History As It Happens

Subscribe to enjoy ad-free listening, early access, and all of our bonus content! The American way of war is broken. Like many of his White House predecessors, Donald Trump is stuck in a stalemate of his own making. In Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq — to name four major wars — the president who went to war was unable to extricate the U.S. from the morass. It was up to his successor to salvage something from the wreckage of U.S. credibility and prestige. Our guest is Will Walldorf, who teaches in the Department of Politics and International Affairs at Wake Forest University. He is a Senior Fellow at Defense Priorities, a Washington think tank. His latest book is To Shape Our World For Good:  Master Narratives and Forceful Regime Change in United States Foreign Policy, 1900-2011. Recommended reading: Trump Needs to Defy History to End the Iran War by Will Walldorf (Foreign Policy) Subscribe today to support our important work! Subscriptions begin at only $5 per month. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Subscribe for ad-free listening and early access! The Trump administration is attempting to topple Cuba's government through economic warfare. An oil embargo and other punitive measures have led to severe consequences, including massive blackouts and water shortages. Ordinary Cubans are suffering, yet both they and their communist government are persevering — at least for now. The New York Times reports the CIA has established a secret task force to increase the pressure. The Cold War may be over, but U.S.-Cuba relations are frozen in time. What explains more than six decades of hostility? Historian Alexander Aviña is our guest. He's an associate professor of Latin American history in the School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies at Arizona State University. Further reading/listening: Timeline of U.S.-Cuba relations (Council on Foreign Relations) Flirting with Armageddon w/ Max Hastings on the Cuban Missile Crisis Subscribe today to support our important work! Subscriptions begin at only $5 per month. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The world is aflame with endless wars and racial strife. Some societies are tearing themselves apart as mass migration fuels a nationalist backlash. Since the nineteenth century, ethnic nationalism has been a potent force, galvanizing peoples — imagined nations — around shared myths and historical truths. Our guest is Sune Haugbølle, an expert on global political sociology. He specializes in social memory, the history of radical movements, and transnational solidarity at Roskilde University in Denmark. He is the author of War and Memory in Lebanon (Cambridge Middle East Studies). Further listening: The Nakba: 1947-present w/ historian Mark LeVine Subscribe today to History As It Happens Premium for ad-free listening, early access, and bonus content! Subscribe today to support our important work! Subscriptions begin at only $5 per month. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Subscribe today to History As It Happens Premium for ad-free listening, early access, and bonus content! This is the 70th year of Sudanese independence, but there is little to celebrate and much to lament as the country continues to tear itself apart. Three major civil wars have consumed 43 years of Sudan's seven decades, not counting the many years of violence and genocide in Darfur from 2003. The current war has entered its fourth year with no prospect of peace. Recent fighting has drawn the world's attention to the central Sudanese city of El Obeid, where thousands of desperate civilians are sheltering from a feared onslaught by the genocidal Rapid Support Forces. Alex de Waal returns to the podcast to discuss the driving forces behind the violence and why the world is incapable or unwilling to stop it. Alex de Waal is the Executive Director of the World Peace Foundation and one of the foremost experts on Sudan and the Horn of Africa. He is the co-author of The Sudans: Africa's Search for Peace, Democracy, and Two Viable States.

Subscribe now to listen to the entire 17-minute episode (or preview 7 minutes). The precarious international consensus on nuclear non-proliferation is cracking. The Trump administration announced a civilian nuclear agreement with Saudi Arabia — long sought by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman — which experts fear could lead to the Saudis pursuing nuclear weapons in violation of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. The deal allows for the kingdom to enrich uranium and reprocess plutonium on its own soil. In this episode, Joe Cirincione explains the potential danger to the U.S.-led nuclear order. Recommended reading: Trump's Saudi pact could be the worst nuclear deal in history by Joe Cirincione (MS Now)

Subscribe now to listen to the entire 16-minute episode (or preview 5 minutes). President Trump seems helpless. All the bombs and missiles he flings at Iran cannot solve his problems — problems he created by attacking Iran on the magical belief that the Islamic regime would crumble and be replaced by people whom Trump could control. It was a fantasy, and now, as the war enters its sixth month, Iran maintains a stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz. The situation is in limbo, floating somewhere between war and peace — with little hope that a new nuclear accord with Iran is possible. Trita Parsi is co-founder and executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. He is an expert on US-Iranian relations, Iranian foreign policy, and the geopolitics of the Middle East.

