History As It Happens

On Dec. 29, 2024, James Earl Carter died at 100. From 1977 to 1981, he was the 39th president of the United States. Carter's passing reignited a debate over the successes and failures of his one term in the White House. He is remembered for stagflation, gas lines, and the "crisis of confidence." His presidency was upended by economic problems at home and major crises abroad, none greater than the Iran hostage ordeal that vexed his administration for more than 400 days. Yet Carter also left a positive legacy in human rights and racial equality. In this episode, historians Jeremi Suri and Jeffrey Engel provide commentary as we look back on Jimmy Carter's eventful but largely unsuccessful presidency. Credit also to historians Sean Wilentz, John Ghazvinian, and Andrew Bacevich, whose scholarship was cited in this episode.

Note: This episode was produced before the news of the passing of former president Jimmy Carter. The episode scheduled for this upcoming Friday, Jan. 3, will cover Carter's legacy. Today's episode: Biden's humiliating fall. Trump's historic comeback. Assad was ousted. Israel destroyed Gaza. Russia continued to wage war on Ukraine. Democracy retreated. An accused murderer became a folk hero. Caitlin Clark was Time's Athlete of the Year. And the New York Jets -- Martin Di Caro's favorite sports team -- had another miserable campaign. It's the 2024 Year in Review, with historians Jeremi Suri and Jeffrey Engel. Happy New Year, everyone. May 2025 be the year when humanity gets its act together.

The West celebrated the collapse of the Soviet Union. "This is a victory for democracy and freedom. It's a victory for the moral force of our value," said President George Bush from the Oval Office on Dec. 25, 1991, as the final curtain came down on the USSR. Few Russians today are celebrating. The end of one-party rule was welcomed, but the 1990s brought on economic collapse, widespread criminality and corruption, and national humiliation. The decade ended with Putin in power. Yet this does not mean Russians want to return to communism. In this episode, the journalist and political scientist Maria Lipman, who was born in Moscow the year before Stalin's death, discusses what the West gets wrong about its historic "triumph."

Something remarkable happened as British, French, and German soldiers shivered in their trenches on Christmas Eve along a 20-mile-long stretch of the Western Front in 1914. Instead of killing one another, they met in no-man's-land to fraternize. They shared songs and cigarettes rather than bullets and bombshells. In this episode, historian Terri Blom Crocker separates history from memory, myth from reality concerning the Christmas Truce of 1914. The myths say more about man's uses of memory than the First World War itself. Further reading: The Christmas Truce: Myth, Memory, and the First World War by Terri Blom Crocker

Let's talk religion and politics as if we were on the set of All in the Family, the smash 1970s sitcom designed to expose the problems of racism, sexism, and religious intolerance. In this episode, historian Louis Benjamin Rolsky traces the rise and fall of the religious left through the career of Norman Lear, the legendary TV producer and writer. In Lear's view, if Archie Bunker personified the wrong ideas and attitudes, the millions of Americans watching All in the Family would see the errors of his mind. Would Archie Bunker vote for Donald Trump? Recommended reading: Misunderstanding the Right by L. Benjamin Rolsky (New International) The Rise and Fall of the Religious Left by L. Benjamin Rolsky

Since emerging as an independent state in 1991, Georgia has struggled to establish its nationhood. "Joining 'the West' has driven Georgian elites' strategic thinking for decades," writes the historian Bryan Gigantino. Yet, at the same time, Tbilisi must not antagonize Russia, as the legacy of the 2008 war over South Ossetia and Abkhazia still looms over Georgian society. For the past three weeks, demonstrators have staged massive protests, often clashing with police, over the ruling Georgian Dream party's decision to suspend talks to join the European Union. In this episode, Gigantino untangles the complexities of Georgian history and politics as the country copes with life on the post-Soviet periphery. Further reading: In Georgia, a National Election Is a Geopolitical Struggle by Bryan Gigantino (Jacobin)

The fall of Bashar al-Assad marked the historic end of more than 50 years of cruel tyranny that began with his father Hafez, who took power in 1970. The world watched moving scenes of Syrians being freed from the regime's dungeons after a 13-year-long civil war killed hundreds of thousands of people. But who are Syria's new leaders? Who are the rebels that toppled Assad? In this episode, Sefa Secen, an expert on Syria and Middle East security, delves into the country's murky future and dark past.

