History As It Happens

From the bombing of Pearl Harbor to the JFK assassination, from Watergate to the 9/11 terrorist attacks, special commissions and select committees have investigated traumatic events and political scandals throughout the past century. Their purpose was, to the extent possible, to set aside partisan politics and establish a comprehensive, factual record for history. So why are Senate Republicans blocking the creation of a 1/6 commission to investigate the mob attack on the U.S. Capitol? Historian Alvin Felzenberg, who was the chief spokesman for the 9/11 Commission, joins the podcast to discuss why the nation deserves all the facts.

If today's Republican Party, from Ronald Reagan to Donald Trump, is known for fighting the left in the Congress, courts, and culture, the Republican Party of the 1850s rose to prominence by building on "the foundational left-wing social movement of the modern era," which was the antislavery movement, according to Princeton historian Matthew Karp. Then a new party after the collapse of the Whigs, the antebellum Republicans fused social activism to end slavery with effective electoral politics. What can the the story of the abolitionists and antislavery men teach today's left-wing movements struggling to accomplish their goals? Karp joins host Martin Di Caro for a timely discussion tying the past to the present.

In this episode, we are joined by world-renowned war historian Sir Antony Beevor. When someone says the Soviet Union, not the Western allies, defeated Nazism, they can point to this date, June 22, 1941, as a pivotal moment in that narrative. Eighty years ago today, the largest invasion in history began as more than three million German soldiers attacked the USSR in Operation Barbarossa. The battle caused a cataclysm; millions of people were brutally killed, including more than a million Soviet Jews. But the USSR survived, and Barbarossa's outcome helped shape our modern world.

One summit between President Joseph Biden and Russian president Vladimir Putin will not resolve 30 years of missteps, miscalculations, and meddling by both nations. When the Cold War ended and the Soviet Union vanished in 1991, the relationship between the two states appeared hopeful, signaling a future of cooperation and peaceful coexistence. In this episode, the Quincy Institute's Anatol Lieven, a seasoned journalist and expert on international relations, discusses why U.S.-Russia relations have sunk so low: the expansion of NATO, human rights abuses, and cyber sabotage are among the issues.

In the first 24 hours of the D-Day invasion on June 6, 1944, about as many French civilians were killed as Allied soldiers. From June 6 to August 25, in the areas of Northern France that saw the most fighting, "about twenty-thousand French civilians paid for liberation with their lives," says University of Virginia historian William Hitchcock, the author of The Bitter Road to Freedom. In this episode, we compare history and memory of the invasion of Normandy and the power of liberation in our political vocabulary. By acknowledging the morally complicated nature of the liberation of France, U.S. leaders and citizens today might be more careful about invoking the Second World War to justify military missions of dubious necessity.

In the words of Richard Hofstadter, "Third parties are like bees: once they have stung, they die." What Hofstadter, a towering public intellectual who died in 1970, meant was that in American politics, third parties succeeded not by winning elections, but by pushing the major parties to reform, to adopt ideas circulating on the margins and bring them into the mainstream. Whether third parties are a help or a hindrance, there is an immovable reason why they have struggled to maintain relevance in U.S. history. Two political scientists, Lee Drutman of New America and Norm Ornstein of the American Enterprise Institute, discuss why third parties fail, and whether we could use some new parties today.

In the past week Americans marked the anniversaries of two major events that hold different places in the common memory. One evoked feelings of honor and pride, the other shame and revulsion. June 6 was the 77th anniversary of the D-Day invasion; May 31 was the centenary of the Tulsa race massacre, one of the most violent acts of domestic terrorism in U.S. history. But unlike D-Day, the Tulsa massacre had been largely forgotten until recent efforts succeeded in drawing attention to its relevance in a nation still grappling with a legacy of racial injustice. Northwestern University historian Leslie Harris explains why it is so difficult for Americans to reckon with the darkest chapters of our past.