Become a subscriber for ad-free listening, early access, and bonus content. Was it possible for the leaders of the new American republic to end slavery entirely? Was the violent dispossession of Native peoples inevitable? These questions are integral to the eminent historian Joseph Ellis' new book about what he calls the two major failures of the revolutionary generation, "The Great Contradiction: The Tragic Side of the American Founding." Other questions to consider while listening are whether the Constitution consisted of compromises over slavery or capitulations to Southern slave interests. Also, whether Native Americans' views of land and property could ever be compatible with those of land-hungry white settlers. Further listening (America250 series): Episode 1 w/ Lindsay Chervinsky Episode 2 w/ Kate Carté Episode 3 w/ Alan Taylor Episode 4 w/ Lindsay Chervinsky Episode 5 w/ Jim Oakes Episode 6 w/ Sean Wilentz Episode 7 w/ H.W. Brands Episode 8 w/ Alan Taylor

Subscribe now for ad-free listening, early access, and bonus content. Is Congress irreparably broken or temporarily stuck as it fails to act as a co-equal branch of government willing to check a rogue executive? And how did it get this way? In the aftermath of Vietnam and Watergate, the winds of political change swept young, ambitious reformers into the halls of Congress, and they left an important legislative legacy. But in the decades since, Congress' potential to affect meaningful change — and prevent unnecessary wars — has been whittled away. Maya Kornberg is here to explain why. Maya Kornberg is a senior research fellow at NYU Law's Brennan Center for Justice, and the author of Stuck: How Money, Media, and Violence Prevent Change in Congress. Further listening: Iran and the Laws of War w/ Adil Haque Obama and Libya w/ Jeremi Suri

The podcast needs your support. Subscribe now for ad-free listening, early access, and bonus content. Have too many liberals and leftists given up on patriotism? Have they forgotten the tradition of social movements striving for equal political and economic rights as expressed in the country's founding ideals? Historian Michael Kazin says these ideals can be used "as both a benchmark against which to measure how far we have fallen short and a means of articulating the Constitution's vision of a more perfect union." Michael Kazin teaches history at Georgetown University and is the author of "What It Took To Win: A History of the Democratic Party." Further reading: The Left Needs to Rediscover its Patriotism by Michael Kazin (The Atlantic) Howard Zinn's History Lessons by Michael Kazin (Dissent)   Help make History As It Happens sustainable. Become a subscriber today. 

Subscribe now for ad-free listening, early access, and bonus content. Now well into its fifth year, Russia's invasion of Ukraine appears to be a stalemate on the ground while the combatants seek a decisive edge in the air with drones and missiles. Diplomacy to end the war seems to be going nowhere. No one can say with any certainty how or when the war may end. Do the war's origins point toward an exit? Anatol Lieven is our guest. Anatol Lieven is Director of the Eurasia Program and the Andrew Bacevich chair in American Diplomatic History at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft.

Subscribe now for ad-free listening, early access, and bonus content. Herman Melville's masterpiece Moby-Dick has something to teach us about democracy, citizenship, and the rule of law. A flop when published in the mid-nineteenth century, Moby-Dick has long been considered a quintessential American novel — an epic adventure story layered with allegory. In this episode, historian Michael Kimmage revisits the novel with a focus on the character Starbuck, the first mate who clashes with Captain Ahab over his mad pursuit of the white whale. Recommended reading: Citizen Starbuck, or Democracy and the Whale by Michael Kimmage (Liberties Journal) Subscribe: https://historyasithappens.supercast.com/ 

This is a special episode of History As It Happens. South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham is dead. His office says Graham died from "a brief and sudden illness" on Saturday night in Washington. He was 71. Graham was first elected to the U.S. House in 1994 and the Senate in 2002. He was seeking a fifth term in the midterm elections this November. After first condemning Donald Trump during the 2016 campaign, the conservative Republican turned into one of Trump's most fawning supporters. In this episode, University of Texas at Austin historian Jeremi Suri examines Graham's extensive legislative and political legacy. Jeremi Suri writes the Democracy of Hope newsletter on Substack.  Subscribe to skip ads! https://historyasithappens.supercast.com/ 

Keep the narrative flow going while supporting the show! Subscribe now for ad-free listening, early access, and bonus content. The discourse is drowning in -isms. President Trump is railing against an imaginary resurgence of communism. Many of its critics say the Trump administration is putting the country on the road to fascism. Others are trying to define something called Trumpism. In this episode, historian Roger Griffin, one of the world's foremost experts on fascism and ideological movements, explains how these ideas developed over time through the prism of his own career. Recommended reading: The Nature of Fascism by Roger Griffin Subscribe: https://historyasithappens.supercast.com/ 