Midway through his eighth year in office, President Bill Clinton kicked off a White House conference on the "new economy." The internet age was underway, unemployment was low, inflation was dormant, the stock market boomed, major industries had been deregulated, and Congress was preparing to pass a big trade deal with China. The future seemed so bright as Americans enjoyed the longest economic expansion in the country's history. The "new economy" cheerleaders did not foresee the working-class discontent that now defines American capitalism in the Age of Trump. In this episode, historian Nelson Lichtenstein delves into the illusions and missteps that hollowed out the working class. Further reading: A Fabulous Failure: The Clinton Presidency and the Transformation of American Capitalism by Nelson Lichtenstein Why Bidenomics Did Not Deliver at the Polls by Dani Rodrik (Project Syndicate) The Decline of Union Hall Politics by Michael Kazin (Dissent)

Thirty years ago, in early December 1994, at a security summit in Budapest, the United States, United Kingdom, Russia, and Ukraine signed a memorandum in which Kyiv agreed to eliminate all nuclear weapons left on its territory after the collapse of the USSR. In exchange, the other signatories offered assurances to refrain from the threat or use of force against Ukraine's territorial integrity or political independence. Events would prove the Budapest Memorandum to be worth less than the paper it was printed on. Thirty years later, Russia has invaded Ukraine and occupies much of its eastern regions. The war has been devastating, killing tens of thousands of soldiers on both sides. In this episode, historian Michael Kimmage looks back at the empty assurances of the Budapest conference, which were made at a time of great optimism and even cooperation among former foes. Kimmage also contends that today's war is a world war insofar as it has expanding global repercussions and is attracting the involvement of non-European countries. Further reading: How Ukraine Became a World War by Michael Kimmage and Hanna Notte in Foreign Affairs, the official publication of the Council on Foreign Relations

The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for individual Israeli and Hamas leaders, charging them with crimes against humanity. The accusations against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense chief Yoav Gallant involve the intentional murder of Palestinian civilians and starvation as a method of war. Since invading Gaza in the aftermath of the Hamas atrocities of Oct. 7, 2023, Israel has killed tens of thousands of Palestinian women and children while utterly destroying most of Gaza's civilian infrastructure. Jewish settlers are said to be waiting to move into the northern Gaza Strip now that it has been emptied of Palestinians. Is it genocide? In this episode, historian Omer Bartov explains why he believes Israel's actions amount to the "intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such." Further reading: Essay on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by Omer Bartov (The Guardian)

After the election, there was a hurricane of postmortems attempting to explain why Kamala Harris lost to Donald Trump. Eschewing small-bore analysis, historian Daniel Bessner posted on X, "I feel like people are missing the fundamental lesson of the election: it is not the Democratic Party that is in crisis; liberalism itself is in crisis." Liberalism—the dominant political philosophy of the American Century—appears to be a spent force amid a wave of illiberal populism and anti-establishment politics. In this episode, Bessner, who co-hosts American Prestige podcast, delves into the origins of liberalism's rise and apparent decline in this post-post-Cold War period. Further reading: Empire Burlesque: What Comes After the American Century? by Daniel Bessner (Harper's)

Over the centuries, Thanksgiving traditions have changed with political, cultural, and religious winds. The holiday's mythic origins were propagated in the mid-nineteenth century, and soon Americans were all celebrating Thanksgiving on the fourth Thursday of November. Parades and football games are important pieces of Americana now synonymous with Thanksgiving -- as is the start of the Christmas shopping season. In this episode, historian David Silverman delves into the history of a quintessential American holiday whose development has as much to do with magazine editor Sara Josepha Hale as the Pilgrim Edward Winslow.

