What the hell is going on? The Cato Institute's Justin Logan takes us inside the "imperial presidency." Justin Logan is the director of defense and foreign policy studies at the Cato Institute. He is an expert on U.S. grand strategy, international relations theory, and American foreign policy.

Subscribe now for access to the back catalog of 525+ episodes. Plus ad-free listening and bonus content. Germany is rearming, and it's making some of its European allies a little uncomfortable. No one believes a militarily powerful Germany would be bent on conquest. Rather, German hegemony, meant to deter Russian aggression, could renew rivalries and competition with European allies at a time when cooperation and coordination are necessary, according to historian Liana Fix. Liana Fix teaches at Georgetown University. She is a senior fellow for Europe at the Council on Foreign Relations, whose official publication is Foreign Affairs.  Recommended reading: Europe's Next Hegemon by Liana Fix (Foreign Affairs)

Subscribe now for 24/7 access to the entire catalog of 500+ episodes. Chinese President Xi Jinping is purging the military's leadership, raising doubts about the People's Liberation Army's readiness. China has not fought a war since 1979, so how can anyone know whether the United States' No. 1 rival can fight and win a conflict in Taiwan, the South China Sea, or some other flashpoint? David Finkelstein, an expert on Chinese military and security matters at CNA, is our guest. CNA is an independent research institute in Arlington, Virginia. 

Subscribe now to enjoy ad-free listening and bonus content. Keep the narrative flow going in 2026! "Nuremberg," starring Russell Crowe, Rami Malek, and Michael Shannon, has renewed interest in the landmark trials of Nazi war criminals after the Second World War. The movie is an important reminder that justice is possible if there's a will to seek it, as it seems unimaginable that many of today's worst perpetrators will ever end up in the dock at The Hague. Alex Whiting, an expert on international law and former ICC prosecutor, is our guest. Credit: audio excerpts are from Nuremberg (2025), Sony Pictures Classics. 

Subscribe now to listen to this entire 28-minute episode (or preview 7 minutes). Nuclear arms control, RIP. The expiration of the New START treaty, agreed in 2010, marks the end of an era that began in 1972 with the first major U.S.-Soviet strategic nuclear arms pact brokered by Nixon and Brezhnev. In this episode, weapons control expert Joe Cirincione reflects on the new arms race underway and the potential for more countries to take the nuclear leap, plunging the planet into a dangerous new era. Recommended reading: The Greatest Nuclear Threat by Joe Cirincione (Strategy & History newsletter) Why Trump Let Nuclear Arms Control Die by Stephen Holmes (Project Syndicate)

This is the second episode in an occasional series for the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Listen to the first show here. Why did America's eighteenth-century revolutionaries revolt? Which ideas influenced their decisions and behavior? The answers depend on which revolutionaries you're talking about, from colonial society's elites to ordinary people hoping to survive the crisis with their lives and property. The ideas of the American Revolution are indispensable to understanding why a long and bloody war was fought to throw off the yoke of tyranny. Historian Kate Carté is our guest. Subscribe now to enjoy ad-free listening and bonus content. Keep the narrative flow going in 2026! Recommended reading: Religion and the American Revolution: An Imperial History by Kate Carté, historian, Southern Methodist University

Subscribe for 24/7 access to the entire catalog of 500+ episodes (or listen free to only the 40 most recent episodes). The fascism debate is intensifying as the Trump administration lurches deeper into authoritarianism. Analogies abound, trying to connect or liken what's happening today to the death of democracy in interwar Europe — or to dark chapters in America's past. Is there an American fascism? Is it possible to look for it without invoking history's most infamous fascist, Adolf Hitler? Historian Gavriel Rosenfeld is our guest. Gavriel Rosenfeld is a historian at Fairfield University and the president of the Center for Jewish History. He's the author or editor of eight books, including The Fourth Reich: The Specter of Nazism from World War II to the Present and Fascism in America: Past and Present. Additional reading: An American Führer? Nazi Analogies and the Attempt to Explain Donald Trump by Gavriel Rosenfeld (Cambridge University Press — article) The Counterfactual History Review — Blog by Gavriel Rosenfeld

Subscribe now to enjoy ad-free listening and bonus content. Keep the narrative flow going in 2026! It wasn't very long ago when U.S. policymakers relied on a species of grand strategist known as the Sovietologist. It was the Cold War, and the strategies for dealing with the USSR ranged from containment to rollback, to détente and peaceful bridge-building. Zbigniew Brzezinski formulated the latter. President Jimmy Carter's national security adviser was an ardent anti-communist with a pragmatic streak, whose goal was to accelerate the breakup of the Soviet Empire. He also supported Palestinian autonomy, and after the Cold War, Brzezinski backed NATO expansion in Eastern Europe while criticizing the excesses of the global war on terror. In this episode, the Financial Times' Edward Luce discusses his timely biography, Zbig: The Life of Zbigniew Brzezinski, America's Great Power Prophet. Also read: Martin Di Caro's review of Luce's book for Responsible Statecraft.  