Host Martin Di Caro and The Washington Times national security team leader Guy Taylor discuss President Biden's foreign policy. During the Democratic primary debates in 2020, foreign policy was largely ignored. Reality has imposed itself in the early days of the Biden presidency, as the new administration juggles geopolitical dilemmas all over the globe. But as often as American presidents try to shape events to their advantage, unforeseen events shape presidencies. And how a chief executive manages crises not of his own making can determine whether a presidency succeeds or fails.

Is Bitcoin a revolutionary currency or a speculative bubble about to pop? Depends on whom you ask! From cryptocurrencies to total return swaps to hedge fund short-sellers, the financial markets can appear a minefield loaded with dangerous bets and outright scams. In this episode, Harvard economist Benjamin Friedman discusses whether we should be worried about Bitcoin's wild gyrations, and whether it is possible to see the next crash before it hits.

The fourth war between Israel and Hamas since the latter took power in Gaza 14 years ago killed hundreds of people, mostly Palestinians, and left unresolved the historical grievances between two peoples whose national aspirations compete for the same piece of earth. What will it take to end this conflict? Two people who work for the cause of peace, Lucy Kurtzer-Ellenbogen and former Ambassador Hesham Youssef, explain why the Israeli-Palestinian conflict seems so intractable.

In the quarter century after the Second World War, New Deal liberalism was riding high. But after LBJ's Great Society was sacrificed on the altar of Vietnam, and after Carter's failed presidency gave way to the Reagan Revolution, Democrats were in disarray and liberal became a dirty word. A generation later, is Joe Biden leading a liberal comeback? Princeton historian Sean Wilentz returns to the podcast to talk about the possibilities and perils facing the Democratic Party after four years of Trump.

An effort by Republican lawmakers in several states to prohibit the teaching of the New York Times' 1619 Project in public schools has reignited the debate over who controls our understanding of the past. It has also refocused attention on the project's numerous factual errors about a matter of such surpassing importance as the American Revolution. University of Virginia historian Alan Taylor shares both criticism and praise of the 1619 Project's specific claims as well as its overall aim, which is to emphasize the importance of slavery and systemic racism in American history instead of the founding principles of liberty and freedom that were, as the project's opening essay argued, betrayed by the crime of human bondage.

Is the liberal democratic order in real trouble? From Donald Trump's ongoing campaign to discredit the results of the 2020 election, to the emergence of authoritarian rulers across the globe, it can appear that democracy is on the retreat. The rise of China, a coup in Myanmar, Putin's staying power, and strongmen in Hungary, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and elsewhere -- all point to democracy's demise. But maybe things are not as grim as they seem. The Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft analyst Kelley Beaucar Vlahos joins the podcast to tackle the subject of our time.

Facebook, Twitter, Google, YouTube -- the digital behemoths have more unchecked power and technological capability to silence speech than any government. But because they are all private firms, they have the right to censor or stifle whoever they wish, from former President Donald Trump to ordinary citizens. Free expression is supposed to be a cherished value in liberal societies, yet it seems more people on both sides of the political aisle are calling for more online censorship. The ACLU's Vera Eidelman and Yale's Jack Balkin join the podcast to untangle the complexities of free expression in a social media world.

Will Trumpism devour conservatism? As House GOP leaders oust Rep. Liz Cheney from her leadership post for defying ex-Pres. Donald Trump's bogus election claims, we ask National Review editor Rich Lowry to assess the future of the conservative movement. Lowry succeeded William F. Buckley as editor of a publication that helped propel conservatism to electoral success and cultural significance. Can the movement survive the personality cult enveloping the Republican Party?

Maybe we are getting the "border crisis" all wrong. If you step away from the daily headlines and avert your eyes from the border for a moment, you will see that the underlying causes of illegal migration to the United States are overlooked or ignored. In this episode, Ithaca College professor emeritus Paul McBride, a specialist in immigration history, says the way many Americans, from political leaders to ordinary citizens, view Central and South American migration misses some important realities and produces misplaced confidence in ineffective remedies, such as a border wall.