Ronald Reagan was the most consequential U.S. president of the second half of the twentieth century. Conservatives once lionized him before the rise of Donald Trump. Yet how Reagan is remembered does not entirely square with his actual record. Although an anti-government, anti-Communist ideologue, Reagan governed like a pragmatist. Moreover, the fortieth president was a terrible manager with a flimsy grasp of policy. His administration was rife with scandal. When he left office, the federal deficit had nearly tripled. Despite it all, Reagan was an effective national leader who inspired Americans to feel proud of their country again. In this episode, historian and biographer Max Boot delves into the life and times of "The Great Communicator" whose Hollywood and television careers prepared him for political success. Further reading/listening: Reagan: His Life and Legend by Max Boot When Reagan Pressured Israel (podcast) with Salim Yaqub Election of 1980 (podcast) with Jeremi Suri and Jeffrey Engel Star Wars (podcast) with Joe Cirincione

Does the historical concept of oblivion offer a way out of our ruptured political life? "For centuries, legislative acts of oblivion were declared in times when betrayal, war, and tyranny had usurped and undermined the very foundations of law; when a household or nation had been torn apart, its citizens pitted against one another; when identifying, investigating, trying, and sentencing every single guilty party threatened to redouble the harm, to further fracture already divided societies," writes the scholar Linda Kinstler. In this episode, Kinstler delves into the history of oblivion as well as its limitations, as Donald Trump prepares to return to the presidency having gotten away with his attempt to subvert democracy on Jan. 6, 2021. Further reading: Jan. 6, America's Rupture, and the Strange, Forgotten Power of Oblivion by Linda Kinstler (New York Times) Come to This Court and Cry: How the Holocaust Ends by Linda Kinstler (2022)

The United States' most-wanted jihadist in Afghanistan is trying to portray himself as a pragmatic diplomat. Washington doesn't seem to be interested. Sirajuddin Haqqani has the blood of many U.S. soldiers and Afghan civilians on his hands. While the U.S. views him as an enemy, the CIA once handsomely supported his father Jalaluddin Haqqani in the war against the Soviets in the 1980s. The elder Haqqani was close to bin Laden in the years before the Haqqani network would violently resist U.S. invaders -- after the al-Qaeda strikes on 9/11/2001. Ah, Afghanistan, where the past is not even past. In this episode, Adam Weinstein of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft untangles the complexities of a land where the U.S. has been involved for most of the past forty years. Further reading: Is Afghanistan's Most-Wanted Militant Now Its Best Hope For Change? by Christina Goldbaum (New York Times) Ghost Wars by Steve Coll Taliban by Ahmed Rashid

Donald Trump's election victory probably means Hitler comparisons won't go away, even if they make little sense. Still, there are lessons to learn from the collapse of the Weimar Republic in 1933, the year Adolf Hitler was levered into power by conservative elites who wrongly assumed that they could control the "Bohemian corporal." The question is which lessons are the right lessons? In this episode, historian Christian Goeschel of the University of Manchester explains how Hitler achieved power in Germany to avoid facile comparisons to the America of 2024. Our problems today bear little resemblance to the crisis of Weimar democracy.

When it was ratified more than 30 years ago, the North American Free Trade Agreement was hailed as a decision "that will permit us to create an economic order in the world that will promote more growth, more equality, better preservation of the environment, and a greater possibility of world peace," according to President Bill Clinton. Today, NAFTA is toxic, and populist anger at the multilateral free trade regime of the post-Cold War era is redefining global politics. In this episode, Dan Kaufman, a contributing writer for the New York Times Magazine, tells us how NAFTA destroyed the working class in his home state of Wisconsin, specifically in Milwaukee, once the "machine shop of the world." Further reading: How NAFTA Broke American Politics by Dan Kaufman Further listening: The Economy, Stupid with historian Nelson Lichtenstein

It's Election Day in America and the survival of liberal democracy is said to be on the ballot. What does this mean? Has the United States ever been a democracy where all enjoy political freedom and economic rights? In this episode, historians Sean Wilentz and James Oakes delve into the history of political conflict in America, the progress and regress of democracy and liberty, a story of liberalism competing and coexisting with illiberalism. Recommended reading: The Rise of American Democracy by Sean Wilentz Freedom National: The Destruction of Slavery in the United States, 1861-1865 by James Oakes

**New episode! History As It Happens has returned!** This is the eighth and final episode in a monthly series examining influential elections in U.S. history. The most recent episode, Election of 2008, was published on Sept 17. As the Obama presidency ended, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was the obvious frontrunner for the Democratic nomination. As for the Republicans, 17 candidates vied for the top spot. As the election year unfolded, few "informed observers" believed the New York real estate developer-turned-reality TV star Donald Trump had a chance. They were all wrong. Not only did Trump, a man with no government or political experience, take over a major party, but he defeated Clinton in the general election, the most stunning upset in American history. What explains the rise of Trump? Historians Jeremi Suri and Jeffrey Engel delve into the defining question of the 21st century in the United States.