Subscribe now to enjoy ad-free listening and bonus content. Keep the narrative flow going in 2026! President Trump's harsh immigration crackdown would not be possible without a militarized law enforcement apparatus that presidents and legislators of both political parties built over decades. Even before the 9/11/2001 terrorist strikes, immigration began to be viewed as a national security concern requiring billions to beef up enforcement and deportations, while sensible immigration reform failed to pass Congress time and again. In this episode, historian Jeremi Suri explores the origins of today's crisis as President Trump's federal paramilitary force terrorizes American communities. Jeremi Suri teaches history at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin. He writes the newsletter Democracy of Hope and co-hosts This is Democracy podcast. Further reading: ICE Needs the DOGE Treatment by Jeremi Suri (Wall Street Journal)

Subscribe now to listen to the entire 28-minute episode. (Or preview 7 minutes). On the streets of Minnesota, a federal paramilitary force in combat gear is executing a deliberate policy of terror and violence against American citizens and their immigrant neighbors. The lawless conduct of President Trump's immigration enforcers has supercharged a debate that's been roiling since 2016: Is Trumpism a form of fascism? In this episode, historian Roger Griffin argues that American (and global) democracy is under assault not from a resurgence of fascism, but from anti-liberal forces and ideas at odds with the universal values that were supposed to gain ascendance after 1945: democracy, human rights, and tolerance.

Subscribe now for 24/7 access to the entire catalog of 500+ episodes, ad-free listening, and bonus content. The Trump administration's National Security Strategy calls for "flexible realism" in foreign policy, a supposed departure from the military adventurism that led to disasters in the Greater Middle East. Realism prioritizes national interests rather than ideology or high principles, such as democracy and human rights. Is Donald Trump a realist? What are the historical origins of realism? What are its opposites? In this episode, scholars Linda Kinstler and Stephen Wertheim break it down. Linda Kinstler is a contributing writer for New York Times Magazine and a junior fellow at the Harvard Society of Fellows. Stephen Wertheim is a senior fellow in the American Statecraft Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.  Recommended reading: The Theory That Gives Trump a Blank Check For Aggression by Linda Kinstler (New York Times)

Subscribe now to enjoy ad-free listening and bonus content. Keep the narrative flow going in 2026! This month Iran's clerical leaders and security forces spilled oceans of blood to suppress mass demonstrations after Iranians took to the streets to protest the regime's economic and political failings. Systematic violence has always been a tool utilized by the Islamic Republic to enforce obedience, but never in its history have Iran's leaders killed so many people in a short amount of time, if an estimated death toll of at least 10,000 — possibly 20,000 — is accurate. In this episode, historian Naghmeh Sohrabi examines the origins of a regime whose current government is desperately trying to hold onto power by killing thousands of its people. Recommended reading: These Are the True Things — Naghmeh Sohrabi's Substack about Iran/Middle East How much longer can Iran's Islamic Republic survive? by Ali Ansari (New Statesman) Iran's coming reckoning by Siamak Namazi (Middle East Institute) Iran's ayatollah will fall — but the road may be long and deadly by Simon Sebag Montefiore (The Times of London)

Subscribe now to listen to the entire 37-minute episode. At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said the rules-based order is being ruptured by powerful countries who prefer coercion over negotiation. The following day, as if on cue, President Donald Trump broadcast his obsession with acquiring Greenland, although he said he would not use force. In this episode, the Quincy Institute's Anatol Lieven discusses the potential dangers when the world's most powerful leader seems to believe preposterously false ideas, such as the imaginary threat posed to Greenland by Russia or China. Editor's note: After this podcast was published, President Trump said he was dropping his threat to impose tariffs on European allies as a way of obtaining Greenland through economic pressure.  Non-subscribers may preview 12 minutes of this episode. Don't miss out! Subscribe: historyasithappens.supercast.com Recommended reading: Trump's new 'gangster' threats against Greenland cross line by Anatol Lieven (Responsible Statecraft)