When President Biden became the first U.S. president to recognize the Armenian genocide, the massacres and deportations that took place in the Ottoman Empire in 1915 were suddenly back in the news. Past U.S. leaders refused to recognize the genocide to avoid angering Turkey, but times have changed. The relationship between the two NATO allies has turned icy. What happened in 1915 -- and why it matters -- with Middle East historian Howard Eissenstat.

Like McCarthyism during the Red Scare of the 1950s, ex-President Donald Trump's "Stop the Steal" movement seeks to vilify powerful, internal enemies who are trying to undermine American society. In this episode, McCarthyism Redux, historian Gary Gerstle identifies the reasons why such conspiracy theories take hold in the public mind. It is no surprise, when politics are so polarized, that some people are quick to believe the worst about others with whom they disagree.

Do U.S. wars ever end? Although President Biden has announced the final withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan by Sept. 11, the use of military force authorization passed by Congress 20 years ago is still on the books. In this episode of History As It Happens, The American Way of War, the Cato Institute's John Glaser explains why Congress should reassert its constitutional prerogatives over war-making and end the country's endless military commitments in Afghanistan, Iraq, and elsewhere.

It is hard to believe the Cold War has been over for 30 years already, if we date its end to the final collapse of the Soviet Union on Dec. 25, 1991. The USSR lost. But what did the U.S. win? The notion that democracy and free markets were victorious, on the march, and the natural progression of human governments proved to be an illusion. In a wide-ranging interview, historian Jeffrey Engel discusses how the post-Cold War world turned out differently than many Americans assumed during those heady days of the early 1990s.

President Biden's decision to withdraw the last U.S. troops from Afghanistan in September is raising questions about the future of a country that has seen little but conflict and humanitarian crises since 1979. The U.S. war could end the way it started: with the Taliban in power. Former U.S. diplomat Johnny Walsh took part in negotiations with the Talibs at the peace table, and was a senior advisor on the Afghan peace process for 10 years during the Obama and Trump administrations. He explains what we might expect if the Taliban seizes power in Kabul again.

Will history be made in the U.S. House? The Democratic-led chamber is expected to vote to make the District of Columbia the 51st state in the Union. Although the legislation faces poor odds in the Senate, the D.C. statehood movement believes it is closer than ever to achieving its goal. Opponents say the Constitution forbids Congress from acting because new states require ratification of a constitutional amendment. But what about taxation with representation? Let's look at the issues with D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton.

Republican lawmakers in state legislatures nationwide are proposing more than 250 measures that, critics say, are designed to curb access to the ballot or open the road to partisan interference in elections. Georgia's new election laws are ground zero in the fight for voting rights, provoking a corporate backlash and comparisons to Jim Crow, the system of white supremacy that grew from the ashes of Reconstruction. Eric Foner, one of the preeminent scholars in the U.S., joins the podcast to discuss what is at stake.

Filibuster, schmilibuster! The origins of the word filibuster seem to belie any claims that the tool of partisan warfare is really a pillar of senatorial greatness, and therefore must be guarded against efforts to weaken or eliminate it. Princeton historian Sean Wilentz returns to the podcast to discuss the pros and cons of doing away with the Senate's long-lasting accident. (Blame Aaron Burr!)

University of Virginia historian Philip Zelikow says President Woodrow Wilson made the most consequential diplomatic error in U.S. history. In his new book, "The Road Less Traveled," Zelikow presents compelling evidence that Wilson could have avoided getting the U.S. involved in the First World War and brought the conflict to a negotiated end in 1916 in the process. The peace ball was in his hands, but he fumbled it. This reassessment of a critical chapter in history holds important lessons for a world troubled by enormous problems that require international cooperation.

Fifty years after Nixon's move to open the door to Mao's China, the world's most populous country is vying to become the most militarily and economically powerful one. In 1971, few Americans might have foreseen the dramatic changes China would undergo, as it began incorporating market reforms into its one-party, Communist state. Is the door now open to conflict, competition, or cooperation? The Washington Times' Guy Taylor and Johns Hopkins University SAIS scholar Carla Freeman join the conversation.