This episode was first published on March 4, 2024. Original show notes: The embattled incumbent expressed anguish over soulless materialism. The optimistic challenger promised Americans they could overcome any and all problems. The election of 1980 pitted Democrat Jimmy Carter against Republican Ronald Reagan as Americans struggled with stagflation at home and crises abroad. Reagan's victory marked a sea change in U.S. politics, tilting the political landscape to the right. Reagan crusaded against big government and Soviet Communism. If the incumbent looked impotent in the face of these vexing problems, Reagan projected strength -- a timeless lesson of campaigning. In this episode, historians Jeremi Suri and Jeffrey Engel discuss why this election still matters.

This episode was first published on Feb. 22, 2024 as part of a series marking the second anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Original show notes: In every war, there is a battle over its origins. In this episode, historians Michael Kimmage and Mark Galeotti discuss Kimmage's new book, "Collisions," which seeks to explain why the excessive optimism of the early 1990s about Russia's path toward democracy and market economics never materialized. Moreover, Kimmage's narrative explains what led to each major collision between Russia and Ukraine; Russia and Europe; and Russia and the larger "rules-based order" led by the United States. Russia under Putin -- and for a brief period, Dmitry Medvedev -- and the United States under five presidential administrations could not overcome a fundamental dissonance in how each viewed the other's role in the world. Institutions such as NATO and the E.U., seen in the West as bulwarks of democracy, human rights, and economic prosperity, were viewed with hostility by Putin, who believed an independent Ukraine had no right to join them. ((Note: This conversation was recorded before the eastern Ukrainian town of Avdiivka fell to Russian forces))

This episode was first published on Oct. 24, 2023. Original show notes: Today's war between Israel and Hamas has its origins in the unresolved problems caused by the events of 1948. The year that witnessed the creation of an independent Jewish state in the former British mandate of Palestine, is known by Palestinians as the nakba, or catastrophe. Internecine violence intensified in 1947 as the U.N. weighed partitioning Palestine into two independent states, one Jewish and one Arab. Then five neighboring Arab countries invaded the new state of Israel immediately after David Ben-Gurion declared independence on May 14, 1948. In all, approximately 750,000 Arabs fled or were driven from their homes by Jewish forces. Many fled to Gaza and were forbidden from returning to their homeland after the war, turning them into permanent refugees. In this episode, Middle East expert Ian Lustick of the University of Pennsylvania discusses the throughline from 1948 to 2023.

This episode was first published on April 12, 2022. Original show notes: Was the Constitution pro- or anti-slavery? Maybe that is the wrong question to ask, even though it remains the question at the heart of public discourse about the founding generation. In this episode, Sean Wilentz and James Oakes -- two major scholars of eighteenth and nineteenth century America -- argue the Constitution was a contested document that marked the beginning of a political conflict over the future of slavery and, therefore, the nature of American democracy. They reject race-centered interpretations that elide early political conflicts over enslavement and the hard-fought progress won by Black Americans and their white allies. The American Revolution was an event of world-historical importance, marking a turning point in the history of human enslavement because it gave life to the world's first abolitionist movement.

This episode was first published on June 25, 2024. Original show notes: Why are Palestinians stateless more than 75 years after the founding of a Jewish state in the same land? Why have international law and the rules-based order established after 1945 failed the Palestinian people? Why hasn't the U.N. with its security council designed to prevent conflict, stopped the Israel-Palestinian conflict? In Nov. 1947 the United Nations General Assembly voted 33 to 13 with 10 abstentions to partition Palestine in one of the most consequential votes the body has ever taken. One side achieved statehood; the other rejected the vote. From this point forward international law hasn't helped Palestinians meet their national aspirations. In this episode, Victor Kattan of the University of Nottingham explains why.