Subscribe now to enjoy ad-free listening and bonus content. Keep the narrative flow going in 2026! This is the first in an occasional series of episodes (one or two per month) marking the upcoming 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. In January 1776, a pamphlet printed in Philadelphia became an instant sensation. Thomas Paine's "Common Sense" was a provocative attack on the British constitution and hereditary monarchy, and a call for American colonists to seek independence. In this episode, historian Lindsay Chervinsky, the executive director of Mount Vernon's George Washington Presidential Library, takes us back to the ideas and arguments that made a revolution. Recommended reading: To Make the World Again by Lindsay Chervinsky (Imperfect Union on Substack) Common Sense (contextus.org)

Subscribe now to enjoy ad-free listening. Keep the narrative flow going in 2026! Greenland's geostrategic importance to the United States has been evident since the Second World War, when FDR sent U.S. forces to occupy the island and capture German weather stations on its eastern shore. After WWII, President Harry Truman, in secret, offered to buy Greenland from Denmark, but Denmark turned him down. As the Cold War froze in 1949, the two nations became official allies under the NATO treaty. Today, despite having access to Greenland under a 1951 agreement, President Donald Trump is threatening to seize it, claiming falsely that if Washington doesn't act, Russia and China will. Mikkel Olesen of the Danish Institute for International Studies tries to make sense of this madness. Recommended reading: The history of U.S. presence in Greenland by Mikkel Olesen

Subscribe now to listen to the entire 30-minute episode. Since U.S. forces snatched Nicolàs Maduro and hauled him to New York, Americans have been asking questions about Venezuela, especially after the Trump administration announced its plans to run the country's moribund oil industry. Are U.S. oil firms clamoring to exploit Venezuela's enormous petroleum reserves? Does the global market need more oil? In this episode, historian Giuliano Garavini of Roma Tre University explains it all. He's an expert on the Global South, energy, and natural resources. Non-subscribers may preview 5 minutes of this episode. Subscribe: historyasithappens.supercast.com  

Subscribe now to skip ads, get bonus content, and enjoy 24/7 access to the entire catalog of 500+ episodes. In the long history of U.S. intervention in Latin America, the name Jacobo Arbenz is forgotten in the United States. Not so in Guatemala, where the democratically elected leftist was toppled in a CIA-backed coup in 1954. Arbenz had angered United Fruit Company. More than 70 years before the U.S. abducted Nicolàs Maduro to seize control of Venezuela's oil, there was a coup over bananas. Historian Julia Young is our guest.

Subscribe now to skip ads, get bonus content, and enjoy 24/7 access to the entire catalog of 500+ episodes. President Donald Trump is hailing a new era of U.S. dominance and coercion over the Western Hemisphere, starting with his illegal invasion and oil grab in Venezuela. In his remarks following the abduction of Nicolàs Maduro, Trump mentioned the importance of the Monroe Doctrine before offering his own twist on it: the 'Donroe' Doctrine. Most Americans learn about President Monroe's 1823 policy in school and then rarely think about it again. Time for a refresher, with University of Missouri historian Jay Sexton, who specializes in the political and economic history of the nineteenth century. Further reading: Excerpts of the Monroe Doctrine (Gilder Lehrman Institute)

Subscribe now to skip ads, get bonus content, and enjoy 24/7 access to the entire catalog of 500+ episodes. Is Holocaust memory over? Genocide scholars Dirk Moses and Omar McDoom discuss whether elite political and media classes are cheapening the lessons of history by invoking the Holocaust to justify Israel's destruction of Gaza. The emotional issue has led to strife on college campuses, media shouting matches, and craven political cowardice as Palestinian society was pummelled. Dirk Moses teaches history at City College of New York. Omar McDoom is a political scientist at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Recommended reading: Is Holocaust Memory Over? by Dirk Moses (The Diasporist) It's Hamas' Fault, You're an Antisemite, and We Had No Choice: Techniques of Genocide Denial in Gaza by Omar McDoom (Journal of Genocide Research) The Growing Rift Among Holocaust Scholars Over Israel/Palestine by Shira Klein (Journal of Genocide Research) Introduction: Gaza and the Problems of Genocide Studies by Dirk Moses (Journal of Genocide Research)

