History As It Happens

If you meander through the history of the 1930s, you will find any number of possible parallels with today's crisis in Eastern Europe. Aggressive powers, namely Germany and Italy, challenged the existing order by attacking or annexing weaker nations. Today some American politicians are warning that "appeasing" Vladimir Putin -- which is meant to invoke the infamous Munich Conference of 1938 -- wil...

Military historian Max Hastings, an acclaimed chronicler of the twentieth century's terrible wars, says Ukraine's defenders are inspiring the world with their courage and resilience in the face of Russia's unprovoked onslaught. But Hastings says Russia remains enormously powerful compared to Ukraine, and therefore may batter its way to something Putin can call victory. In this episode, Hastings di...

This is the second episode in an occasional series that will focus on slavery, the Constitution, and the ongoing debate over the meaning of the American founding. The first episode with historian Joseph Ellis dropped on Feb. 1. In a sense it may seem odd that Americans continue to argue over what the Constitution says about slavery. After all, the South's "peculiar institution" was forever abolish...

Cold War historian Mary Elise Sarotte says a new, more dangerous form of that 20th century conflict may descend upon Europe because of Russia's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine. The nuclear weapons are still around, although fewer in number, but gone are the climate of detente, mutual trust, and most of the major arms control treaties that marked the end of the Reagan years and the early 1990s. The...

What if Russia were a thriving democratic society today? Would there be war in Ukraine? Maybe these are impossible questions to answer at the moment, but important as it is to consider the factor of NATO enlargement after the Cold War, it is equally vital to understand Russian's internal dynamics when assessing the causes of Russia's unprovoked war in Ukraine. When the USSR left the historical sta...

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

"There is no room in this party for apologists for Putin," former Vice President Mike Pence is said to have told an audience of GOP donors in the days after Russia invaded Ukraine. Why would a major Republican politician need to clarify that? The de facto leader of the party, Donald Trump, had praised Putin in a radio interview, and then at CPAC Trump defended his remarks. Things have gotten so st...

When Nixon opened doors to China a half century ago, that country was reeling from the cascading disasters of Mao's rule. Today, China is vying to surpass the U.S. position in global leadership. If the American empire is itself in terminal decline, then what of the broader world order established by American power after 1945, an order based on the inviolability of national borders and the principl...

Russian president Vladimir Putin is "a very dangerous beast," says preeminent military historian Antony Beevor. As war rages in Ukraine, an unpredictable dictator may risk expanding the war to involve NATO members such as the Baltic states. Putin has fallen into the same trap as past Russian and Soviet leaders, obsessed with a perceived encirclement by implacable, hostile powers to the west. In th...

The Russian invasion of Ukraine is raising questions left unresolved in the immediate aftermath of the Cold War, when President George Bush hoped to bequeath to his successors a peaceful, stable Europe whose nations would remain part of NATO. Among those questions is whether Russia would integrate with Europe, as the Soviet Union's former republics (such as the Baltic states) and satellite states...

In 1965, after overcoming the threat of a filibuster, large bipartisan majorities in Congress passed the landmark Voting Rights Act. The act was reauthorized five times from 1970 through 2006 with the support of both Democratic and Republican presidents. But in the America of 2022, Democrats' two major voting rights bills have almost no Republican support. The GOP says the bills amount to a partis...

Did you know that since 1860 more than 400 rabbis have delivered the opening prayer or blessing that starts each day of Congress? In a nation founded upon religious toleration, articulated in George Washington's letter to the Jews of Newport in 1790, some remarkable rabbis have prayed at the very center of American democracy. We now know more about this overlooked slice of history because of Howar...

One year after President Biden pledged to end U.S. support for Saudi Arabia's offensive capabilities in Yemen's civil war, the war continues with no end in sight, and the U.S. remains just as complicit in one of worst humanitarian crises in the world. In this episode, Dr. Annelle Sheline of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft guides us through Yemen's recent history to explain what led...

As U.S. officials issue daily warnings that a Russian invasion of Ukraine is imminent, each side in the crisis is claiming history as an ally. For the United States, NATO, and Ukraine, the post-WWII international order allows Kyiv to freely choose which alliances to join, free from Russian interference. For Moscow, old promises that NATO would expand 'not one inch' toward Russia's borders have bee...

The civilian toll of America's endless wars in the Greater Middle East is receiving fresh scrutiny. Re ports detailing systemic weaknesses in the targeting of suspected militants spurred Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to order the Pentagon to improve its protections for the ordinary people who have died by the thousands in U.S. airstrikes since September 11, 2001. A series of reports by the New Yo...

Can a generation gap help explain our problems? Among our seemingly intractable, even existential, dilemmas is the lack of trust among Americans toward our institutions and toward one another. Thanks to internet algorithms and hyper-partisan television channels and radio programs, it is possible to consume information 24/7 that only confirms, rather than challenges, one's political views or concep...

In the two years since the first known COVID-related death occurred in the United States, Americans have relentlessly argued about masks , school closings, business restrictions, and vaccinations,  with personal politics often determining where one stands. The most important constant, however, has been a virus that pays no heed to political bickering or anti-vaccine fanaticism. Two years into the...

This is the first episode in an occasional series that will focus on slavery, the Constitution, and the ongoing debate over the meaning of the American founding. Each new episode will feature an interview with a different historian whose expertise covers the early Republic. In a sense it may seem odd that Americans continue to argue over what the Constitution says about slavery. After all, the Sou...

Thomas Hoenig has been worried about the Fed's easy money policies and inflation since the 1970s, the last time rising prices seriously ate into Americans' earnings before now. The former president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, Hoenig was known for his lone dissenting votes against Ben Bernanke's money-printing policies in 2010. Price inflation -- what you pay for groceries or gasoli...

From the Erie Canal to the intercontinental railroad, from rural electrification projects to the interstate highway system, Americans built the massive infrastructure befitting a modern, wealthy nation. The benefits are undeniable, although dams and highways have complicated legacies of environmental degradation and urban displacement. Moreover, over the past several decades the old infrastructure...

Why do serious historians fear American democracy is hanging by a thread, with parallels to the fall of the Weimar Republic? In this episode, Christopher Browning, an expert on Nazi Germany and the Holocaust, argues eerie similarities exist between our current problems and the hyper-polarized environment of 1920s-30s Germany. The gravediggers of the Weimar Republic used the levers of power to unde...

Formed by treaty in 1949 to defend Western Europe against the threat, real or perceived, of Soviet aggression, NATO has become the de facto defender of Ukraine's territorial integrity 30 years after the end of the Cold War. In this episode, historian Andrew Bacevich, the president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, discusses NATO's strategic drift and the folly of its eastward exp...

After The 1619 Project sparked a scholarly uproar over its provocative reinterpretation of U.S. history, the longtime activist and social conservative Bob Woodson decided it was time for the public to hear from Black scholars, intellectuals, and activists who rejected The New York Times' controversial arguments. So he created the '1776 Unites' initiative. In this episode, Woodson discusses his app...

On December 8, 1953, President Eisenhower laid the groundwork for the international diplomacy that would create Iran's nuclear program. In his "Atoms for Peace" speech before the U.N. General Assembly, Eisenhower said the U.S. should lead the way in helping the poorer nations of the world develop nuclear power for peaceful purposes, at a time when the Cold War had many fearing the possibility of n...

One year has passed since Donald Trump egged on a mob to attack Congress, the violent culmination of his months-long effort to overturn the presidential election. One year later, the wound still festers. Americans remain divided, living in realities of their own creation. Reconciliation seems out of reach. It is 1860 redux, but instead of civil war, Americans are witnessing a virtual secession fro...