This episode was first published on August 17, 2023. Original show notes: When Robert Oppenheimer accepted the job to lead the top-secret Manhattan Project, he and his fellow physicists expected any bomb would be used against Nazi Germany. But by the time the A-bomb was ready in late July 1945, Hitler was dead and Germany had surrendered. Some scientists questioned whether it was necessary to use "the gadget" against Japan, whose weakened military and industrial capacities could no longer project power across the Pacific. Christopher Nolan's cinematic masterpiece has revived interest in this contentious debate: could the Second World War had been won without destroying Hiroshima and Nagasaki? In this episode, eminent historian David M. Kennedy discusses the difficult circumstances of August 1945. For Americans who look back on it as "the good war," the destruction of Japan may raise uncomfortable moral and ethical questions. Note: Audio excerpts of the "Oppenheimer" film are courtesy Universal Pictures. The source for Harry Truman's speeches is the Miller Center at the University of Virginia.

This is the second of two episodes dealing with the consequences of the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel and ensuing year of war. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says his country will prevail over its enemies and change the Middle East for the better. This is not the first time Netanyahu (or other national leaders) have claimed war will produce positive results. PLO violence against Israel failed to liberate Palestinians. Israel's victory in 1967, for instance, produced a new set of intractable problems when Tel Aviv decided to occupy the West Bank and Gaza Strip. And the United States' recent record in the region is one of disastrous failure. In this episode, Brian Katulis of the Middle East Institute discusses the Biden administration's diplomatic and security-related missteps after a year of ferocious and expanding war. Recommended reading: America's Strategic Drift in the Middle East by Brian Katulis Treading Cautiously on Shifting Sands: An Assessment of Biden's Middle East Policy Approach, 2021-2023 by Brian Katulis

This is the first of two episodes dealing with the consequences of the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel and ensuing year of war. A year after Israel began its military campaign in Gaza with the aim of destroying Hamas in retaliation for the 10/7 terrorist atrocities, the radical Islamist group survives. Hamas is weakened, but it maintains a brutal grip on power in Gaza. Hamas also continues to hold Israeli hostages who were kidnapped last October. Its leader Yahya Sinwar is believed to be hiding underground, his attitude hardening toward reaching a ceasefire with his lifelong enemy. In this episode, Nathan Brown, an expert on Hamas at George Washington University, delves into the militant group's ability to survive and its political outlook after a year of war. Further listening: Hamas with Nathan Brown (published on Oct. 12, 2023)

Israel's invasion of southern Lebanon is evoking comparisons to 1982, the year Israel tried to rout an enemy on the other side of the border, leading to a catastrophe for Palestinian civilians. What happened at Sabra and Shatila sparked international outrage and a rebuke from Washington. Forty-two years later, Israel is risking falling into a Lebanese abyss once more. In this episode, historian Ahron Bregman, who was an IDF soldier during the siege of Beirut, discusses the causes of the carnage in 1982, why Israel may get stuck in Lebanon again as it fights Hezbollah, and the U.S. role in de-escalating the crisis.

Russian exiles in the West may not be able to change, let alone save, their home country, which is locked in the grip of the Putin autocracy, at war in Ukraine, and in a long conflict with the United States. Yet the exiles are important beyond the realm of politics because their minds and talents enrich Western societies. In this episode, historian Michael Kimmage and Russian journalist and political scientist Maria Lipman, an exile herself, contend "the opposition has no chance of acquiring power in Russia in the foreseeable future." At the same time, Western political leaders and societies must avoid projecting their own beliefs onto the exiles, who find themselves in a very difficult position criticizing their home government from afar. Further reading: Exiles Cannot Save Russia by Michael Kimmage and Maria Lipman in Foreign Affairs (official publication of the Council on Foreign Relations)

After the disastrous failures of the U.S. projects in Iraq and Afghanistan, many Americans have soured on nation-building, especially if it involves the deployment of U.S. troops in a hostile country for years on end. Americans also remember the fiasco in Somalia in 1993 or the hazy national interest when it came to intervening in the Balkans. In this episode, Keith Mines, a former U.S. Army officer and State Department diplomat, contends nation-building is more successful than its detractors are willing to concede. Mines, now an expert on post-conflict stabilization at the U.S. Institute of Peace, has worked in Latin America, Haiti, Iraq, Afghanistan, Sudan, and elsewhere. Further reading: Why Nation Building Matters: Political Consolidation, Building Security Forces, and Economic Development in Failed and Fragile States by Keith Mines