Subscribe now to skip ads, get bonus content, and enjoy 24/7 access to the entire catalog of 500+ episodes. Breaking news: The Trump administration ordered U.S. forces to invade Venezuela and kidnap its president, Nicolàs Maduro, who was indicted on narcotics-related charges in the United States. The operation violated international law, and the White House did not bother to consult Congress, either. It was the culmination of a months-long pressure campaign designed to oust Venezuela's autocratic leader with the aim of exploiting the country's vast oil and gas reserves, despite all the phony allegations regarding drug trafficking. In this episode, historian Alex Aviña says the attack and abduction are unprecedented, even when taking into consideration the long pattern of U.S. interventionism in Latin America.

This episode was first published in May 2025. New episodes will resume on January 6, 2026.  Keep the narrative flow going in the new year! Subscribe now to skip ads, get bonus content, and enjoy 24/7 access to the entire catalog of 500+ episodes. Original show notes: President Donald Trump's invocation of the Alien Enemies Act during peacetime is unprecedented, a part of his larger effort to portray undocumented immigrants as wicked and threatening as he seeks to deport them en masse. What is not unprecedented is the federal government weaponizing the law to shred constitutional protections and civil liberties. During the Second World War, the administration of Franklin Roosevelt arrested and incarcerated Italians, Germans, and Japanese aliens under the 1798 statute, but also interned roughly 100,000 U.S. citizens of Japanese ancestry — one of the most egregious violations of civil rights in U.S. history. In this episode, the eminent historian David M. Kennedy takes us back to those perilous years and their important parallels to the current crisis. Recommended reading: Freedom From Fear: The American People in Depression and War, 1929-1945 by David M. Kennedy

This episode was first published in March 2025. New episodes will resume in early January 2026. Subscribe now to skip ads, get bonus content, and enjoy 24/7 access to the entire catalog of 500+ episodes. Original show notes: In late June 1973, former White House counsel John Dean delivered startling testimony before the congressional committee investigating Watergate: Richard Nixon had an enemies list. The point, as Dean had written in a 1971 memo, was to "use the available federal machinery to screw our political enemies." The exposure of Nixon's dirty tricks led to his downfall. In 2024, Donald Trump openly campaigned to exact revenge on his enemies. Rather than alienating Republican voters, Trump's call for retribution rallied them. In this episode, historian Ken Hughes compares and contrasts the differences between then and now. Recommended reading: Nixon's official acts against his enemies list led to a bipartisan impeachment effort by Ken Hughes for The Conversation Chasing Shadows: The Nixon Tapes, the Chennault Affair, and the Origins of Watergate by Ken Hughes (book)

Subscribe now to skip ads, get bonus content, and enjoy 24/7 access to the entire catalog of 500+ episodes. This is the final new episode of 2025. New episodes will resume on Tuesday, January 6. Historians Jeremi Suri and Jeffrey Engel look back on a remarkable, distressing year in the U.S. and across the globe, from the Trump administration's lawless conduct to the wars in Eastern Europe and the Middle East. Jeremi Suri teaches history at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin. He co-hosts 'This is Democracy' podcast and co-writes 'Democracy of Hope' newsletter. Jeffrey Engel is the founding director of the Center for Presidential History at Southern Methodist University.

Subscribe now to skip ads, get bonus content, and enjoy 24/7 access to the entire catalog of 500 episodes. 'Red Dawn' was in many ways the perfect movie for its time. Released in 1984, it was an action flick with an exciting young cast that entertained moviegoers during a very cold period in the Cold War. The film was patriotic propaganda, depicting innocent American teenagers as fearless freedom fighters resisting the foreign occupation of their hometown. 'Red Dawn' was also a form of "imperial projection," mirroring the anti-Communist anxieties shaping the Reagan administration's rollback policy. In this episode, historian Alex Aviña, an expert on Latin America, reveals the crazy politics of a classic '80s action movie. Wolverines! 'Red Dawn' soundtrack was composed by Basil Poledouris.

