History As It Happens

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After Donald Trump was first elected in 2016, Hannah Arendt's The Origins of Totalitarianism became a surprise bestseller. Arendt, who died in 1975, became a sort of prophet for the liberal "Resistance" based on her insights into lying and politics and the origins of fascism. Today, as President Trump acts with increasing authoritarianism and corruption, Arendt is still frequently quoted, but she's not the star she once was on the American left. Why? Yale historian and law professor Samuel Moyn discusses the uses and abuses of Hannah Arendt, one of the twentieth century's towering philosophers.

Further reading:

You Have Misunderstood the Relevance of Hannah Arendt by Samuel Moyn, Prospect (2020)

Men in Dark Times by Rebecca Panovka, Harper's (2021)

Lying in Politics: Hannah Arendt on Deception, Self-Deception, and the Psychology of Defactualization by Maria Popova, The Marginalian

Big Racket Man by Martin Jay for Verso Books (2023)

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The Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani is the favorite to be elected New York City's mayor next month. He is an inheritor of a largely forgotten municipal socialist tradition in America, one in which dozens of cities and towns were once governed by men dedicated to improving the lives of the working class, reforming government, and beating back public corruption. In this episode, the eminent labor historian Shelton Stromquist takes us back to a bygone era when cities faced dramatic problems and voters elected socialists to solve them.

Further reading:

Claiming the City: A Global History of Workers' Fight for Municipal Socialism by Shelton Stromquist

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Americans' trust in the news media has plummeted to the lowest point since pollsters began tracking the data. Across the political spectrum, people have little confidence that the traditional powerhouses -- major newspapers along with TV and radio networks -- are giving it to them straight. In this episode, the accomplished newsman Greg Jarrett, who spent more than 50 years covering big stories in the U.S. and overseas, says news outlets' self-inflicted errors and a broken business model are largely to blame.

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Out of the destruction of war and disgrace of Nazism, a new (West) Germany emerged after 1945. It was democratic, prosperous, and peaceful. Another caesura occurred in 1989 with the fall of the Berlin Wall and the reunification of Germany, East and West. This was 'the end of history.' But history came back with a vengeance. In 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine. In this episode, historian Jeremi Suri explains why Germans today fear rearmament and militarism may imperil their way of life.

Jeremi Suri is the Mack Brown Distinguished Chair for Leadership in Global Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin. He hosts 'This is Democracy' podcast and writes the 'Democracy of Hope' Substack.

Further reading:

The Revenge of History in Europe by Jeremi Suri (Democracy of Hope)

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Major changes are afoot in the Middle East, but there are continuities with the past. One is Russian influence in Syria. Moscow remains involved in this country on the Mediterranean, although the civil war is over and a former jihadist is president in Damascus, a man who led the revolt that toppled Vladimir Putin's client. In this episode, analyst Hanna Notte explains the enduring nature of Russia-Syria ties and why other regional powers are trying to exploit Moscow's reduced presence in the country.

Hanna Notte is an expert in Russian foreign policy, the Middle East, and arms control and nonproliferation at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Recommended reading:

Russia Isn't Done With Syria by Hanna Notte in Foreign Affairs, the official publication of the Council on Foreign Relations (no paywall)

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The story of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is violent, full of sorrow, and littered with missed opportunities for lasting peace. The origins of the peace process might be traced to the late 1960s, when an American spy made his first clandestine contacts with the PLO. In this episode, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and author Kai Bird says Robert Ames had a vision for Palestinian self-determination. Ronald Reagan saw an opportunity to realize it, even as invasion, war, and terrorism swallowed Lebanon in 1982-83. Lebanon was the country where Bob Ames would lose his life, the country he tried to save.

Recommended reading:

The Good Spy: The Life and Death of Robert Ames by Kai Bird

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The massacre at Wounded Knee in 1890, when U.S. troops butchered at least 150 Lakota men, women, and children, is rightfully remembered as a moral stain on American history. So why is Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth defending the soldiers who participated in it? Nineteen soldiers of the 7th Cavalry received the Medal of Honor after Wounded Knee. Hegseth says they will keep their medals after an expert panel, appointed under the Biden administration, reviewed their cases. Hegseth has not released the panel's report to the public. Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Alan Taylor tells us what happened at Wounded Knee, and what's at stake as the Trump administration tries to rewrite history.

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Ideas cannot be killed, but movements come and go. Some 40 years after it emerged during the first Palestinian uprising, Hamas may be about to leave the scene, its crusade of violently resisting Israel having led to ruin in Gaza. In this episode, Nathan Brown, an expert on Hamas and Middle East politics, explores the movement's origins and its uncertain future, as well as what comes next for Palestinian nationalism.

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Recommended reading:

The One-State Reality: What is Israel/Palestine? by Nathan Brown (co-editor)

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The Trump administration is seeking regime change in Venezuela as top officials accuse that country's president, Nicolás Maduro, of helming an international drug cartel. President Trump boasts about blowing up the boats of alleged Venezuelan drug runners in the Caribbean, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio is reportedly shaping an aggressive strategy to oust Maduro. This does not square with the administration's supposed isolationism, but the U.S. has never been isolationist when it comes to the Western Hemisphere. In this episode, historian Alexander Aviña traces the long, violent pattern of American interventionism in Latin America. Coincidentally, Theodore Roosevelt announced his corollary to the Monroe Doctrine after an international incident involving Venezuela in 1902.

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Moldova's parliamentary elections drew international attention because of Russian meddling aimed at subverting the outcome. The incumbent pro-EU party prevailed anyway, winning an absolute majority. This keeps Moldova on track to join the European Union, although Moscow remains miffed by countries in its historical "sphere of influence" moving toward the West. We check in with Veronica Anghel, an expert on EU integration at the European University Institute. She joins us from Brussels.

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