As another presidential election looms, so does the possibility that the ultimate winner will lose the popular vote. The race is decided by the Electoral College, which critics say is anti-democratic body that distorts outcomes. Since 1988, Republican candidates have won the popular vote once (2004), but twice won the White House thanks to an Electoral College majority -- in 2000 and 2016. In this episode, historian Sean Wilentz delves into the origins of the Electoral College at the Constitutional Convention in 1787, debunking the argument that the Electoral College was a concession to slaveholders. Also, Wilentz discusses his new essay in the journal Liberties where he contends a Trump victory in November will imperil American democracy in ways the news media fail to take seriously. Further reading: The Clear and Present Danger by Sean Wilentz in Liberties

Is there a Biden Doctrine? What did it achieve? Where did it fail? The president sought to reset U.S. foreign policy after the unilateralism of the Trump years. Biden spoke of a global battle pitting democracies versus autocracies, and he reinforced U.S. alliances in Europe and Asia. Presidents from Truman to Reagan to George W. Bush saw their names attached to actionable ideas, i.e. containment of Communism, but whatever the name of the strategy U.S. foreign policy since 1945 has been designed to maintain primacy. In this episode, historian Jeffrey Engel delves into decades of doctrines and Biden's successes and failures. Additional reading: What Was the Biden Doctrine? by Jessica T. Mathews in Foreign Affairs

A crushing economic crisis, caused by the subprime mortgage meltdown, and two failing wars were the backdrop for the election of 2008. At the onset of the year, a first-term Democratic senator from Illinois, Barack Obama, was a long shot taking on Hillary Clinton, the New York senator and former first lady with universal name recognition. On the Republican side, Arizona Senator John McCain emerged from a crowded primary field to choose little known Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, whose inane manner became the butt of late-night jokes, as his running mate. The outcome made history as Obama became the first Black president. In this episode, historian Jeremi Suri takes us back into the recent past to examine an election that seems more distant than it actually is, thanks to the earthquake that followed 8 years later.

The Israeli military raids and unchecked settler violence in the West Bank are shifting, for a moment, the world's attention away from the ongoing war in Gaza -- and revealing the brutal realities of Palestinian life under military occupation. In July the U.N.'s top court issued a non-binding opinion saying Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories and expanding settlement activity violate international law. In this episode, Omar Rahman of the Middle East Council on Global Affairs delves into the history of Israel's occupation and settlement of the West Bank, which came under its control following the Six Day War in June 1967.

In Israel (and the Palestinian territories), support for a two-state solution has dramatically dropped since the more optimistic years of the Oslo peace process. Since the Second Intifada from 2000, the Israeli peace camp "suffered domestic delegitimization," according to Dahlia Scheindlin, a political strategist and a public opinion expert who has advised on nine national campaigns in Israel among 15 countries. In this episode, Scheindlin explains why leftist politics and political parties have lost ground in Israel, which is now governed by the most right-wing coalition in its history. Further reading: Israel's Annexation of the West Bank Has Already Begun by Dahlia Scheindlin and Yael Berda in Foreign Affairs

In our world of conflicts, a civil war in Africa is going mostly unnoticed in the United States, at least compared to the attention given to the wars in Ukraine and Israel. For the third time in its post-independence history (from 1956), Sudan is embroiled in a horrendous civil war full of massacres, the displacement of millions, and the potential for mass famine. In this episode, Alex de Waal, one of the world's foremost experts on Sudan, delves into the war's origins and the horrible reasons why the world seems helpless to stop it.