Subscribe now for ad-free listening, early access, and bonus content. When the Trump administration attacked Iran in late February, some war backers dreamt that the Iranian people would rise en masse and take control of their country. It proved to be a dangerous fantasy. But then the history of U.S.-Iran relations is full of cruel ironies. More than 70 years ago, a democrat and nationalist named Mohammad Mossadegh galvanized the Iranian people and tried to liberate his country from foreign domination, only to be betrayed by the United States. Historian Roham Alvandi is our guest. Further listening: Operation Ajax (podcast w/ Gregory Brew) Recommended reading: Patriot of Persia by Christopher de Bellaigue America and Iran by John Ghazvinian

Subscribe now for ad-free listening, early access, and bonus content. This is the eighth episode in a series marking the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, America's semiquincentennial. By the time the delegates at the Continental Congress formally declared independence in July 1776, the armed rebellion had been underway for more than a year. General George Washington had been in the field since the summer of '75. The men of the Continental Army saw little glory throughout a bloody, prolonged conflict during which they were often half-naked and hungry. More men died from disease than from enemy bullets. In this episode, historian Alan Taylor tells us what it was like to be a soldier fighting the British and fellow Americans who stayed loyal to the crown. Recommended reading: American Revolutions, A Continental History, 1750-1804 by Alan Taylor Further listening (America250 series): Episode 1 w/ Lindsay Chervinsky Episode 2 w/ Kate Carté Episode 3 w/ Alan Taylor Episode 4 w/ Lindsay Chervinsky Episode 5 w/ Jim Oakes Episode 6 w/ Sean Wilentz Episode 7 w/ H.W. Brands

Subscribe now for ad-free listening, early access, and bonus content. Enjoy this special episode of History As It Happens! On June 26, podcast host Martin Di Caro attended a screening of "Young Washington" at Mount Vernon in Virginia. The new film tells the story of George Washington's formative years as an officer in the Virginia militia at the outbreak of the French & Indian War (1754-1763). "Young Washington" was directed by Jon Erwin and is a collaboration between Wonder Project and Angel, the film's distributor. In this episode, Martin interviews William Franklyn-Miller, the actor who plays Washington; Doug Bradburn, the president and CEO of Mount Vernon; and others involved with the film's production and educational campaign.  

Subscribe now for ad-free listening, early access, and bonus content. As the president's approval ratings sink to a low ahead of the midterm elections, is the end of the Age of Trump in sight, or will his politics endure? What of Donald Trump's presidency might last? When it comes to ideology, Trump is as difficult to pin down today as he was when he announced his first presidential run in 2015. Are we witnessing a politics after ideology? Our guest is Damon Linker, the political scientist and author of Notes From The Middleground newsletter. Further reading: Politics After Ideology by Damon Linker

Subscribe now for ad-free listening, early access, and bonus content. This is the seventh episode in a series marking the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, America's semiquincentennial. He was the indispensable American. George Washington held together the Continental Army as its commander-in-chief during the Revolutionary War. Then he answered his countrymen's call to serve as the new nation's first president, setting important precedents over the next eight years. Without him, the new republic might have failed. His leadership and the esteem in which he was held are the stuff of legend. The story is real. George Washington was not a demigod. As a general, he lost more battles than he won. But he was still indispensable to the causes of revolution and nation-building. In this episode, historian H.W. Brands discusses his new book, American Patriarch: The Life of George Washington. Further listening (America250 series): Episode 1 w/ Lindsay Chervinsky Episode 2 w/ Kate Carté Episode 3 w/ Alan Taylor Episode 4 w/ Lindsay Chervinsky Episode 5 w/ Jim Oakes Episode 6 w/ Sean Wilentz

Subscribe now to listen to the entire 24-minute episode (or preview 8 minutes). One of the most influential central bankers in U.S. history, Alan Greenspan, who chaired the Federal Reserve for 19 years, died on June 22. He was 100. Greenspan was once treated as an oracle whose policies and arcane pronouncements moved markets. After the '08 crash, however, his legacy was badly tarnished because he had embraced a quasi-religious faith in markets to regulate themselves — a fantasy that led to ruin shortly after he departed the Fed. Our guest is historian Nelson Lichtenstein, the author of A Fabulous Failure: The Clinton Presidency and the Transformation of American Capitalism.

