King Charles canceled his much anticipated official visit to France that was scheduled for the end of Mach, because the French President, Emanuel Macron, told him don't come - we have mass protests here in France!

France is now approaching three months of mass protests against President Marcon's pension reform bill, which increased the retirement age from 62 to 64. Polls show that 65% of the French people oppose this increase in their retirement age.

And these protests are massive, similar to the Yellow Vests Protests that gripped France in violence back in 2019. Although last week's protests were not as large as prior weeks', still, some 13,000 police officers nationwide, including 5,000 in Paris, were deployed to face and control protestors

So... What's the impact of these protests that are at times violent and volatile?

Here are some examples from recent Wall Street Journal and New York Times reports:

To better understand the history of French protests and their revolutionary spirit, I spoke with Professor Robert Gildea of Worcester College at the University of Oxford... He has been studying modern French history for forty years with particular interests in both la  France profonde and revolutionary

To learn more about Prof. Gildea and his extensive research and publications, you can visit his ⁠academic homepage⁠.

In addition, below are links to other podcast conversations about revolution:

S2E33: ⁠Iran's 1979 Revolution⁠, Dr. Sohrabi.

I hope you enjoy these episodes.

Adel

Host of the ⁠⁠History Behind News⁠⁠ podcast

⁠⁠⁠⁠SUPPORT⁠⁠⁠⁠:

⁠⁠Click here⁠ and join⁠⁠⁠ our other supporters in the news peeler community. Thank you.

To watch our distinguished guests tell the history behind our news, follow us on ⁠⁠⁠⁠Twitter⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠Facebook⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠TikTok

Hey there News Peelers,

We have a great lineup of episodes starting this Fri., Apr. 7, through all of April and then into May. Listen to this brief trailer to find out more about them.

And click the following link for our series on the history of the US economy: HbN US Econ Series.

Also, if you are not already supporting the History Behind News podcast, please consider supporting me and this program. It's easy. Just click the support link below.

⁠⁠⁠SUPPORT⁠⁠⁠

Your financial support helps and motivates me to keep on chugging along and producing news episodes with distinguished scholars to uncover the history behind a variety of topics in our news. So thank you.

Adel

Host of the ⁠⁠History Behind News⁠⁠ podcast

Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank are the two midsize banks that just collapsed. But... how can we have major bank failures, with billions of dollars at stake. Didn't we learn how to regulate banks during the financial crisis of the Great Recession? That was barely 15 years ago!

In this episode, my guest, Dr. Lawrence White, explains that almost always when a bank run occurs, it's on a bank that's already insolvent! And he explains that we've been here before. That is, we've experienced how increases in interest rates have caused bank crises in the past. Dr. White has much to say about the impact of the FDIC on our banking system. He tells me about a time before FDIC when banks functioned just fine... that the relied on capital reserves to attract depositors - not an FDIC sign on their window!

But Dr. White doesn't just leave here. In the perspective segment of our conversation, he provides an alternative banking system - one without an FDIC and with minimal regulations.

To learn more about Dr. White and his extensive research and publications, you can visit his academic homepage.

In addition, below is a link to another podcast conversation with Dr. White:

S2E11: History of US Inflation.

Also, this is the link to The Daily, a New York Times podcast episode about Barney Frank.

Adel

Host of the ⁠History Behind News⁠ podcast

⁠⁠⁠SUPPORT⁠⁠⁠:

⁠Click here⁠ and join⁠⁠ our other supporters in the news peeler community. Thank you.

To watch our distinguished guests tell the history behind our news, follow us on ⁠⁠⁠Twitter⁠⁠, ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Facebook⁠⁠, ⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠, ⁠⁠TikTok

Hey there News Peelers,

We have a great lineup of episodes starting this Fri., Mar. 31, through all of April. Listen to this brief trailer to find out more about them.

Also, if you are not already supporting the History Behind News podcast, please consider supporting me and this program. It's easy. Just click the support link below.

⁠⁠SUPPORT⁠⁠

Your financial support helps and motivates me to keep on chugging along and producing news episodes with distinguished scholars to uncover the history behind a variety of topics in our news. So thank you.

Adel

Host of the ⁠History Behind News⁠ podcast

To watch our distinguished guests tell the history behind our news, follow us on ⁠Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, TikTok

Although news about Iran doesn't deluge our headlines any longer, as it did the days and weeks after Ms. Mahsa Amini's murder, we continue to hear and see trickles of news about Iran and Iranians. And it's a good time to talk about it, because it's the Persian New Year on March 20th - just 3 days from now. 