Subscribe now to listen to the entire episode.   It's a common argument in the Age of Trump: Neoliberal economic policies that hollowed out the middle class while enriching the Wall Street class caused the populist backlash. Low taxes, deregulation, austerity budgets, free trade, the unfettered flow of capital into and out of emerging markets, and the privatization of public assets – all fall under the rubric of neoliberal globalization. But is the term too loaded to help us understand what's going on? In this episode, historians Phil Magness and Daniel Bessner attempt to define neoliberalism over time and place.   Daniel Bessner is an associate Professor in American Foreign Policy at the University of Washington. He is the co-host of American Prestige podcast.   Historian Phil Magness is a Senior Fellow at the Independent Institute and the David J. Theroux Chair in Political Economy.

Subscribe now to skip ads, get bonus content, and enjoy 24/7 access to the entire catalog of 500 episodes. He's been called the world's most important prisoner, or the Palestinian "Nelson Mandela." Convicted on terrorism-related charges in 2004 during the Second Intifada, Marwan Barghouti is serving a life sentence in Israeli prison. However, his name continues to surface in negotiations over prisoner exchanges, and President Donald Trump has also mentioned that Barghouti's case was brought to his attention. This is because Barghouti is by far the most popular Palestinian political figure today, at a time when his people are desperate for unifying leadership. In this episode, the scholar Khaled Elgindy of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft discusses Barghouti's life story, which traces the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Subscribe now to listen to the entire episode. Rob Reiner was an actor, director, and political activist who left an enduring mark on American culture. Reiner, 78, and his wife, Michele Singer Reiner, were found stabbed to death in their Hollywood home on Dec. 14. Their son has been arrested and charged with murder. In this episode, historian Benjamin Louis Rolsky reflects on Reiner's remarkable show business career, as well as his political activism, which followed in the footsteps of his role model, Norman Lear. Recommended reading: The Rise and Fall of the Religious Left: Politics, Television, and Popular Culture in the 1970s and Beyond by Benjamin Louis Rolsky

Subscribe to skip ads, get bonus content, and enjoy 24/7 access to the entire catalog of 500 episodes. The Netflix mini-series "Death By Lightning" brings to life a largely overlooked — and troubled — period in American history and one of its admirable figures, a minor president named James Garfield. The Republican Garfield was assassinated by a delusional patronage-seeker named Charles Guiteau only months into his term. The series makes for entertaining television with a terrific cast, but is it sound history? Historian Jeremi Suri is our guest. Excerpts are courtesy Netflix. Music in this episode is from the soundtrack for "Death by Lightning," composed by Ramin Djawadi. Recommended reading: Civil War By Other Means by Jeremi Suri Democracy of Hope newsletter

Subscribe to skip ads, get bonus content, and enjoy 24/7 access to the entire catalog of 500 episodes. Since the nation's founding, American leaders, journalists, and ordinary citizens have used words to describe enemies designed not only to dehumanize them, but also to delegitimize. Whether bandits, savages, guerrillas, or terrorists, if our foes are beyond the pale, then the U.S. government doesn't have to follow the law either, a pattern that has been repeated in many overseas military interventions up to and including the global war on terrorism. This pattern is important to recognize as the Trump administration blows up alleged drug traffickers in the Caribbean while threatening regime change in Venezuela. Historian Michael Neagle says we can see how we got to this point by looking to the past, in the Philippines, Mexico, and Nicaragua, to name three examples. Through a historical lens, we can question the necessity and costs of the GWOT. Recommended reading: Chasing Bandits: America's Long War on Terror by Michael Neagle

Keep the narrative flow going! Subscribe to skip ads, get bonus content, and enjoy access to the entire catalog of 500 episodes. Robert McNamara may have been the most consequential secretary of defense in U.S. history. The managerial genius who helped sink the country in the Vietnam quagmire is the subject of a new biography (see below), a political-psychological portrait that takes us inside the mind of the man tabbed by JFK in 1960 to run the Pentagon. Robert McNamara escalated the war and misled the American people about imaginary progress on the battlefield, despite serious personal doubts the war could be won. He never formally apologized, but admitted "we were wrong, terribly wrong" in the hope future policy-makers would avoid his intractable mistakes. Historian Fredrik Logevall is our guest. Recommended reading: McNamara at War: A New History by William Taubman and Philip Taubman (2025) Choosing War: The Lost Chance for Peace and the Escalation of War in Vietnam by Fredrik Logevall (1999) Embers of War: The Fall of an Empire and the Making of America's Vietnam by Fredrik Logevall (2012) Further listening: Defeat in Vietnam: Origins (podcast)