Subscribe now for ad-free listening, early access, and bonus content. This is the sixth episode in a series marking the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, America's semiquincentennial. The American Revolution was deeply rooted in Enlightenment philosophy and inspired by the principle of natural rights. Even before the fighting broke out at Lexington and Concord, some Americans were calling attention to the terrible contradiction of slavery. These few would grow in number and form the first organized antislavery movement in history. In this episode, Sean Wilentz discusses this long-neglected aspect of the American Revolution. Recommended reading: No Property in Man by Sean Wilentz Further listening (America250 series): Episode 1 w/ Lindsay Chervinsky Episode 2 w/ Kate Carté Episode 3 w/ Alan Taylor Episode 4 w/ Lindsay Chervinsky Episode 5 w/ Jim Oakes

Subscribe now for ad-free listening, early access, and bonus content. The national mood was dour. Political scandals and a lost war cast long shadows. The economy was mired in stagflation. Americans were losing confidence in the future. It was the summer of '76 — 1976! Yet despite the tough times, millions celebrated the nation's bicentennial, which was both patriotic and a bit schlocky. Historians Jeremi Suri and Jeffrey Engel reflect on that strange summer as many Americans today shrug their shoulders at the coming semiquincentennial. Jeremi Suri teaches history at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin. He writes the Democracy of Hope newsletter. Jeffrey Engel is the founding director of the Center for Presidential History at Southern Methodist University. Further reading: On the Country's 250th Anniversary, the American People Are in a Sour Mood by Pew Research

Enjoy this entire 49-minute bonus episode! To listen to future bonus content and get early access to ad-free episodes, become a subscriber today. History As It Happens Premium costs $5 per month. **** On June 7, 2026, the historian Gordon Wood died at 92. He was one of the greatest scholars of the American Revolution and early Republic, who did "as much as anyone to deepen understanding and change perceptions of the forces and events that led to the birth of the United States," according to The New York Times. In this episode, three historians talk about why Gordon Wood's scholarship was so influential, and why his vision of the American founding remains valuable as the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence approaches. Daniel Gullotta teaches American religious history, with a focus on Christianity in Early America, at Ohio State University. Michael Hattem is a historian of the American Revolution specializing in historical memory, political culture, and intellectual history at Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute. Craig Bruce Smith is a professor of history at National Defense University in Norfolk, Va. (The views he expresses here are his and his alone.)

Subscribe now for ad-free listening, early access, and bonus content. Chuck Todd is our special guest in this episode. He explains how changes in mass media and the journalism business led to the Trump presidency, and how Trump himself exploited the new media landscape to achieve power. Chuck Todd hosts The Chuck ToddCast on YouTube. He is the former NBC News political director and moderator of "Meet the Press." Further reading: The 24/7 Presidency (The Miller Center at the University of Virginia)

Never listen to ads again! Subscribe now for ad-free listening, early access, and bonus content. Our memories of D-Day usually center on the courage and grit of the infantrymen who stormed the Normandy beaches under German fire. We don't talk much about the weatherman. But without Group Captain James Stagg's forecast, there would have been few heroes to remember from June 6, 1944. In this episode, historian William Hitchcock discusses the riveting new film "Pressure," about the excruciating hours before General Eisenhower greenlit Operation Overlord. Audio excerpts of "Pressure" are from Focus Features. Recommended reading: The Bitter Road to Freedom: A New History of the Liberation of Europe by William Hitchcock

Subscribe now for ad-free listening, early access, and bonus content! President Donald Trump's corruption and abuse of power are staggering. In his second term, he has prioritized enriching himself and his family in broad daylight, while weaponizing the Department of Justice to go after his enemies. In this episode, historian Ken Hughes, an expert on Nixon's secret White House tapes and Watergate, compares and contrasts how America's constitutional system responded to each president's rogue behavior. Recommended reading: By Ken Hughes Chasing Shadows: The Nixon Tapes, the Chennault Affair, and the Origins of Watergate Fatal Politics: The Nixon Tapes, the Vietnam War and the Casualties of Reelection

Subscribe now for ad-free listening, early access, and bonus content! What was Cold War liberalism? What is its lasting significance? Does it live on as a zombie ideology? In this episode, historians Daniel Bessner and Michael Brenes trace the origins of this powerful ideology to the 1930s and 40s. It soon reached the apogee of its influence, only to decline after the tragedy of Vietnam. As Americans today grapple with the disastrous consequences of decades of military adventurism, they might find some answers in Cold War liberalism, which shaped U.S. foreign policy as the country emerged from the Second World War a superpower. Daniel Bessner teaches history at the University of Washington and cohosts American Prestige podcast. Michael Brenes is Co-Director of the Brady-Johnson Program in Grand Strategy and Lecturer in History at Yale University. Recommended reading: Cold War Liberalism: Power in a Time of Emergency edited by Daniel Bessner and Michael Brenes

