History As It Happens

This episode of History As It Happens was recorded on location at the U.S. Army War College and the Army Heritage and Education Center in Carlisle, Pa. The Army's 250th birthday was on June 14th. What were the first soldiers of the Continental Army talking about 250 years ago? Where did they gather to share their ideas about war and revolution? To mark the Army's 250th birthday, the curators and craftsmen at the Heritage and Education Center constructed an 18th-century tavern where visitors can imagine the American colonists deciding to break from the crown. It is part of a new exhibit covering two and a half centuries of Army history. In this episode, historian Kate Lemay and curator Molly Bompane tell us about their time-traveling work. Episode artwork by Kaitlin Garman, Education Technician (Outreach), U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center

This episode of History As It Happens was recorded on location at the U.S. Army War College and the Army Heritage and Education Center in Carlisle, Pa. The Army's 250th birthday was on June 14th. What happens inside a classroom full of colonels and lieutenant colonels? At this institution in rural Pennsylvania, America's future military leaders are learning grand strategy steeped in history, from Thucydides to today's conflicts. In this episode, historians Kate Lemay and Michael Neiberg discuss the way their students are challenged to think about preserving the peace, and how the center's archive brings the past to life. Episode artwork by Kaitlin Garman, Education Technician (Outreach), U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center

Twelve years ago, few outside Latin America knew of Nayib Bukele, then the young mayor of a small town outside San Salvador. Today, the media-savvy Bukele proudly calls himself the "world's coolest dictator" as president of El Salvador. He and his Nuevas Ideas (New Ideas) party control all the levers of power. His regime has a horrendous human rights record, exemplified by the massive CECOT prison that has room to incarcerate 40,000 people. In April, Bukele was warmly welcomed into the Oval Office by President Trump, who lavishly praised the Latin American autocrat because of, not despite, his dictatorial excesses. In this episode, historian Gema Kloppe-Santamaria explains Bukele's meteoric political rise in a country once ravaged by civil war and gang violence. Gema Kloppe-Santamaria is a sociologist and historian specializing in violence and crime, focusing on Central America and Mexico. She is a Lecturer in Sociology at University College Cork and an Associate Research Professor of Latin American History at George Washington University.

When tracing the origins of today's war and devastation in Gaza, it may be easy to overlook economic inequality in favor of political or ideological explanations. In this episode, political analyst and public opinion expert Dahlia Scheindlin says a chief cause of the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict was the severe poverty of Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza, where unemployment was sky high even before the Hamas attacks of Oct. 7, 2023. There was a time when Israelis believed peace was necessary for Israel's economy to thrive, and that Palestinian growth could substitute for a Palestinian state. A generation later, Gaza is rubble. Further reading: The Economic Foundation for Peace in Israel and Palestine by Dahlia Scheindlin for The Century Foundation. Dr. Dahlia Scheindlin is a political analyst and a public opinion researcher who has advised on nine electoral campaigns in Israel and worked in 15 other countries over 25 years. She is a Haaretz (English) columnist and a Century International policy fellow. She is the author of The Crooked Timber of Democracy in Israel: Promise Unfulfilled, listed on Foreign Affairs' Best Books of 2024.

Can movies mirror the reality of war? Should war movies be entertaining or horrifying? Today is June 6, the anniversary of the Invasion of Normandy in 1944. Films like The Longest Day and Saving Private Ryan capture the heroism and epic sweep of the D-Day invasion to liberate Western Europe from the Nazis, but what do such films leave out of the story? How do popular movies subtly influence our attitudes toward or perceptions of the past, as individuals and in collective memory? In this episode, historian Kevin Ruane reflects on the educational, entertainment, and political angles of our favorite D-Day films. Kevin Ruane is a By-Fellow of Churchill College, University of Cambridge, a Professor Emeritus of Canterbury Christ Church University, and the Director of the Graham Greene International Festival. He has written and taught on various international topics, including the Second World War, the Cold War, the Vietnam War, the Nuclear Age, and postwar European unity and security. His books include Churchill and the Bomb in War and Cold War (2016). Kevin is also a regular contributor to television, radio, and online history programmes, including, most recently, Churchill at War (Netflix), Britain's Nuclear Bomb Scandal (BBC), and The Manhattan Project in Colour (Channel 4, UK).

