History As It Happens

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The fascism debate is intensifying as the Trump administration lurches deeper into authoritarianism. Analogies abound, trying to connect or liken what's happening today to the death of democracy in interwar Europe — or to dark chapters in America's past. Is there an American fascism? Is it possible to look for it without invoking history's most infamous fascist, Adolf Hitler? Historian Gavriel Rosenfeld is our guest.

Gavriel Rosenfeld is a historian at Fairfield University and the president of the Center for Jewish History. He's the author or editor of eight books, including The Fourth Reich: The Specter of Nazism from World War II to the Present and Fascism in America: Past and Present.

Additional reading:

An American Führer? Nazi Analogies and the Attempt to Explain Donald Trump by Gavriel Rosenfeld (Cambridge University Press — article)

The Counterfactual History Review — Blog by Gavriel Rosenfeld

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It wasn't very long ago when U.S. policymakers relied on a species of grand strategist known as the Sovietologist. It was the Cold War, and the strategies for dealing with the USSR ranged from containment to rollback, to détente and peaceful bridge-building. Zbigniew Brzezinski formulated the latter. President Jimmy Carter's national security adviser was an ardent anti-communist with a pragmatic streak, whose goal was to accelerate the breakup of the Soviet Empire. He also supported Palestinian autonomy, and after the Cold War, Brzezinski backed NATO expansion in Eastern Europe while criticizing the excesses of the global war on terror.

In this episode, the Financial Times' Edward Luce discusses his timely biography, Zbig: The Life of Zbigniew Brzezinski, America's Great Power Prophet.

Also read:

Martin Di Caro's review of Luce's book for Responsible Statecraft.

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President Trump's harsh immigration crackdown would not be possible without a militarized law enforcement apparatus that presidents and legislators of both political parties built over decades. Even before the 9/11/2001 terrorist strikes, immigration began to be viewed as a national security concern requiring billions to beef up enforcement and deportations, while sensible immigration reform failed to pass Congress time and again. In this episode, historian Jeremi Suri explores the origins of today's crisis as President Trump's federal paramilitary force terrorizes American communities.

Jeremi Suri teaches history at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin. He writes the newsletter Democracy of Hope and co-hosts This is Democracy podcast.

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Further reading:

ICE Needs the DOGE Treatment by Jeremi Suri (Wall Street Journal)

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On the streets of Minnesota, a federal paramilitary force in combat gear is executing a deliberate policy of terror and violence against American citizens and their immigrant neighbors. The lawless conduct of President Trump's immigration enforcers has supercharged a debate that's been roiling since 2016: Is Trumpism a form of fascism?

In this episode, historian Roger Griffin argues that American (and global) democracy is under assault not from a resurgence of fascism, but from anti-liberal forces and ideas at odds with the universal values that were supposed to gain ascendance after 1945: democracy, human rights, and tolerance.

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The Trump administration's National Security Strategy calls for "flexible realism" in foreign policy, a supposed departure from the military adventurism that led to disasters in the Greater Middle East. Realism prioritizes national interests rather than ideology or high principles, such as democracy and human rights. Is Donald Trump a realist? What are the historical origins of realism? What are its opposites? In this episode, scholars Linda Kinstler and Stephen Wertheim break it down.

Linda Kinstler is a contributing writer for New York Times Magazine and a junior fellow at the Harvard Society of Fellows.

Stephen Wertheim is a senior fellow in the American Statecraft Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Recommended reading:

The Theory That Gives Trump a Blank Check For Aggression by Linda Kinstler (New York Times)

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This month Iran's clerical leaders and security forces spilled oceans of blood to suppress mass demonstrations after Iranians took to the streets to protest the regime's economic and political failings. Systematic violence has always been a tool utilized by the Islamic Republic to enforce obedience, but never in its history have Iran's leaders killed so many people in a short amount of time, if an estimated death toll of at least 10,000 — possibly 20,000 — is accurate. In this episode, historian Naghmeh Sohrabi examines the origins of a regime whose current government is desperately trying to hold onto power by killing thousands of its people.

Recommended reading:

These Are the True Things — Naghmeh Sohrabi's Substack about Iran/Middle East

How much longer can Iran's Islamic Republic survive? by Ali Ansari (New Statesman)

Iran's coming reckoning by Siamak Namazi (Middle East Institute)

Iran's ayatollah will fall — but the road may be long and deadly by Simon Sebag Montefiore (The Times of London)

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At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said the rules-based order is being ruptured by powerful countries who prefer coercion over negotiation. The following day, as if on cue, President Donald Trump broadcast his obsession with acquiring Greenland, although he said he would not use force. In this episode, the Quincy Institute's Anatol Lieven discusses the potential dangers when the world's most powerful leader seems to believe preposterously false ideas, such as the imaginary threat posed to Greenland by Russia or China.

Editor's note: After this podcast was published, President Trump said he was dropping his threat to impose tariffs on European allies as a way of obtaining Greenland through economic pressure.

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Recommended reading:

Trump's new 'gangster' threats against Greenland cross line by Anatol Lieven (Responsible Statecraft)

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This is the first in an occasional series of episodes (one or two per month) marking the upcoming 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.

In January 1776, a pamphlet printed in Philadelphia became an instant sensation. Thomas Paine's "Common Sense" was a provocative attack on the British constitution and hereditary monarchy, and a call for American colonists to seek independence. In this episode, historian Lindsay Chervinsky, the executive director of Mount Vernon's George Washington Presidential Library, takes us back to the ideas and arguments that made a revolution.

Recommended reading:

To Make the World Again by Lindsay Chervinsky (Imperfect Union on Substack)

Common Sense (contextus.org)

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Greenland's geostrategic importance to the United States has been evident since the Second World War, when FDR sent U.S. forces to occupy the island and capture German weather stations on its eastern shore. After WWII, President Harry Truman, in secret, offered to buy Greenland from Denmark, but Denmark turned him down. As the Cold War froze in 1949, the two nations became official allies under the NATO treaty. Today, despite having access to Greenland under a 1951 agreement, President Donald Trump is threatening to seize it, claiming falsely that if Washington doesn't act, Russia and China will. Mikkel Olesen of the Danish Institute for International Studies tries to make sense of this madness.

Recommended reading:

The history of U.S. presence in Greenland by Mikkel Olesen

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Since U.S. forces snatched Nicolàs Maduro and hauled him to New York, Americans have been asking questions about Venezuela, especially after the Trump administration announced its plans to run the country's moribund oil industry. Are U.S. oil firms clamoring to exploit Venezuela's enormous petroleum reserves? Does the global market need more oil? In this episode, historian Giuliano Garavini of Roma Tre University explains it all. He's an expert on the Global South, energy, and natural resources.

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