Enjoy this entire 30-minute bonus episode! To listen to future bonus content and get early access to ad-free episodes, become a subscriber today. History As It Happens Premium costs $5 per month. Why do some opponents of the abandoned JCPOA, also known as the Iran nuclear deal of 2015, continue to lie about it? Many of these critics are now the most vocal backers of President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's fiasco of a war against the Islamic Republic, which has failed in all its main objectives while leading to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. What was actually in the JCPOA? What did it really accomplish? And why is President Trump reluctant to agree to something similar, or possibly a little better, than what President Obama came up with a decade ago? A negotiated settlement is the only way out of this war. Nuclear arms expert Joe Cirincione is our guest. Further reading: Dollars For Dust by Joe Cirincione (Strategy & History newsletter)

Subscribe now for ad-free listening, early access, and bonus content! This is the fifth episode in an occasional series for the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, America's semiquincentennial. Americans have always contested the meanings and purpose of the Revolution. During the 1850s, both unionists and secessionists, the anti-slavery movement and pro-slavery stalwarts, cited the Declaration of Independence to defend their positions. How could Americans who were on opposite sides of the all-important slavery conflict cite the same document invoking fundamental human equality? In this episode, historian James Oakes takes us into the mind of Abraham Lincoln, who reached back to 1776 to denounce the South's peculiar institution. Recommended reading: The Radical and the Republican: Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln, and the Triumph of Antislavery Politics by James Oakes Further listening (America250 series): Episode 1 w/ Lindsay Chervinsky Episode 2 w/ Kate Carté Episode 3 w/ Alan Taylor Episode 4 w/ Lindsay Chervinsky

Subscribe now for ad-free listening, early access, and bonus content! Every May, Israelis celebrate the anniversary of their independence. For Palestinians, their memories are of dispossession and displacement. Beginning in late 1947, months before the official creation of the Jewish state, Jewish forces expelled Palestinian Arabs and destroyed their homes and villages. By the time the Nakba, which means catastrophe in Arabic, was over, some 750,000 Palestinians had been expelled in one of the first ethnic cleansing operations of the post-WWII era. Yet it took generations for this story to receive the attention it deserves — an alarming erasure because today's conflict cannot be understood without this "other half" of Israel's origin story. Historian Mark LeVine of the University of California-Irvine is our guest. Further reading: Art Beyond the Edge: Creativity and Conflict in the World on Fire by Mark LeVine Overthrowing Geography: Jaffa, Tel Aviv, and the Struggle for Palestine, 1880-1948 by Mark LeVine

Subscribe now for ad-free listening, early access, and bonus content! This is the fourth episode in an occasional series for the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, America's semiquincentennial. What if we approached this coming Fourth of July not as a single day to celebrate a special national birthday, but as the start of a decade-long commitment to a "civic renaissance"? The story of the founding of the United States didn't end on July 4, 1776 — it remains a work in progress (with plenty of setbacks, too). Indeed, a question people pondered at the time remains important today: What does it mean to be a republican citizen? Historian Lindsay Chervinsky, the executive director of the George Washington Library at Mount Vernon, is our guest. Further reading: A Bold Civic Renaissance for America's 250th by Lindsay Chervinsky and Julie Silverbrook (National Constitution Center) Further listening: Episode 1 w/ Lindsay Chervinsky Episode 2 w/ Kate Carté Episode 3 w/ Alan Taylor

Keep the narrative flow going! Subscribe now for ad-free listening, early access, and bonus content! In the history of the long, misbegotten American project in Vietnam, an episode that pulled the country deeper into the quagmire deserves more attention. In 1963, the Kennedy administration green-lit a coup to topple the regime of Ngo Dinh Diem in South Vietnam. Diem was an ardent anti-Communist who lost U.S. support after a cascade of missteps in his war against the Viet Cong and his crackdown on the majority Buddhists. As "regime change" dominates today's headlines, the historian-journalist Jack Cheevers explains why the attempt to control South Vietnam ended in ruin — and with Diem murdered. History As It Happens Premium costs $5/month or $50/year. 10-day free trial, cancel any time. Subscribe here: https://historyasithappens.supercast.com/ 

Subscribe now to listen to the entire 16-minute episode (or preview 6 minutes). President Trump is the eighth U.S. president to visit China since Richard Nixon's bold gamble to establish diplomatic relations with the Communist country in 1972. During his two-day summit with Xi Jinping last week, Trump's first China trip since 2017, the two leaders praised one another and discussed several pressing issues, but they came away with few, if any, substantive breakthroughs. Anatol Lieven of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft offers his post-summit analysis.