Russia invaded Ukraine in an act of naked aggression more than 900 days ago. Both sides have lost at least tens of thousands of their soldiers, yet the 750-mile front has not moved much in the past two years. Neither side appears close to military victory, but they also appear far apart on a possible negotiated settlement. As Ukrainian forces invade the Russian territory of Kursk, and as Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelenskyy prepares to show his peace plan to the Biden administration, is a ceasefire possible? In this episode, Anatol Lieven of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft discusses what's at stake as Ukraine pulls off a stunning foray into Russia. Further reading: How the Russian Establishment Really Sees the War Ending by Anatol Lieven in Foreign Policy

This is the second conversation in a two-part series recorded inside the George Washington Presidential Library at Mount Vernon. John Adams' one-term presidency was sandwiched between towering figures of the American past. He succeeded the living legend George Washington and was succeeded by Thomas Jefferson, and Adams' time in office was marked by incessant crisis and ferocious partisanship. Historian Lindsay Chervinsky, the new executive director of the George Washington Presidential Library, wants us to look at Adams with a fresh pair of eyes. In her view, President Adams cemented important and lasting precedents for his office at a time when many wondered if the presidency could survive without Washington's calming influence. With the potential for violence looming as the election of 1800 was decided for Jefferson, Adams quietly exited the stage, establishing the republican tradition of the peaceful transfer of power, which lasted until Jan. 6, 2021. Recommended reading: 'Making the Presidency: John Adams and the Precedents That Forged the Republic' by Lindsay Chervinsky

This is the first conversation of a two-part series recorded at the George Washington Presidential Library at Mount Vernon. Hundreds of thousands of Americans visit Mount Vernon annually. Relatively few people see the inside of the George Washington Library. Its new executive director is historian Lindsay Chervinsky, and she wants to make the library a meeting place for elevated, historically-informed conversations on current events, while continuing to achieve its core mission of providing space and resources for professional scholars and researchers. Chervinsky's new surroundings are inspiring, as she reveals in this episode of History As It Happens.

This month marked 50 years since Richard Nixon resigned the presidency for the crimes of Watergate. The endless fascination with the break-in and the cover-up has obscured what may be more important in Nixon's legacy as Americans demand a more restrained foreign policy today: his contribution to the imperial presidency and the crimes he got away with. In the summer of 1974, Congress had a chance to hold the chief executive accountable for concealing the bombing of a neutral Cambodia during the Vietnam War. But this article of impeachment was voted down. In this episode, historian Carolyn Eisenberg takes us into the Nixon White House and the jungles of Southeast Asia to show how an American president and his national security advisor prolonged the war, misled the public, and caused appalling carnage in faraway places – but got away with it, with terrible consequences for our own time. Recommended reading: 'Fire and Rain: Nixon, Kissinger, and the Wars in Southeast Asia' by Carolyn Woods Eisenberg, winner of a 2024 Bancroft Prize

The selections of Republican JD Vance and Democrat Tim Walz as vice presidential running mates received non-stop media attention this summer, but will either choice really matter come November? Does anyone vote for vice president? John Adams once called the vice presidency "the most insignificant office that ever the invention of man contrived or his imagination conceived." Yet many vice presidents have played consequential roles in U.S. history because eight presidents have died in office, suddenly vaulting the No. 2 office holders into the Oval Office. In this episode, historians Jeffrey Engel and Jeremi Suri delve into the relevance (or irrelevance) of the veeps.

This is the sixth episode in an occasional series examining influential elections in U.S. history. The most recent episode, Election of 2000, was published on July 11. If you believe American society has never been as politically polarized as it is now, you may not be familiar with the late 1790s. Federalists and Republicans viciously attacked each other, trading accusations of frittering away the Constitution and imperiling the legacy of the American Revolution. The incumbent president John Adams was beset by a crisis with France verging on war. His vice president, Thomas Jefferson, was the leader of the political opposition. In this episode, historian Alan Taylor takes us back to a crazy time: the XYZ Affair, the Alien and Sedition Acts, and Aaron Burr! The election of 1800 had to be decided in the House of Representatives amid scheming to deny Jefferson the presidency. Jefferson's victory brought on the first peaceful transfer of power in the new republic, an important tradition that lasted until the election of 2020.

With democracy in global decline amid the rise of autocrats and ongoing armed conflict, many politicians and pundits invoke the emergency of fascism a century ago in an attempt to make sense of our current dilemmas. Such comparisons are fraught with problems, not least the unique nature of Nazism's ambitions for global conquest and genocide. In this episode, historian Richard J. Evans discusses the new urgency surrounding what "made and sustained" the Third Reich and Adolf Hitler's dictatorship as they relate to today's threats to democratic institutions. Mr. Evans is the author of "Hitler's People," which aims to explain what motivated the Nazi leaders and bureaucrats to carry out their crimes. The book was reviewed in The Washington Times on Aug. 1.

