History As It Happens

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.