Keep the narrative flow going! Subscribe now for ad-free listening, early access, and bonus content! The Nazis' official name was the National Socialist German Workers' Party, which may seem a strange choice given Hitler's ferocious hostility toward Marxism and Communism. Yet many right-wing pundits and politicians today argue that the Nazis were a left-wing movement opposed to capitalism, as evidenced by the party's name, rhetoric, and policies. Is it true? Historian Roger Griffin, one of the world's leading experts on fascism, is here with a nuanced take on these historical ambiguities. Recommended reading: Fascism: A Quick Immersion by Roger Griffin

Keep the narrative flow going! Subscribe now for ad-free listening, early access, and bonus content! What emerged as a national movement to liberate Europe's Jews by establishing a Jewish homeland has become a racist, irrational, vengeful state ideology worthy of history's dustbin, contends historian Omer Bartov in his new book, "Israel: What Went Wrong?" Bartov, an expert on the Holocaust and genocide at Brown University, was among the first major historians to warn that Israel's destruction of Gaza could turn genocidal. He argues that decades of the occupation of Palestinian territories (since 1967) had already inured most Israeli Jews to the suffering of others before the Hamas atrocities of Oct. 7, 2023. Today, he says those feelings have hardened into outright hostility or utter indifference. Where did it start going wrong? Bartov points to Israel's founding: David Ben-Gurion's opposition to writing a constitution and to defining the new state's borders. History As It Happens Premium costs $5/month or $50/year. 10-day free trial, cancel any time. Subscribe here: https://historyasithappens.supercast.com/ 

Subscribe now to listen to the entire 18-minute episode (or preview 6 minutes). Two and a half months after President Trump ordered U.S. forces to bomb Iran, there is no war, no peace, and the Strait of Hormuz is still closed at both ends. The global economy is staggering from the loss of energy resources (oil and natural gas) that normally traverse the strait. Iran wants to establish its sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz as part of any settlement. What's actually happening out there? The Wall Street Journal's chief foreign affairs correspondent Yaroslav Trofimov joins us from Dubai, which faces the Persian Gulf.

Subscribe now for early access, ad-free listening, and bonus content! Lebanon, a small country on the Mediterranean coast that cannot defend its borders, is once again stuck in a hellacious bind, between Hezbollah fanaticism and Israeli destruction. Since its long civil war (1975-90), sectarian strife and foreign occupation have intermixed with economic mismanagement and political paralysis, leaving Lebanon in a near-permanent state of crisis. In this episode, Maha Yahya of Carnegie Middle East Center joins us from Beirut to explain the causes of the country's deep domestic problems. Recommended reading: Pity the Nation: The Abduction of Lebanon by Robert Fisk

Subscribe now for early access, ad-free listening, and bonus content! A decade before the state of Israel was born, a revolt rocked the British mandate of Palestine. It was an uprising of Arab peasants directed at their colonial overlords, Zionist immigrants, and Arab elites. The Great Revolt of 1936-1939 nearly succeeded before it was crushed by overwhelming force, a setback from which the Palestinian national movement never truly recovered. When you listen to this episode, you'll hear its echoes in today's crisis. Our guest is Ted Swedenburg, professor emeritus of anthropology at the University of Arkansas and author of Memories of Revolt: The 1936–1939 Rebellion and the Palestinian National Past.

Subscribe now for early access, ad-free listening, and bonus content! HAIH Premium subscribers got this episode (with no ads!) on Monday, May 4. The United States' failure to defeat Iran in an unprovoked, undeclared war is fueling the notion that the U.S. is in decline. Its security commitments cover the globe. The annual defense budget is approaching $1 trillion. But the Pentagon can neither defend its Persian Gulf bases from low-cost drone attacks nor reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Forty years ago, a Yale historian named Paul Kennedy argued in a best-selling book that the U.S., like all great powers, could not avoid relative decline, especially if it failed to square means and ends. In those days, the national debt was $3 trillion. Today, it's soaring toward $40 trillion. Our guest is one of Paul Kennedy's old students, historian Jeremi Suri. Jeremi Suri teaches history at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin. He writes the Democracy of Hope newsletter and co-hosts This is Democracy podcast. Further reading: The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers by Paul Kennedy

Subscribe now for early access, ad-free listening, and bonus content! Shortly after taking office in 1969, President Richard Nixon believed he might intimidate, through military threats, the Soviet Union and North Vietnam into making concessions at the peace table. In Nixon's words, it was "Madman theory." It didn't work. Today, President Trump has tried to bluster and bluff his way to victory over Iran, even threatening to wipe out Iranian civilization. Now the president hopes a naval blockade will force Tehran into surrendering the Strait of Hormuz and its nuclear ambitions. Historian Carolyn Eisenberg is our guest. Historian Carolyn Eisenberg teaches at Hofstra University. She is an expert on the Vietnam War and the author of Fire and Rain: Nixon, Kissinger, and the Wars in Southeast Asia.

