History As It Happens

As the race for the 2024 Republican nomination intensifies, it's unclear whether an important GOP constituency will continue steadfastly supporting Donald Trump, because his influence appears to be waning. Whoever wins the nomination, though, will need the backing of conservative evangelicals. They've become a dominant force in Republican politics, evidenced by the emphasis on appointing conservative judges and the relentless culture war against liberalism. In this episode, historian Darren Dochuk discusses the origins of evangelicals' rightward move and the politicization of faith -- from the aftermath of the First World War to the Cold War through the presidency of George W. Bush and the embrace of "faith-based" initiatives.

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This episode was first published on June 30, 2022. New episodes of History As It Happens will resume next Tuesday, March 7, 2023. Make sure to sign up for our weekly newsletter at historyasithappens.com.

On July 4, 1852, Frederick Douglass delivered remarks of enduring significance and American eloquence to an audience of abolitionists. He mixed condemnation of the nation's tolerance of slavery with hope and uplift. He embraced the founding fathers and defended the Constitution while attacking his fellow citizens for hypocrisy and inaction. "What, To The Slave, Is The Fourth Of July?" was quintessential Frederick Douglass. Historian James Oakes discusses the ideas behind Douglass' rhetorical tour de force, his relationship with Abraham Lincoln, and the critical importance of antislavery politics in bringing about the destruction of slavery.

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This episode was first published on Dec. 13, 2022. New episodes of History As It Happens are coming soon. Since British prime minister Neville Chamberlain attempted to avoid war with Hitler in 1938, the word appeasement has been synonymous with moral weakness and wishful thinking. While the failure to appease the Nazi dictator offers important lessons, politicians -- and even some historians -- often invoke the infamous Munich Conference as a political cudgel with which to bash their foes. It happened during Vietnam, the wars in Iraq, and it's happening again to justify Western support for Ukraine, even though its predicament differs in significant ways from that of Czechoslovakia in 1938. In this episode, military historian Cathal Nolan differentiates propaganda from history.

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This is the second episode in a two-part series marking the anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which began on February 24, 2022.

The war in Eastern Europe will determine whether Ukraine can maintain its sovereign independence achieved in 1991 with the collapse of the Soviet Union. Russia's war is a direct war against Ukraine, and an indirect conflict with the U.S., NATO, and "the West." Indeed, over the past year, it has become increasingly difficult to separate Ukraine's interests from those of the U.S., as both rhetoric about maintaining the liberal world order and material assistance for Ukraine's defense have flowed from Washington. Barack Obama, in an interview with The Atlantic near the end of his presidency, envisioned a different set of priorities for U.S. foreign policy. Ukraine was a core Russian interest, not an American one, he cautioned. Two years prior, Mr. Obama dismissed Russia as a "regional power" as it annexed Crimea. Fast forward to February, 2022. Days before Russia's invasion began, President Joseph R. Biden announced the U.S. would stand by Ukraine but not only for Ukraine's sake. Democracy itself was at stake. In this episode, Anatol Lieven of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft discusses what to expect as the war enters its second year and the dangers inherent in the potential escalation of conflict.

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This is the first episode in a two-part series marking the anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which began on February 24, 2022.

One year ago, Russian president Vladimir Putin may have believed he was on the precipice of a legacy-defining victory. His superior troops and tanks would roll into neighboring Ukraine – in a "special military operation" – beyond the areas of the eastern Donbas region, where Russian forces had been backing separatist groups in a stalemated conflict since 2014. Mr. Putin's armies would reach Kyiv in days, decapitate the Ukrainian government, and be greeted as liberators. Within weeks, Mr. Putin's war aims were exposed as a fantasy. In this episode, The Washington Times national security team leader Guy Taylor and Catholic University historian Michael Kimmage discuss what to expect in the coming year as well as the origins of the war, still a hotly debated topic on both sides of the Atlantic. Also, Mr. Kimmage, who worked on the Russia-Ukraine portfolio for the U.S. State Department in 2014-16, discusses the ways in which U.S. leaders talk about national interests, as Congress has approved billions in military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine.

