History As It Happens

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Keep the narrative flow going! Subscribe for ad-free listening, bonus content, and access to the entire catalog of 500 episodes. Out of the destruction of war and disgrace of Nazism, a new (West) Germany emerged after 1945. It was democratic, prosperous, and peaceful. Another caesura occurred in 1989 with the fall of the Berlin Wall and the reunification of Germany, East and West. This was 'the end of history.' But history came back with a vengeance. In 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine. In this episode, historian Jeremi Suri explains why Germans today fear rearmament and militarism may imperil their way of life. Jeremi Suri is the Mack Brown Distinguished Chair for Leadership in Global Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin. He hosts 'This is Democracy' podcast and writes the 'Democracy of Hope' Substack. Further reading: The Revenge of History in Europe by Jeremi Suri (Democracy of Hope)