History As It Happens

President Biden's upcoming trip to Saudi Arabia is an example of reality imposing itself on a situation Mr. Biden vowed to change. In November 2019, Democratic candidate Biden said the kingdom should be punished and treated as a pariah, because its de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, had been implicated in the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. But as Middle East expert Bob Vitali...

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

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

There is a pattern in U.S. history of a nation seeking redemption through war, attempting to restore its global standing and credibility after a humiliating defeat. By backing Ukraine's effort to repel the Russian invasion, some American intellectuals say the U.S. is also fighting for the fate of democracy and the world order it has led since 1945. In this reasoning, a victory by Ukraine over Russ...

In February Russia chose war with Ukraine. In response, the U.S. chose to dramatically increase aid and arms shipments to Kyiv. But now that a frozen war is descending on the eastern Donbas region, one that is likely to drag on for months, certain questions about the U.S. commitment can no longer be ignored. How long can the U.S. support Ukraine? Can the U.S. control any escalation caused by a Rus...

On this 78th anniversary of the D-Day invasion of Nazi-occupied France, military historian Cathal Nolan discusses the chaos and confusion that prevailed over the early hours of the largest amphibious assault in history. Yet despite mishaps and setbacks that are unavoidable in major combat, the Allied forces captured the five beaches along the Normandy coast by the end of June 6, 1944. The Germans...

With the midterm elections approaching and Democrats expecting to be drubbed, it's time to ask whether the party has made any progress fixing its white working-class voter problem. But something that took decades to develop, caused in part by massive structural changes in the global economy, cannot be undone in a few short years. In this episode, Georgetown University historian Michael Kazin, auth...

The U.S. Supreme Court, one of our bedrock judicial institutions, has been on the wrong side of history time and again. But as the arbiter of the Constitution, the Supreme Court is indispensable to the functioning of democracy. In this episode, esteemed constitutional scholar Akhil Amar discusses some of the court's most notorious rulings, starting with Dred Scott in 1857. And as the current court...

Take a look at a map of the NATO countries today and compare it to one from 1989. It's a remarkable change. And what once seemed far-fetched is now close to becoming reality. That is, almost all of Europe will belong to NATO right up to Russia's borders. But Finland's and Sweden's applications to join the alliance, prompted by Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, may be blocked by NATO's only Asian membe...

Replacement theory -- the racist ideology that claims elites are abetting immigrants to disempower or eliminate native white people -- has been around in one form or another for a long time. The current iteration has gone mainstream, leading to widespread condemnation of some Republican politicians and conservative commentators who have embraced the theory's central premises. Fear and suspicion of...

Long before  Roe v. Wade established a constitutional right to an abortion -- indeed, centuries before abortion became one of the most divisive issues in American society -- ending a pregnancy before "quickening" was commonplace in the colonial era and not very controversial, either. That began to change in the mid-nineteenth century when some medical professionals joined a campaign to criminalize...

This is the fourth installment in an occasional series that will focus on slavery, the Constitution, and the ongoing debate over the meaning of the American founding. When President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, he invoked the historic struggle to make America a more equal society. The civil rights movement to which Johnson referred did not begin, however, in the twentieth or...

Elon Musk's anticipated acquisition of Twitter sent a major ripple across America's endless debates over free expression. The fact is, the question of who gets to say what and where has always been thorny in American society. Not until the twentieth century did the Supreme Court embrace our current, expansive view of the First Amendment. Today the battle is being fought in the cultural space, wher...

Chinese president Xi Jinping, the country's most powerful leader since Mao, is inflexibly pursuing a policy to eliminate the transmission of COVID-19. Shanghai, population 26 million, is locked down. People are virtual prisoners in their own homes and the lockdowns are crushing the economy. But world health experts say it is impossible to eradicate the highly contagious coronavirus. The Mercatus C...

History teaches us that the war in Ukraine will most likely end in a negotiated settlement. The Second World War was an anomaly insofar the Allies demanded unconditional surrender from their enemies, and then conquered Germany and Japan in total victory. Most wars fought since 1945 dragged on for years in indecisive fighting until some kind of settlement was reached, often unsatisfactory to all in...

The Biden administration's efforts to revive the 2015 nuclear accord with Iran are on the brink of collapse, leading experts to fear the two countries could enter a new era of suspicion and even outright conflict. Since 1979 the U.S. and Iran have had no formal diplomatic ties, their relationship marked by distrust and hostility. The ongoing animosity has created a self-fulfilling prophecy where I...

Vladimir Putin's version of history is the foundation of his war in Ukraine. According to Russia's dictator, an independent Ukrainian state is a mistake of history and the notion of Ukrainian nationhood, with a distinct culture and language, is a fiction. In this episode, Anna Reid, a former Kyiv-based journalist and expert in Ukrainian history, takes us through Putin's distortions covering a thou...

During the Cold War, the fear of nuclear war suffused the culture in hundreds of books and movies, in classroom "duck and cover" drills and in debates on college campuses, and in the arena of international relations. But that cultural awareness has faded over the past 30 years -- until now. As Russia's war in Ukraine grinds on, the possibility, however remote, of a nuclear exchange is more front o...

The odds are against anyone being brought to justice for atrocities committed in Ukraine. Despite mounting evidence that Russian forces executed civilians and targeted residential neighborhoods for bombardment, a successful prosecution of the perpetrators -- from military commanders in the field all the way up to Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin -- before an international tribunal will be difficult....

History is full of what-ifs. What if in 1999 Russia's fading president Boris Yeltsin had handpicked someone other than Vladimir Putin to be his successor? What  we do know is that Putin and his ruling circle steered Russia toward autocracy, and 22 years later the former KBG lieutenant colonel still rules with dictatorial powers. In this episode Julie Newton, an expert on Russian history and politi...

Is Ukraine the front line in a global struggle pitting democracy versus autocracy, liberalism versus illiberal nationalism? Political scientist Francis Fukuyama, author of the famous "The End of History and the Last Man," says liberal democracy is in recession across the globe, ceding the historic gains of the post-Cold War period. His view is meant to rebuke the arguments of the foreign policy re...

This is the third installment in an occasional series that will focus on slavery, the Constitution, and the ongoing debate over the meaning of the American founding. Was the Constitution pro- or anti-slavery? Maybe that is the wrong question to ask, even though it remains  the question at the heart of public discourse about the founding generation. In this episode, Sean Wilentz and James Oakes --...

When Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 the Obama administration responded with condemnation and sanctions. But the U.S. president refused to authorize the government sale of lethal weapons to Ukraine (although private arms exports were permitted). Obama viewed Russia as a regional power that could not be stopped from trying to military dominate Ukraine, if it so chose. He was not interested in contain...

History provides some examples of what a peace settlement might look like between Russia and Ukraine. Finland's treaty with the Soviet Union in 1948 and the Austrian State Treaty of 1955 established neutrality for Finland and Austria during the Cold War. They would not join NATO or the Warsaw Pact. In this episode, Anatol Lieven of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft discusses the reas...

An overwhelming majority of Americans agree the Supreme Court is an important institution, yet the confirmation process for its lifetime appointments has devolved into all-out partisan warfare and absurd political theater. Less is learned about the SCOTUS nominees than about the politics of the Senate inquisitors and the influence of outside activists. In this episode, political scientist Lawrence...