History As It Happens

Can movies mirror the reality of war? Should war movies be entertaining or horrifying? Today is June 6, the anniversary of the Invasion of Normandy in 1944. Films like The Longest Day and Saving Private Ryan capture the heroism and epic sweep of the D-Day invasion to liberate Western Europe from the Nazis, but what do such films leave out of the story? How do popular movies subtly influence our attitudes toward or perceptions of the past, as individuals and in collective memory? In this episode, historian Kevin Ruane reflects on the educational, entertainment, and political angles of our favorite D-Day films.

Kevin Ruane is a By-Fellow of Churchill College, University of Cambridge, a Professor Emeritus of Canterbury Christ Church University, and the Director of the Graham Greene International Festival. He has written and taught on various international topics, including the Second World War, the Cold War, the Vietnam War, the Nuclear Age, and postwar European unity and security. His books include Churchill and the Bomb in War and Cold War (2016). Kevin is also a regular contributor to television, radio, and online history programmes, including, most recently, Churchill at War (Netflix), Britain's Nuclear Bomb Scandal (BBC), and The Manhattan Project in Colour (Channel 4, UK).

Go to historyasithappens.com to learn more.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Trump administration officials say they're considering doing something that's only been done four times in U.S. history: suspend the writ of habeas corpus, a bedrock legal principle ensuring that an individual cannot be imprisoned unlawfully. The reason? President Trump wants his mass deportation scheme to operate faster. To deflect criticism, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has pointed to Abraham Lincoln's decision to suspend habeas corpus during the Civil War. Are the two situations really comparable? In this episode, historian James Oakes, an expert on Lincoln, slavery, and antebellum politics, explains the context of Lincoln's unprecedented use of presidential war powers.

Further reading:

Freedom National: The Destruction of Slavery in the United States, 1861-1865 by James Oakes

Go to historyasithappens.com to learn more.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Since Theodore Roosevelt won a Nobel Peace Prize for helping end the Russo-Japanese War, American presidents have sought to mediate the end of conflicts in violent corners of the world. Some succeeded. What can President Donald Trump learn from his predecessors, as he claims to seek peace in Ukraine, the Middle East, and elsewhere? In this episode, historians Jeremi Suri and Jeffrey Engel talk about why wars are easy to start but hard to end, even -- or especially when -- a U.S. president presses his thumb on the scales.

Further reading:

The Impossible Presidency by Jeremi Suri

When The World Seemed New by Jeffrey Engel

Go to historyasithappens.com to learn more.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The theories of unrestrained executive power guiding the Trump administration's assault on the administrative state and its attitude toward the federal judiciary draw on a far-right intellectual tradition. The thrust of these ideas is that the president must be able to exercise emergency powers and that neither Congress nor the courts should stand in his way. In this episode, political theorist Damon Linker explains the origins of the ideas driving Trump 2.0. Linker writes Notes From the Middleground newsletter on Substack.

Recommended reading:

These Thinkers Set the Stage for Trump the All-Powerful by Damon Linker (New York Times)

Go to historyasithappens.com to learn more.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

China is ruled by a Communist Party of 100 million members, a giant pyramid with President Xi Jinping and the Politburo at the top. Yet its economy, the second largest in the world, largely thrives on private enterprise and integration with global capitalism. So what does it mean to be a Chinese Communist today? And what does China under Xi aim to achieve on the international stage? In this episode, historians Sergey Radchenko and Enrico Fardella peel away opaque layers of ideology to get to the heart of China's 21st-century outlook.

Go to historyasithappens.com to learn more.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Historian Antony Beevor says the world today resembles the Second World War in one important respect: "For decades, it seemed as though the characters of leaders would never again determine the course of events the way they did in World War II. Putin's invasion has changed that, and Trump, taking Putin as a role model, has, too." In this episode, the esteemed war chronicler talks about the unsettling reasons why the post-1945 order is unraveling.

Recommended reading:

We Are Still Fighting World War II by Antony Beevor for Foreign Affairs, the official publication of the Council on Foreign Relations.

The Second World War by Antony Beevor

Go to historyasithappens.com to learn more.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

For four days in early May, India and Pakistan were on the brink of another war over the contested Kashmir, the mountainous territory that has witnessed waves of ferocious violence since partition in 1947. A ceasefire averted major hostilities, but did not establish lasting peace. There has never been a durable peace in Kashmir since India and Pakistan first went to war over its control in October 1947. In this episode, Anatol Lieven of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft traces the origins of one of the world's most intractable conflicts.

Recommended reading:

Pakistan: A Hard Country by Anatol Lieven

Go to historyasithappens.com to learn more.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

During the Palestinian people's darkest hour since 1948, as Israel seeks to displace Gazans and potentially annex the West Bank, the Palestinian leadership is absent. The Palestinian Authority is still around, and its president, Mahmoud Abbas, 89, has been in charge without an election for 20 years. However, the authority, which was established in 1994 and was supposed to be temporary, appears irrelevant and powerless. In this episode, Omar Rahman of the Middle East Council on Global Affairs breaks down the Palestinian Authority's many failings when its leadership is needed more than ever.

Go to historyasithappens.com to learn more.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

President Donald Trump's invocation of the Alien Enemies Act during peacetime is unprecedented, a part of his larger effort to portray undocumented immigrants as wicked and threatening as he seeks to deport them en masse. What is not unprecedented is the federal government weaponizing the law to shred constitutional protections and civil liberties. During the Second World War, the administration of Franklin Roosevelt arrested and incarcerated Italians, Germans, and Japanese aliens under the 1798 statute, but also interned roughly 100,000 U.S. citizens of Japanese ancestry -- one of the most egregious violations of civil rights in U.S. history. In this episode, the eminent historian David M. Kennedy takes us back to those perilous years and their important parallels to the current crisis.

Recommended reading:

Freedom From Fear: The American People in Depression and War, 1929-1945 by David M. Kennedy

Go to historyasithappens.com to learn more.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Does history provide us with lessons, or does the past offer warnings about what might happen now based on human tendencies that transcend time and culture? In his new book The Nazi Mind, the historian and filmmaker Laurence Rees studies the Nazi mentalities that produced the most horrendous crimes in history. Beyond high-ranking Nazi officials and SS fanatics, Rees also delves into the attitudes of medical professionals and ordinary Germans who assisted their leaders in barbarous acts. What about the Nazis can help us navigate today's crisis of liberal democracy?

Recommended reading:

The Nazi Mind: Twelve Warnings From History by Laurence Rees

Go to historyasithappens.com to learn more.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.