What is Hezbollah, a name that translates to Army of God? These militant Shia led by the cleric Hassan Nasrallah are expected to retaliate for Israel's assassination of one of their military commanders in Beirut. Hezbollah, considered a terrorist organization by Western governments, is the strongest military force in Lebanon and holds seats in the country's dysfunctional parliament. It has been at odds with Israel for more than 40 years. But where did they come from? In this episode, the Middle East Institute's Randa Slim, a native of Lebanon who witnessed the Israeli invasion of 1982, explores the group's origins.

Annelle Sheline resigned her position at the U.S. Department of State in protest of President Biden's unconditional support of Israel as it waged a war of immense destruction in Gaza. An expert on the Middle East at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, Sheline says Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is attempting to pull the United States into a regional war after Israel assassinated Hamas and Hezbollah leaders in Tehran and Beirut. The attacks virtually guaranteed Iranian retaliation at some point, and the Biden administration has vowed to protect Israel from attacks. For all the wars and terrorism in the Middle East since 1948, the region has yet to witness a full-scale, regional conflict directly involving outside powers.

By granting former President Donald Trump absolute immunity from criminal prosecution "for official acts" as Trump fights charges stemming from his attempt to overthrow the 2020 election results, the Supreme Court "descended to a level of shame reserved until now for the Roger B. Taney Court that decided the case of Dred Scott v. Sandford in 1857," says Princeton historian Sean Wilentz in an essay for The New York Review. In this episode, Wilentz discusses the problems with the Court's 6-3 ruling that declared a president above the law -- a first in U.S. history.

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and running mate J.D. Vance say they will lead America into the future with an economic platform that resembles something from the past. High tariffs were once the mainstay of U.S. economic policy, accounting for the large part of government revenues in the era before the personal income tax. The tariffs, trade barriers, expulsion of migrants, and domestic manufacturing espoused by the Republican ticket might be called an economic nationalism of the populist right. In this episode, historian Phil Magness delves into the fascinating history of American tariffs from the founding through the end of the Second World War. Recommended reading: The Problem of the Tariff in American Economic History by Phil Magness

Both Donald Trump and Joseph Biden claimed they were indispensable to their party's electoral prospects, which both men attached to the very fate of our republic. "I alone can fix it," Trump once thundered. Up until Biden finally bowed out of the race on July 21, he insisted he was the best candidate to defeat Trump, despite his poor approval ratings and age-related mental disintegration. It may be cliché to consult the wisdom of the founding generation, but pieces of their wisdom can still help us come to terms with the bewildering events of our own time. For starters, George Washington set an example that seems to have been lost on both Trump and Biden. Giving up power -- knowing when to walk away -- is a sign of virtue. In this episode, eminent historian Joseph Ellis discusses Washington's warning about the threats to stable republican government. Recommended reading: His Excellency: George Washington by Joseph Ellis

With President Joe Biden out of the race, prominent Democrats and donors are coalescing around Vice President Kamala Harris as his successor, making it unlikely there will be a truly open nominating convention in Chicago next month. For most of American history, open conventions were the norm. Some ended in chaos, with the party and its chosen nominee weakened heading into the general election. In this episode, Georgetown University historian Michael Kazin delves into the fascinating, rough-and-tumble history of political conventions in presidential election years, and he explains why the major parties did away with them in the early 1970s. Recommended reading: What It Took To Win: A History of the Democratic Party by Michael Kazin

This is the second of two podcast episodes this week dealing with the aftermath of the attempted assassination of Donald J. Trump and the causes and effects of political violence in America. Political violence comes in different forms. A political movement might have a paramilitary force that engages in extrajudicial mayhem. A lone assassin may or may not be motivated by political ideas. Mobs break out in sheer anger and frustration at injustice, real or perceived. In this episode, Oxford Brookes historian Roger Griffin, an expert on socio-political movements, fascism, and terrorism, delves into the causes of political violence that are often difficult to clearly discern or contain.