Trump administration officials say they're considering doing something that's only been done four times in U.S. history: suspend the writ of habeas corpus, a bedrock legal principle ensuring that an individual cannot be imprisoned unlawfully. The reason? President Trump wants his mass deportation scheme to operate faster. To deflect criticism, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has pointed to Abraham Lincoln's decision to suspend habeas corpus during the Civil War. Are the two situations really comparable? In this episode, historian James Oakes, an expert on Lincoln, slavery, and antebellum politics, explains the context of Lincoln's unprecedented use of presidential war powers. Further reading: Freedom National: The Destruction of Slavery in the United States, 1861-1865 by James Oakes

Since Theodore Roosevelt won a Nobel Peace Prize for helping end the Russo-Japanese War, American presidents have sought to mediate the end of conflicts in violent corners of the world. Some succeeded. What can President Donald Trump learn from his predecessors, as he claims to seek peace in Ukraine, the Middle East, and elsewhere? In this episode, historians Jeremi Suri and Jeffrey Engel talk about why wars are easy to start but hard to end, even -- or especially when -- a U.S. president presses his thumb on the scales. Further reading: The Impossible Presidency by Jeremi Suri When The World Seemed New by Jeffrey Engel

The theories of unrestrained executive power guiding the Trump administration's assault on the administrative state and its attitude toward the federal judiciary draw on a far-right intellectual tradition. The thrust of these ideas is that the president must be able to exercise emergency powers and that neither Congress nor the courts should stand in his way. In this episode, political theorist Damon Linker explains the origins of the ideas driving Trump 2.0. Linker writes Notes From the Middleground newsletter on Substack. Recommended reading: These Thinkers Set the Stage for Trump the All-Powerful by Damon Linker (New York Times)

China is ruled by a Communist Party of 100 million members, a giant pyramid with President Xi Jinping and the Politburo at the top. Yet its economy, the second largest in the world, largely thrives on private enterprise and integration with global capitalism. So what does it mean to be a Chinese Communist today? And what does China under Xi aim to achieve on the international stage? In this episode, historians Sergey Radchenko and Enrico Fardella peel away opaque layers of ideology to get to the heart of China's 21st-century outlook.

Historian Antony Beevor says the world today resembles the Second World War in one important respect: "For decades, it seemed as though the characters of leaders would never again determine the course of events the way they did in World War II. Putin's invasion has changed that, and Trump, taking Putin as a role model, has, too." In this episode, the esteemed war chronicler talks about the unsettling reasons why the post-1945 order is unraveling. Recommended reading: We Are Still Fighting World War II by Antony Beevor for Foreign Affairs, the official publication of the Council on Foreign Relations. The Second World War by Antony Beevor

For four days in early May, India and Pakistan were on the brink of another war over the contested Kashmir, the mountainous territory that has witnessed waves of ferocious violence since partition in 1947. A ceasefire averted major hostilities, but did not establish lasting peace. There has never been a durable peace in Kashmir since India and Pakistan first went to war over its control in October 1947. In this episode, Anatol Lieven of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft traces the origins of one of the world's most intractable conflicts.  Recommended reading: Pakistan: A Hard Country by Anatol Lieven

During the Palestinian people's darkest hour since 1948, as Israel seeks to displace Gazans and potentially annex the West Bank, the Palestinian leadership is absent. The Palestinian Authority is still around, and its president, Mahmoud Abbas, 89, has been in charge without an election for 20 years. However, the authority, which was established in 1994 and was supposed to be temporary, appears irrelevant and powerless. In this episode, Omar Rahman of the Middle East Council on Global Affairs breaks down the Palestinian Authority's many failings when its leadership is needed more than ever.