Subscribe now for ad-free listening. Note: All audio excerpts and music in this episode are courtesy PBS. See below for details. 'The American Revolution' on PBS is a riveting documentary about the events that created a country. Released in advance of next year's America250 celebrations, the latest Ken Burns documentary shows the unity and divisions within and without the revolutionary cause. Americans today seem to be divided on everything; can they unite around their national origin stories? David Schmidt and Geoffrey Ward are the guests in this episode. David Schmidt co-directed and co-produced 'The American Revolution' with Ken Burns and Sarah Botstein. Historian Geoffrey Ward was the writer. Excerpts of the score, in order (courtesy: PBS) Battle Percussion by Johnny Gandelsman Pompey Ran Away by Rhiannon Giddens O'Neill's Cavalry March Piccolo by Mathias Kunzli and Alex Sopp Ahead We Move by Johnny Gandelsman Further reading: The American Revolution (companion volume) by Geoffrey Ward and Ken Burns

Subscribe now to listen to the entire episode. The latest negotiations to end the Russian invasion of Ukraine produced no breakthroughs, after U.S. envoys held a 5-hour session in the Kremlin. Alas, almost another full year has come and gone, and the war grinds on, despite President Trump's boast that he would end the conflict in 24 hours. In this episode, The Wall Street Journal's chief foreign affairs correspondent Yaroslav Trofimov tells us why negotiations are failing to end Putin's war of aggression.

Keep the narrative flow going! Subscribe to skip ads, get bonus content, and enjoy access to the entire catalog of 500 episodes. His name was Metacom, a son of the Wampanoag chief Massasoit who had greeted the Pilgrims at Plymouth. Metacom would become known as King Philip, and the war that would carry his name was one of the bloodiest in American history. In 1675-76, Native peoples across southern New England battled English colonists and their Indian allies in genocidal violence. Massacres, torture, and enslavement were commonplace, yet King Philip's War is little known to most Americans today. Historian David Silverman is here to bring this American origin story to light. Further reading: The Chosen and the Damned: Native Americans and the Making of Race in the United States Support the podcast: https://historyasithappens.supercast.com/

Subscribe to skip ads, get bonus content, and enjoy access to the entire catalog of 500 episodes. Keep the narrative flow going! Is the rise of Donald Trump a result or a rejection of Reaganism? As the conservative movement is convulsed by the crazies inside and outside its ranks, some may feel nostalgic for a bygone age when a Republican president seemed committed to the principles of smaller government, free trade, and America's global leadership. But what was Reaganism, really? Our guest in this episode is historian Max Boot. Recommended reading: Reagan: His Life and Legend by Max Boot The Age of Reagan by Sean Wilentz

Subscribe now to listen to the entire episode. Iraqi leaders now face the difficult task of building a governing coalition, after parliamentary elections gave no single bloc an adequate victory to form a government independently. The Associated Press reports the Reconstruction and Change coalition, led by Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, won the highest number of seats in 8 of 18 provinces. In this episode, Adam Weinstein of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft says Iraq still finds itself caught between Washington and Tehran, as pro-Iran militias exert influence in Baghdad.

Subscribe now to skip ads, get bonus content, and enjoy access to the entire catalog of 500 episodes. Keep the narrative flow going! Today's Republican Party is the party of Donald Trump, whose right-populism and disregard for the Constitution appear to be a break from the GOP's historical roots. In light of the "civil war" on the American right, provoked by Tucker Carlson's chummy interview with a white supremacist named Nick Fuentes, historian James Oakes reflects on the Republican Party's origins. How far removed is Trump's GOP from the party of Abraham Lincoln? Further reading: Freedom National: The Destruction of Slavery in the United States, 1861-1865 by James Oakes

Subscribe now to skip ads, get bonus content, and enjoy access to the entire catalog of 500 episodes. Keep the narrative flow going! Thirty Novembers ago, Israel experienced one of the worst days in its short history. Yigal Amir, a Jewish religious fanatic opposed to the Oslo negotiations with the Palestinians, assassinated Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin as he left a peace rally in Tel Aviv. The consequences are still felt today, as the peace process is dormant and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is as severe as at any point since 1948. In this episode, Dan Ephron, the executive editor of Foreign Policy, delves into this dark chapter in Israeli history and why it matters now. In 1995, Ephron was a journalist covering the rally where Rabin was shot to death.  Recommended reading: Killing a King: The Assassination of Yitzhak Rabin and the Remaking of Israel by Dan Ephron

Subscribe now to listen to the entire episode. Enjoy all bonus content for $5 per month! It's understood that the U.S. must deal with unsavory characters in the realm of foreign policy. This includes one of the most repressive autocrats in the world, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, who ordered the grisly murder of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi, according to U.S. intelligence. Bin Salman was given the red carpet treatment by the Trump administration this week, as he sought defense and economic agreements to burnish his brand as a pragmatic modernizer rather than a reckless monarch. In this episode, Trita Parsi of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft says the U.S. must engage with the Saudis, but Washington should steer clear of agreeing to a defense pact with the kingdom.