Subscribe now for early access, ad-free listening, and bonus content! In late April 1986, what should have been a routine test at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in northeastern Ukraine turned into an epic disaster, the largest ever accidental release of deadly radiation. It contaminated the earth, exposed the rot in the Soviet system, and changed the course of history. To this day, Chernobyl is not only a place on a map. It's a symbol of death, destruction, and the terrible legacy of the USSR. Mariana Budjeryn is our guest. Mariana Budjeryn is a senior researcher with the Center for Nuclear Security Policy at MIT's Security Studies Program. She is the author of Inheriting the Bomb: The Collapse of the USSR and the Nuclear Disarmament of Ukraine. Further listening: When Ukraine Had Nukes w/ Mariana Budjeryn

Subscribe now for early access, ad-free listening, and bonus content! HAIH Premium subscribers got this episode (with no ads!) on Thursday, April 23. When he took power 25 years ago, Russian President Vladimir Putin wanted to turn his country into a Great Power again, after it had endured a decade of poverty and humiliation following the collapse of the Soviet Union. But Russia is on the sidelines as wars and blockades in the Greater Middle East roil the global order. Yes, Russia has reportedly assisted Iran with satellite targeting intelligence, and its economy may benefit from the bump in oil prices. But Moscow is in no position to provide robust military assistance to its "strategic partner" Iran, and none of its representatives have been invited to the peace talks in Islamabad. Historian Sergey Radchenko explains why Russian influence is essentially irrelevant in a region where it once exerted an important presence. Sergey Radchenko teaches history at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. He is the author of To Run the World: The Kremlin's Cold War Bid for Global Power. Further reading: Putin's Persian Problem by Sergey Radchenko (Foreign Policy)

Subscribe now for early access, ad-free listening, and bonus content! HAIH Premium subscribers got this episode (with no ads!) on Monday, April 20. With Gaza destroyed and Jewish settlers rampaging the West Bank, and with the IDF occupying parts of southern Lebanon and Syria, talk of achieving "Greater Israel" is now commonplace among influential political and media figures in Israel, as well as the settlers who have their eyes set on annexing Palestinian territory. What does this Old Testament idea mean? And what current forces — religious, nationalist, and others — are driving it? Political scientist Ian Lustick is our guest. Ian Lustick is a professor emeritus at the University of Pennsylvania and an expert on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He's the author of many books, including For the Land and the Lord: Jewish Fundamentalism in Israel. His next book, Israel's Lobby: America in the Grip of a Foreign Power, will be released in August, co-authored with Eli Clifton. Further listening: What is Zionism? w/ Ian Lustick

Subscribe now for early access, ad-free listening, and bonus content! HAIH Premium subscribers got this episode (with no ads!) on Thursday, April 16. There was an old idea behind President Trump's threats to annihilate Iran's bridges, power plants, and other civilian infrastructure. It's called strategic bombing, and it was devised more than a century ago by an Italian air power theorist with a French-sounding name. Giulio Douhet said air power should be used to destroy the enemy's capacity to make war while terrorizing its citizens to crush their will to persevere. In this episode, historian David M. Kennedy discusses Douhet's ideas and the sinister purposes to which they can be applied. Recommended reading: Freedom From Fear: The American People in Depression and War, 1929-1945 by David M. Kennedy

Subscribe now to listen to the entire 20-minute episode (or preview 5 minutes). After 16 years in power, the self-described illiberal democrat Viktor Orbán and his Fidesz political party were trounced in Hungary's national elections. Critics of Orbán's authoritarian style had long become concerned that he had so tilted the electoral system in Fidesz's favor that he might never be beaten. So, what happened to MAGA darling Viktor Orbán? Political scientist Veronica Anghel of the European University Institute is our guest.

Subscribe now for early access, ad-free listening, and bonus content! Great Britain, France, and Israel's secret plan in 1956 to invade Egypt, regain control of the Suez Canal, and force the nationalist strongman Gamal Nasser from power ended in strategic disaster. The Eisenhower administration angrily opposed the surprise attack and pressured the aggressors to withdraw, ensuring Egypt would maintain control of the vital waterway. Today, as the U.S. fights a war of choice against Iran with no easy way to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, some believe the United States is experiencing its own 'Suez moment,' which will accelerate its strategic decline in a region where so many American projects have failed. Historian Salim Yaqub is our guest. Salim Yaqub is a historian at U.C. Santa Barbara and an expert on U.S. involvement in the Middle East in the postwar era. He's the author of "Containing Arab Nationalism: The Eisenhower Doctrine and the Middle East."

