In the time it takes you to put on just one elbow pad, you can access hundreds of cutting-edge news articles from all around the globe. Yet making sense of international events can be tricky. To really get it, you need to understand something about historical context.

Take for example the present-day situation between the United States, the People’s Republic of China, and Taiwan. Right now, early June 2023, there’s a steady flow of news about rising economic, political, and military tensions connected to the island. But how did we get to this point? What are the stakes? Why does there seem to be so little room for compromise when it comes to Taiwan? To answer those questions, you need to understand the history of China and Taiwan from the fall of China’s Qing Dynasty through the post-Cold War period. This episode provides a short overview of that complex history and gives you some ideas of where to find additional resources.

Learn more about this rogue, underdog, Hail Mary pass of a project at findyourselfinhistory.com !

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Thanks for listening! To learn more about this history project, check out findyourselfinhistory.com.