Subscribe now to skip ads, get bonus content, and enjoy access to the entire catalog of 500 episodes. Keep the narrative flow going! Tucker Carlson's lovey-dovey interview with a Holocaust-denying white supremacist named Nick Fuentes caused long-simmering tensions on the far right to boil over into a factional civil war. Is the conservative movement that once elected Ronald Reagan now overrun with charlatans, cranks, racists, grifters, and conspiracy theorists in the Age of Trump? In this episode, the political theorist Damon Linker and National Review senior writer Dan McLaughlin trace the history of the conservative movement from William F. Buckley to Ronald Reagan, to Pat Buchanan and Donald Trump. Book suggestions: Damon Linker recommends Furious Minds: The Making of the MAGA New Right by Laura Field Dan McLaughlin recommends The Right: The Hundred-Year War for American Conservatism by Matthew Continetti Martin Di Caro recommends The Age of Reagan by Sean Wilentz and Reagan: His Life and Legend by Max Boot Further reading: Trumpism Will Be With Us For a Very Long Time by Damon Linker (New York Times) Buckley's Hopes for Populism by Dan McLaughlin (National Review)

Subscribe now to skip ads, get bonus content, and enjoy access to the entire catalog of 500 episodes. Keep the narrative flow going! President Donald Trump enjoys bashing the press by calling some outlets "fake news" or any negative story a "hoax." Some past presidential administrations went further by censoring information, shutting down newspapers, or even jailing critical voices. Just about every U.S. leader has complained at one time or another about the press while simultaneously trying to cultivate positive coverage. In this episode, historian Lindsay Chervinsky, the executive director of the George Washington Presidential Library, takes us on a tour of more than 200 years of president-press relationships. Recommended reading: The Presidents and the Press, Part 1 by Lindsay Chervinsky (Imperfect Union on Substack) The Presidents and the Press, Part 2 by Lindsay Chervinsky

Subscribe now to skip ads, get bonus content, and enjoy access to the entire catalog of 500 episodes. Keep the narrative flow going! The hit Netflix film "House of Dynamite" depicts a terrifying scenario. The United States is under nuclear attack as a lone ICBM heads for a major city, but no one knows who launched it. The president has the authority to retaliate, but against whom? In this episode, nuclear arms expert Joe Cirincione says the moral of the story is that an accidental nuclear war is indeed possible as the world witnesses a new arms race. (Note: Audio excerpts of "House of Dynamite" are courtesy Netflix.) Further reading/listening: To Love the Bomb (podcast) Donald Trump's Deep Nuclear Confusion by Joe Cirincione on Substack

Subscribe now to skip ads, get bonus content, and enjoy access to the entire catalog of 500 episodes. Keep the narrative flow going! Dick Cheney died on Nov. 3. From the 1970s onward, he held several powerful posts as White House chief of staff, a Wyoming congressman, Secretary of Defense, and a private-sector oil executive. But Cheney will be remembered most of all for his eight years as Vice President under George W. Bush, when he exerted his influence to invade Iraq in 2003 and impressed his ideas about executive authority and conduct, ignoring Congress, the Constitution, and international law. The Iraq war became an intractable calamity. Even today, the country is not considered a healthy democracy. Cheney's idea of the "unitary executive" is now being put into practice once more by Donald Trump, an unintended consequence of Dick Cheney's enduring influence. Historian Jeremi Suri is our guest. Further reading: The Costs of War: Iraq by Brown University  Further listening: Saddam and his American Friends w/ Steve Coll The Iraq War w/ Andrew Bacevich The Iraq War w/ Ghaith Abdul-Ahad