Keep the narrative flow going in 2026. Subscribe now for early access, ad-free listening, and bonus content! Over eight long years in the 1980s, Iraq and Iran pulverized each other in an unwinnable, pointless war that nonetheless began as an existential threat to the new revolutionary government in Tehran. In the crucible of war, the Islamic Republic cemented hardline clerical rule, crushed dissent, forged an identity, demonstrated its resilience, ensured the country's independence, and created a powerful national narrative to challenge hostile "imperialists" in the West and East. In this episode, political scientist Hussein Banai, an expert on U.S.-Iran relations, discusses the enduring relevance of the Iran-Iraq War as the theocratic regime attempts to survive a U.S.-Israeli onslaught in 2026. Recommended reading: Republics of Myth: National Narratives and the US-Iran Conflict by Hussein Banai, Malcolm Byrne, and John Tirman Iran-Iraq War (Encyclopedia Britannica)

Subscribe now to listen to the entire 38-minute episode (or preview 10 minutes). Can a Siberian peasant influence the course of history? In the case of Grigori Rasputin, the answer was yes. A wanderer, mystic, and spiritual healer, Rasputin was also corrupt and lecherous — and his meddling in the affairs of state helped bring down the Tsarist autocracy in the crucible of war and revolution. In this episode, Antony Beevor, the renowned military historian, talks about his new biography, 'Rasputin: The Downfall of the Romanovs.' Further reading: Russia: Revolution and Civil War, 1917-1921 by Antony Beevor

Keep the narrative flow going in 2026. Subscribe now for early access, ad-free listening, and bonus content! Wars in Eastern Europe and the Greater Middle East are killing and displacing societies and roiling the global economy. There is no end in sight: despite possessing powerful military arsenals and cutting-edge tech, warring states are unable to achieve decisive victories in modern warfare. In this episode, historian Michael Kimmage, the director of the Kennan Institute, defines the limits of power and how the failure to grasp these limits threatens further disorder. Recommended reading: The War in Ukraine Changed the World in Ways We're Only Starting to Comprehend by Michael Kimmage (New York Times) Collisions: The War in Ukraine and the Origins of the New Global Instability by Michael Kimmage

Subscribe now for early access, ad-free listening, and bonus content! With the Greater Middle East on fire from Gaza to Iran, bureaucratic and administrative changes taking place inside Israel may be easy to overlook. The right-wing coalition of Benjamin Netanyahu and the country's security establishment are annexing the West Bank. Even before the Six-Day War in 1967, the West Bank, often called Judea and Samaria, had been eyed by Jewish settlers, some of whom believe their holy books sanction the taking of Palestinian territory. In this episode, Dahlia Scheindlin and Yael Berda delve into the historical origins of today's crisis and explain how annexation has been realized. Dahlia Scheindlin is a public opinion researcher and a political advisor who has worked on nine national campaigns in Israel and in 15 other countries. She is the author of The Crooked Timber of Democracy in Israel: Promise Unfulfilled. Yael Berda is an Associate Professor of Sociology & Anthropology at Hebrew University. Her research focuses on the way bureaucracy shapes politics, and how mundane and routine practices of the state determine citizenship, sovereignty, and social power. Recommended reading: 'Tectonic': Israeli Annexation of the West Bank Is Now a Legal Reality by Dahlia Scheindlin (Haaretz) The Theory of Annexation by Ronit Levine-Schnur, Tamar Megiddo, and Yael Berda (Oxford Journal of Legal Studies)

Subscribe now to listen to the entire 22-minute episode (or preview 7 minutes). President Donald Trump is not the first president to consider seizing Kharg Island in the Persian Gulf. Forty-six years ago, Jimmy Carter and his national security team mulled deploying troops to take the oil-critical island to compel Iran's revolutionary government to free more than 50 Americans held hostage at the U.S. embassy in Tehran. Today, the idea behind any such attack would be to force open the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran closed to most tanker traffic after the U.S. and Israel started bombing on Feb. 28. In this episode, historian Jeremi Suri reflects on Carter's bind and the potentially disastrous consequences if Trump deploys boots on the ground. Jeremi Suri teaches at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin. He cohosts 'This is Democracy' podcast and co-writes the Democracy of Hope newsletter. Subscribe: www.historyasithappens.com

Subscribe now for early access, ad-free listening, and bonus content! The destruction of Palestinian society in Gaza is not over. More than five months after the ceasefire, Israel continues to kill Palestinians in airstrikes while restricting food and medicine to the enclave's desperate population. Yet the world's attention has moved on to other problems. Enter historian Jean-Pierre Filiu, who traveled to Gaza for 32 days to bear witness to the consequences of Israel's war of national annihilation. In this episode, Filiu shares what he experienced on the ground in Gaza, the subject of his new book, "A Historian in Gaza." Further reading: Why Gaza Matters by Jean-Pierre Filiu (in Foreign Affairs, the official publication of the Council on Foreign Relations)