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 

Does history provide us with lessons, or does the past offer warnings about what might happen now based on human tendencies that transcend time and culture? In his new book The Nazi Mind, the historian and filmmaker Laurence Rees studies the Nazi mentalities that produced the most horrendous crimes in history. Beyond high-ranking Nazi officials and SS fanatics, Rees also delves into the attitudes of medical professionals and ordinary Germans who assisted their leaders in barbarous acts. What about the Nazis can help us navigate today's crisis of liberal democracy? Recommended reading: The Nazi Mind: Twelve Warnings From History by Laurence Rees

The 250th anniversary of the American Revolution's opening battles came and went with little fanfare. Colonial militia engaged British regulars at Lexington and Concord in April 1775. The Revolutionary War was underway. King George III would soon declare the American colonies in open rebellion. Is everyone saving their energy for next year's celebration of the Declaration of Independence? In this episode, historian Lindsay Chervinsky, the executive director of the George Washington Presidential Library at Mount Vernon, talks about the collapse of royal authority that was evident as early as 1774-75, well before formal independence was declared. The colonies were in a state of virtual independence, marking a transformation in the minds as well as the everyday lives of the American revolutionaries.

This is the final episode in a three-part series marking the Fall of Saigon on April 30, 1975. America's humiliating defeat in Vietnam, punctuated by images of military helicopters evacuating desperate personnel from the embassy rooftop in Saigon, left deep scars on the country's psyche. It took decades to come to terms with everything that went wrong, although some insisted the U.S. should not have abandoned the South Vietnamese in their hour of need in April 1975. In this episode, historians Jeremi Suri and Jeffrey Engel delve into the enduring consequences of the U.S. debacle in Southeast Asia. Jeremi Suri teaches history at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin. He hosts "This is Democracy" podcast and writes, with his son, the "Democracy of Hope" newsletter on Substack. Jeffrey A. Engel is the founding director of the Center for Presidential History at Southern Methodist University.

This is the second episode in a three-part series marking the Fall of Saigon on April 30, 1975. The antiwar movement began on the campuses and exploded onto the streets of major cities. Throughout the late 1960s and into the 1970s, millions of Americans opposed their country's military involvement in Vietnam. They marched in massive demonstrations, held silent vigils, and burned draft cards. They pressured government officials to change course before America lost its soul in Vietnam. Were they effective? Historians Paul McBride and Carolyn Eisenberg delve into the genesis of the antiwar movement, its aims, and its achievements -- and compare the activism of a half century ago to today's campus turmoil. Recommended reading: Fire and Rain: Nixon, Kissinger, and the Wars in Southeast Asia by Carolyn Eisenberg, winner of the Bancroft Prize Further listening: Defeat in Vietnam: Origins (Part 1, with historian Fredrik Logevall)

This is the first episode in a three-part series marking the Fall of Saigon on April 30, 1975. Is Vietnam still with us? Does this misbegotten American war still have something to teach? In this episode, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Fredrik Logevall, a preeminent scholar of the long war in Southeast Asia, delves into why U.S. leaders defied their better judgment and plunged the country into a quagmire that would haunt America for generations. The story may begin in 1965, when President Johnson sent the Marines into Da Nang, but the deep origins of the war take us back to 1945. Recommended reading: Choosing War: The Lost Chance for Peace and the Escalation of War in Vietnam by Fredrik Logevall Embers of War: The Fall of an Empire and the Making of America's Vietnam by Fredrik Logevall

Since the 1980s, Donald Trump has been railing against what he calls unfair trade with a focus on Japan and then China. Also during the '80s, President Reagan, remembered as a free trader, was an interventionist when it came to the closed Japanese market. A decade later, Bill Clinton threatened punitive tariffs on Japanese luxury cars. Moreover, the question of what to do about the decline in U.S. manufacturing and living standards has weighed on policymakers and the working class for 40 years. In this episode, historian Nelson Lichtenstein traces the origins of today's backlash to free trade as President Trump tries, with the blunt force instrument of tariffs, to undo global economic arrangements decades in the making. Recommended reading: A Fabulous Failure: The Clinton Presidency and the Transformation of American Capitalism by Nelson Lichtenstein