Subscribe now to skip ads, get bonus content, and enjoy access to the entire catalog of 500 episodes. Keep the narrative flow going! History As It Happens returns to the movies! In this episode, historian Kevin Levin discusses the 1989 film Glory, a moving portrayal of one of the first Black fighting regiments of the Civil War, the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment, and its commander, Colonel Robert Gould Shaw. Further reading: Robert Gould Shaw, Glory, and the Problem of AI by Kevin Levin (Civil War Memory on Substack)  

Subscribe now to skip ads, get bonus content, and enjoy access to the entire catalog of 500 episodes. Keep the narrative flow going! The U.S.-led military coalition that expelled Saddam Hussein's armies from Kuwait in 1990-91 is usually remembered as the first major conflict of a post-Cold War world. But it was not the first time during those heady days that the U.S. invaded a country to get rid of a dictator in the name of human rights and the rule of law. That was Panama in 1989, a short war that would seem relevant now, as the Trump administration seeks regime change in a different Latin American country, Venezuela. In this episode, historian Alex Aviña reminds us why the rise and fall of Panamanian strongman Manuel Noriega, a longtime CIA asset and drug trafficker, matters. Further listening: Trump and the Panama Canal w/ Jonathan Brown TR to Trump: America and Venezuela w/ Alex Aviña

Subscribe to listen to the entire episode. Enjoy all bonus content for $5 per month! Carl Schmitt was a German legal theorist who joined the Nazi Party after Hitler achieved power. Schmitt supplied legal justifications for the Third Reich as it crushed all opposition and persecuted Jews. Yet long after he collaborated with this monstrous regime, Schmitt's ideas remained influential, and he maintained a respectable following. What explains his popularity on the New Right today in the Age of Trump? Further reading: The American New Right Looks Like the European Old Right by Phil Magness and Jack Nicastro in Reason The Enemy of Liberalism by Mark Lilla in The New York Review

Subscribe now to skip ads, get bonus content, and enjoy access to the entire catalog of 500 episodes. The "No Kings" protests across America were aimed at President Donald Trump's mounting abuses of power, based on the idea that he's acting like an elected monarch 250 years after the framers of the Constitution established the separation of powers. In this episode, the eminent historian Joseph Ellis explains why America's founders forged a republic where there'd be no kings. Further reading/listening: Enemies Lists (podcast) Shall We Have A King? by William Leuchtenberg (American Heritage) The Great Contradiction by Joseph Ellis

Keep the narrative flow going! Subscribe now for ad-free listening, bonus content, and access to the entire catalog of 500 episodes. After Donald Trump was first elected in 2016, Hannah Arendt's The Origins of Totalitarianism became a surprise bestseller. Arendt, who died in 1975, became a sort of prophet for the liberal "Resistance" based on her insights into lying and politics and the origins of fascism. Today, as President Trump acts with increasing authoritarianism and corruption, Arendt is still frequently quoted, but she's not the star she once was on the American left. Why? Yale historian and law professor Samuel Moyn discusses the uses and abuses of Hannah Arendt, one of the twentieth century's towering philosophers. Further reading: You Have Misunderstood the Relevance of Hannah Arendt by Samuel Moyn, Prospect (2020) Men in Dark Times by Rebecca Panovka, Harper's (2021) Lying in Politics: Hannah Arendt on Deception, Self-Deception, and the Psychology of Defactualization by Maria Popova, The Marginalian Big Racket Man by Martin Jay for Verso Books (2023)

Keep the narrative flow going! Subscribe now for ad-free listening, bonus content, and access to the entire catalog of 500 episodes. The Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani is the favorite to be elected New York City's mayor next month. He is an inheritor of a largely forgotten municipal socialist tradition in America, one in which dozens of cities and towns were once governed by men dedicated to improving the lives of the working class, reforming government, and beating back public corruption. In this episode, the eminent labor historian Shelton Stromquist takes us back to a bygone era when cities faced dramatic problems and voters elected socialists to solve them. Further reading: Claiming the City: A Global History of Workers' Fight for Municipal Socialism by Shelton Stromquist

Subscribe now to listen to the entire episode. Americans' trust in the news media has plummeted to the lowest point since pollsters began tracking the data. Across the political spectrum, people have little confidence that the traditional powerhouses -- major newspapers along with TV and radio networks -- are giving it to them straight. In this episode, the accomplished newsman Greg Jarrett, who spent more than 50 years covering big stories in the U.S. and overseas, says news outlets' self-inflicted errors and a broken business model are largely to blame.