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No publication in recent memory has provoked more debate and political hand-wringing than the New York Times' 1619 Project. Much of the attention has focused on its specious claims that "some colonists" broke with the crown to defend slavery and its slighting of Abraham Lincoln. The 1619 Project is now a major Hulu docuseries, but it continues to present a distorted view of slavery and capitalism in an effort to showcase the importance of Black people in fighting for American democracy. In this episode, one of the project's most vocal critics, economic historian Phil Magness of the conservative American Institute for Economic Research, discusses what the New York Times' award-winning project still gets wrong.

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Most Americans hadn't seen or heard the name of former Pakistani military ruler Pervez Musharraf for many years before news broke of his death earlier this month. Musharraf had been ill, living a quiet existence in self-imposed exile in Dubai, a long way in space and time from his once esteemed position as an important U.S. ally in the war against the Taliban and al-Qaeda in Afghanistan. Musharraf's reluctant embrace of the U.S. war helped lead to his downfall, as it riled segments of Pakistan's population of fundamentalist Islamists who opposed helping the U.S. oust the Taliban from Kabul. As the backlash to his policies escalated, Musharraf became increasingly despotic, ultimately suspending the Pakistani constitution and imposing emergency rule in 2007. In this episode, New America national security expert Peter Bergen discusses the legacy of a ruler who, after coming to power in a bloodless coup in 1999, relented to U.S. "with us or against us" ultimatums. In the end, American interests could never align with Pakistan's strategy of backing a Pashtun force in Afghanistan for strategic depth against India.

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Seventy-three years ago today, Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy delivered a watershed speech in his young political career in Wheeling, West Virginia. He told the Republican Women's Club that he knew of more than 200 known Communists who had infiltrated the U.S. government. "Today we are engaged in a final, all-out battle between communistic atheism and Christianity. The modern champions of communism have selected this as the time. And, ladies and gentlemen, the chips are down—they are truly down," the Republican demagogue warned his audience. In this episode, historian and McCarthy biographer Rick Fried discusses his new book, "A Genius for Confusion," which illuminates the destructive power of lying in an atmosphere of heightened national angst and anti-communist paranoia. In our age of disinformation, McCarthyism has enduring relevance.

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China's decision to fly a surveillance balloon over the United States led Secretary of State Antony Blinken to postpone his trip to Beijing at a time when U.S.-China relations are at a historic low point. But neither the balloon incident nor other recent controversies, such as Covid or the trade war, are solely responsible for wrecking once promising ties. The seeds of this burgeoning Great Power rivalry were planted decades ago, when U.S. policymakers believed helping China along its path to prosperity would lead to a more stable and peaceful world. It hasn't exactly turned out that way. In this episode, The Washington Times' Guy Taylor and Andrew Scobell of the U.S. Institute of Peace discuss the increasingly antagonistic relationship between two powers contending for primacy in the Pacific and beyond.

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After weeks of criticism for refusing to send its tanks to Ukraine, Germany relented. Chancellor Olaf Schultz had hesitated in approving shipments of the Leopard 2 battle tank, although Germans citizens have steadfastly supported Ukraine in its war against Russia, and despite the fact that Schultz's government already delivered more than $1 billion in aid and arms to Ukraine the prior year. But the tank issue caused a rift in German politics over whether the country was going too far in its support for Ukraine in a war with no end in sight against a nuclear-armed foe. Germany, while not a pacifist nation, still has prominent pacifist or anti-interventionist voices in its politics who point to the country's history as the reason for avoiding deep involvement in foreign wars: Hitler, genocide, and catastrophic defeat in 1945. In this episode, historian Chris Browning brings his expertise on Nazi Germany and the Holocaust to a discussion about the burden of the German past on current politics.

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