The Trump administration says it will deny entry to immigrants for "suspected antisemitic activity." It is attacking prestigious universities over the antiwar protests that roiled campuses last year. It is snatching and jailing foreign students who criticize Israel. Does any of this promote the welfare of Jews, or is it a cynical weaponization of antisemitism allegations designed to protect Israel's reputation? Antisemitism is a very real and intensifying problem, not only in the United States but across the globe. In this episode, historian Omer Bartov delves into the origins of this ancient hatred and the agendas of those cracking down on alleged antisemitism today. Further reading: Infinite License: The World After Gaza by Omer Bartov (The New York Review) Further listening: What Is Zionism? with guest Ian Lustick

A century after Kemal Atatürk galvanized the Turkish people and founded modern Turkey on the ashes of the Ottoman Empire -- and upon new principles of secularism, populism, and republicanism -- the current president is turning Turkey into an autocracy. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, 71, has been in power for 22 years and is acting like he wants to rule for the rest of his life. He is jailing political opponents and critical journalists while stuffing the judiciary with friendly judges. In this episode, the Middle East Institute's Gönül Tol delves into Erdoğan's push for complete power while reflecting on the enduring -- and now endangered -- principles of Kemalism. Further reading:  Turkey Is Now a Full-Blown Autocracy by Gönül Tol for Foreign Affairs, the official publication of the Council on Foreign Relations Erdoğan's War: A Strongman's Struggle at Home and in Syria by Gönül Tol    

When did the Civil War end? April 1865? August 1866? April 1877? Historian Michael Vorenberg delves into why each of these dates, among others, might be considered the final chapter of the bloodiest war ever fought on American soil. April 9 is the 160th anniversary of Confederate General Robert E. Lee's surrender at Appomattox Court House in Virginia. Fighting continued, however, and after the last rebel armies formally surrendered, terroristic violence and intimidation marred the postwar settlement as white supremacists fought to deny the newly freed African-Americans their rights. Further reading: Lincoln's Peace: The Struggle to End the American Civil War by Michael Vorenberg

President Trump's "Liberation Day" unveiling of sweeping tariffs on just about everything imported into the United States pushed the world to the brink of a potentially destructive trade war. One of Trump's apparent aims is to coerce Canada into becoming an American state. This has been tried before! In this episode, University of Exeter historian Marc Palen takes us back to the 1890s when American leaders tried to make Canada bend to U.S. economic coercion through protective tariff rates. The McKinley tariff was named after Congressman William McKinley, "the Napoleon of protection." The punitive tariff didn't work: Canada drew closer to Great Britain, and the Republicans were shellacked in the midterm elections of November 1890. Further reading: Pax Economica: Left-Wing Visions of a Free Trade World by Marc Palen Using Tariffs to Try to Turn Canada into American State Backfired in the Past by Marc Palen (article at Time.com)

Why was director Oliver Stone testifying on Capitol Hill today? After his 1991 film "JFK" reignited conspiracy theories about President Kennedy's assassination, Congress authorized the release of millions of classified documents. But it wasn't until this January when President Trump released the supposedly final 80,000 pages related to Kennedy's murder on Nov. 22, 1963. They revealed nothing new about the assassination itself. Lee Harvey Oswald was the killer, and he acted alone. However, the documents are filling in important gaps in our knowledge of what the CIA was up to in the 1960s: assassinations of foreign leaders, coups, election meddling -- and even a break-in at the French embassy in Washington! In this episode, national security experts Peter Kornbluh and Arturo Jimenez-Bacardi delve into the fascinating record of CIA covert operations and their disastrous consequences. Further reading: Kennedy Assassination Records Lift Veil of Secrecy by Peter Kornbluh and Arturo Jimenez-Bacardi for National Security Archive JFK Papers Reveal CIA Spying Operations in United States by Peter Kornbluh and Michael Evans for National Security Archive