Facing the biggest migrant surge in 20 years, the Biden administration is struggling to cope with the influx. Beyond its immediate causes tied to the president's new policies, however, the wave of unaccompanied children is part of a larger historical pattern fueled by varying "push" and "pull" factors and created by decades of political corruption, U.S. interventionism, civil war, and economic dislocations. The Washington Times' Stephen Dinan and Catholic University historian Julia Young join the discussion.

Is American capitalism broken? The 2020 presidential campaign, in the midst of an economy-shattering pandemic, reignited the debate over whether our version of capitalism needs some socialism to survive. Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders offered a full-throated defense of democratic socialism, for instance, while his opponents on the Republican side warned against tilting too far to the left. Harvard economist Benjamin Friedman, author of 'Religion and the Rise of Capitalism,' joins the podcast for a nuanced discussion about these competing economic systems.

Since Richard Nixon won about 30 percent of the Black vote in 1960, at a time when Black people were disenfranchised wholesale in the South, no Republican presidential candidate has been able to crack 15 percent (Gerald Ford in 1976) for the past half century. Donald Trump won as much as 12 percent of the Black vote in 2020, but he left the Republican Party facing accusations that it embraces racism and white supremacy after four divisive years in the White House. What has to happen to change that?

What's more important to U.S. foreign policy, human rights or oil and regional alliances? What should take precedence, morality or realpolitik? President Biden's decision not to directly punish Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for the murder of Jamal Khashoggi raises questions that date to 1945, when FDR became the first U.S. president to meet a Saudi king. Philip Zelikow, who was the executive director of the 9/11 Commission, joins the podcast to discuss balancing human rights with national interests in diplomacy.

One year after the rhythms of daily life were upended by the unchecked spread of an invisible, deadly pathogen, Americans have a degree of optimism that the worst of the coronavirus pandemic is behind them. Glimmers of hope are mixing with dark realities, however, as more than 1,000 Americans people are dying each day. Historian John Barry, author of 'The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History,' joins the podcast to discuss the similarities between 1918 and today.

The U.S. faces a May 1 deadline to withdraw its last 2,500 troops from Afghanistan, nearly 20 years after invading to avenge the 9/11 terrorist strikes by al-Qaeda. What will it take to end this forever war? Washington Times national security reporter Guy Taylor and the Quincy Institute's Adam Weinstein, a U.S. Marine veteran, join the conversation.

If the Reagan era is long over, and if the Tea Party has had its day, the makeup of a post-Trump Republican Party, as well as the broader conservative movement, remains unclear. Princeton historian Sean Wilentz, author of 'The Age of Reagan: A History 1974-2008' says Trump and the current GOP share important similarities but also differ sharply from the party during the Reagan era -- and that makes predicting the future impossible.

Abraham Lincoln was neither a faultless hero nor an irredeemable white supremacist. Remembered as the Great Emancipator who saved the Union, Lincoln's lesser-known views about race are coming under scrutiny as Americans reckon with their nation's history of racial injustice. Historian David S. Reynolds, winner of the prestigious Lincoln Prize for his biography of the sixteenth president, Abe: Abraham Lincoln in His Times, joins the podcast to clear up any confusion about what Lincoln stood for.

President Biden's decision to order airstrikes against targets in Syria, as a warning to Iran against backing militias in Iraq, served Americans an important reminder. The situation remains unstable and dangerous, and relations between the U.S. and Iran remain at a low point. But it does not have to be this way, says Middle East expert John Ghazvinian. He explains what the U.S. keeps getting wrong about its chief foe in the Middle East.

More news and information is available at your fingertips than ever before, but journalism is in serious trouble. The problems run deeper than perceived partisan bias, social media chaos, and cratering public trust. Maybe the biggest issue of all is advertising-based journalism cannot survive, and we are drowning in misinformation as a result. This episode also features an interview with Washington Times executive editor Christopher Dolan.

What is fascism? The word brings to mind Mussolini, Hitler, and the catastrophes of the twentieth century. Nowadays, fascism -- like socialism -- is often hurled as an insult in American politics. NYU historian Ruth Ben-Ghiat, the author of Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present, explains fascism's roots and why the term retains so much potency in contemporary politics.

Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Joseph Ellis joins the podcast to talk about conspiratorial thinking in American politics, from George Washington to QAnon. Wild theories and zany ideas have always been a part of the political landscape, even if the QAnon cult seems more outlandish than anything we have seen before.

To paraphrase Noam Chomsky, you are either for free speech or you are not. Few issues in American culture today stoke such controversy as free expression, one of America's most cherished traditions. But at a time of Big Tech control over social media platforms, cancel culture, political correctness, and safe spaces, free expression is under attack.

The popular unrest following the arrest of opposition politician Alexei Navalny provoked a heavy-handed police crackdown in Russia, where more than 10,000 demonstrators were arrested. More than 20 years after assuming power, Vladimir Putin continues to grip the reins of control, with the maintenance of Russia's global influence his primary goal. Call him Vladimir the Survivor. How does Russia's strongman do it?

Few words in the American political lexicon are as freighted with fear as socialism. It can conjure thoughts of diabolical Communism, the horrors of Stalin and Mao, and the Iron Curtain. In some quarters socialism is un-American because of its perceived threat to overturn capitalism and erode freedom. But attitudes are changing, especially among younger Americans who are embracing less narrow definitions of socialism. It is time for a better understanding of a word that has meant different things to different people throughout history.

The historian who drafted an open letter, signed by more than 1,000 scholars, calling for Donald Trump's impeachment explains why experts on the past should weigh in on the present. A must-listen, as the Senate prepares for the fourth presidential impeachment trial -- in this case, of an ex-President. There seems little doubt Donald Trump will be acquitted. Since Watergate, Americans politics have become more polarized and the media more partisan. Historian David Greenberg weighs in on the changed political and media landscape.

A decade after the Occupy Wall Street protesters called out the reckless greed that brought down the economy, a different kind of anti-Wall Street, populist uprising is happening online -- on comment threads and in trading apps -- and these protesters are dumping equal parts money and defiance into their cause. The GameStop revolution also speaks to general frustration with the state of work in America.

King sharply criticized capitalism. He condemned the Vietnam War, referring to the U.S. government "as the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today" in a powerful oration at a historic church in New York in 1967, a year before his death. King pointedly criticized white moderates who were "more devoted to 'order' than to justice." Recovering the full profile of King's activism and worldview is important because the events of our time resemble the tumultuous 1960s.

The fate of President Biden's ambitious legislative agenda will depend on whether Congress embraces his FDR-like call for bold government action to deal not only with the immediate economic fallout of the pandemic during his first 100 days in office, but long running inequities in American society that will require work extending well into his term — more like 1,000 days and beyond.

Donald Trump is out of power but it seems certain Americans will continue to talk and think about him, at least in the short term. How long what is already called Trumpism remains a force in American politics may depend on the strength of the Trump narrative of a stolen election. Historian Edward Ayers joins us to explain the power of narrative in the American past and present.

The peaceful transition of power is a pillar of American democracy. But 2021 begins with a fear of violence hanging over Washington as Joseph Biden prepares to take the oath of office. Like Lincoln in 1861, Biden is inheriting a crisis which, although different in many respects from the Secession Winter, will confront his new administration with enormous problems. In 'Inauguration,' the premier episode of 'History As It Happens,' host Martin Di Caro talks to Washington Times White House reporter Dave Boyer and Virginia Tech historian Paul Quigley about the important parallels between then and now.

Journalists write the first draft of history. They also view our present times through the prism of the past. While it seems certain that future historians will consider the events of this era of American history extraordinary, we need not wait however many years for the arrival of their books before trying to make sense of our current controversies. The recent past can shed fresh light on today's events. 'History As It Happens' reports the news in historical context. 'History As It Happens' debuts January 19, 2021, and is hosted by Martin Di Caro, an award-winning broadcast journalist and history enthusiast. As Faulkner put it, the past is never dead. It's not even past.