Suspicious foreigners arrested without warrants. The suppression of free speech in the name of national security. Civil liberties shredded in a climate of hysteria. During and immediately after the First World War, the federal government under President Woodrow Wilson and ordinary patriotic Americans enforced conformity and loyalty while hunting for dangerous subversives and radical anarchists. Today, the Trump administration is abrogating the First Amendment for foreign students and deporting suspected Latin American gang members without due process. In this episode, historian Michael Kazin delves into parallels between past and present, the continuities in the American tradition of repression of civil liberties. Further reading: War Against War: The American Fight for Peace, 1914-1918 by Michael Kazin

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)

In March 2020, the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus outbreak, months after it originated in China, a global pandemic. It soon infected millions of Americans in all 50 states, upending daily life and revealing deep fissures and paranoia in society. Historian John Barry is an authority on the 1918 influenza pandemic and a scholar at the Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. In this episode, he reflects on the most important lessons learned from Covid-19 and how we can best prepare for the next pandemic. Recommended reading: The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History by John Barry

President Trump's move to shutter the U.S. Agency for International Development pleased its critics on the left and right while leaving the agency's supporters -- and many people across the world who depend on its programs -- reeling. Over the decades since being created by the Kennedy administration in 1961, U.S.A.I.D. has assisted millions of poor people in developing countries while also leaving behind a record, at least in some places, of nefariously meddling in their affairs. In this episode, former Ambassador Larry André, who worked for 33 years at the U.S. State Department, discusses the highs and lows in the agency's past -- and the future need for aid programs if the U.S. hopes to retain its influence. 

At the Munich Security Conference, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, "Many, many leaders have talked about Europe that needs its own military, and army -- an Army of Europe. And I really believe that time has come. The Armed Forces of Europe must be created." This idea is almost as old as NATO, and it will likely come to nothing for the same reasons it was stillborn in the early years of the Cold War when France proposed and then rejected the European Defense Community. In this episode, historian Kevin Ruane traces the history of a never-realized idea, but one that is nonetheless urgent as Europe scrambles to provide for its own security in the Age of Trump. Further reading: The Rise and Fall of the European Defence Community by Kevin Ruane

The right-wing Alternative for Deutschland (AfD) is now the second-most popular political party in Germany after a strong showing in national elections. The party is unapologetically pro-German, vehemently opposing the presence of Muslim immigrants and their country's membership in the European Union. AfD denies it is a neo-Nazi party, a taboo in a nation once ruled by Adolf Hitler. In this episode, historian Roger Griffin, a leading expert on fascism and extremist political ideologies, delves into the AfD's history and its place in an increasingly far-right European political climate.

His critics say President Trump is selling out Ukraine just as Franklin Delano Roosevelt supposedly sold out Poland at the 1945 Yalta Conference. Some historians have compared Trump's "appeasement" of Putin to Neville Chamberlain's appeasement of Hitler in 1938. Or, as Democrats contend, Donald Trump is betraying the Cold War legacy of Ronald Reagan. What if none of these historical episodes can be applied to today's crisis, as Ukraine defends itself against a nuclear-armed Russia? In this episode, historian Sergey Radchenko of the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies compares and contrasts the past and present. Recommended reading: To Run the World: The Kremlin's Cold War Bid for Global Power by Sergey Radchenko The Talks That Could Have Ended the War in Ukraine by Samuel Charap and Sergey Radchenko (article in Foreign Affairs)

In 2005 Israel unilaterally withdrew from Gaza, forcing out thousands of Jewish settlers. Peace did not follow in their wake. Rather than a resolution to Palestinian statelessness, Israelis and Arabs received 18 years of violence, defined by the pattern known as "mowing the grass" and leading to the Hamas terrorist attack on Oct 7, 2023. Why did Ariel Sharon's disengagement plan fail? Was it designed to freeze the peace process reignited three years earlier by President George W. Bush? In this episode, historian Ahron Bregman, an IDF veteran, delves into the origins of the current war. Further reading: Israel's Wars: A History Since 1947 by Ahron Bregman

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

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

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

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.

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)

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)    

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

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)

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)

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 (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)

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  

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    

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

President-elect Donald Trump, who has said illegal immigrants "poison 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)    

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

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. 

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.

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."