In this episode, my guest, Dr. Khodadad Rezakhani of Leiden University, takes us from the Black Sea to the Iranian plateau to talk about Persians & Iranians. Are these terms interchangeable? He also tells us which one is more appropriate: the Persian or Iranian New Year? From there we talk about Eranshahr, and why that important term developed during the Sasanian Empire as opposed to earlier empires, namely the Achaemenid and Parthians. Dr. Rezakhani describes the importance of the Sasanian Empire in history, and how this mighty empire pummeled the Byzantine Roman Empire and then, suddenly, fell to the Arabs and Islamization of Iran. Throughout our conversation, he debunks many myths about Iran and world history. 

To learn more about Dr. Rezakhani, you can visit his academic homepage. 

In addition, below are links to other episodes about Iran:

S2E42: An Islamic state pretending to be a republic. CIA’s 1953 coup & the 1979 Revolution. Dr. Behrooz Ghamari-Tabrizi

S2E34: Iran's History of Hijab & Women's Rights, Dr. Janet Afary

S2E33: Iranians of the 1979 Revolution, Dr. Naghmeh Sohrabi

S2E25: Iran-U.S. Diplomacy, Dr. Vali Nasr

S1E25: Iran's Leadership, Government Structure & Religion, Dr. Vali Nasr

Adel

Host of the History Behind News podcast

⁠⁠SUPPORT⁠⁠:

Click here⁠ and join⁠ our other supporters in the news peeler community. Thank you.

To watch our distinguished guests tell the history behind our news, follow us on ⁠⁠Twitter⁠, ⁠YouTube⁠, ⁠Facebook⁠, ⁠LinkedIn⁠, ⁠TikTok ⁠

History of America's electric grid and blackouts in heatwaves, freezes and storms.

After WWII, Americans assumed that electric power would always be available. So no wonder that when we experienced our first massive power outage back in the 1960s... Americans were shocked!

But as our grids become ever more complex, we experience more power outages caused by storms or cascading blackouts that start with a small error!

This is the story of the largest and most sophisticated grid in the world - the history of a superpower's power infrastructure.

My guest is Dr. Julie Cohn. She is a Nonresident Scholar at the Center for Energy Studies at the Baker Institute for Public Policy in Rice University, and also a research historian in the Center for Public History at the University of Houston. She is the author of The Grid: Biography of an American Technology, a 2017 book published by MIT Press. (Amazon link). 

To learn more about Dr. Cohn, you can visit her academic homepage.

In addition, below is the links to another fascinating episode:

S1E33: History of America's Infrastructure, Dr. Petroski

I hope you enjoy these episodes.

Adel

Host of the History Behind News podcast

⁠⁠⁠SUPPORT⁠⁠⁠:

⁠Click here⁠ and join⁠⁠ our other supporters in the news peeler community. Thank you.

To watch our distinguished guests tell the history behind our news, follow us on ⁠⁠Twitter⁠, ⁠YouTube⁠, ⁠Facebook⁠, ⁠LinkedIn⁠, ⁠TikTok

My guest in this episode is Dr. Naomi Lamoreaux. She explains how antitrust enforcement has changed since its lax era of the 1980s. She adds that it's not just antitrust, patent law, which is seemingly a highly technical field of law, is also a product of our political system. 

Dr. Lamoreaux takes us back to John D. Rockefeller, to the days of Standard Oil, to how the term antitrust was adopted and how the scope and enforcement of antitrust has ebbed and flowed over the centuries. This history is replete With colorful characters such as Judge Learned Hand and later Judge Bork, and iconic companies such as General Electric, International Harvester, and United States Steel Corporation, and organizations such as labor unions, NAACP and the Ku Klux Klan. 

Dr. Lamoreaux is a professor of Economics and History at Yale University's Department of Economics. She is also a Senior Research Scholar at University of Michigan Law School

To learn more about Lamoreaux, you can visit her academic homepage.

In addition, below are links to two fascinating episodes: 

S2E40: OPEC, Prices At the Pump & Oil History, Dr. Weaver

S2E13: CRISPR Patents, Dr. Zyontz

S1E17: History of US Patents, Mr. Pepe & Dr. Brenner 

I hope you enjoy these episodes.

Adel

Host of the History Behind News podcast

⁠⁠⁠⁠SUPPORT⁠⁠⁠⁠:

⁠⁠Click here⁠ and join⁠⁠⁠ our other supporters in the news peeler community. Thank you.

To watch our distinguished guests tell the history behind our news, follow us on ⁠⁠⁠Twitter⁠⁠, ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Facebook⁠⁠, ⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠, ⁠⁠TikTok

As the one-year anniversary of Ukraine's war with Russia approached this week, President Biden made a surprise visit to Ukraine, and gave a rousing speech in Warsaw, doubling down on America's commitment to supporting Ukraine. The same day, President Putin gave his State of the Nation speech in Moscow, promising to double down on Russia's attacks on Ukraine with fresh troops and a new major offensive/

But this war may soon become more complicated still, because according to our Secretary of State Antony Blinken China is considering providing arms to Russia, and China's leader Xi Jinping is preparing to visit Moscow for a summit with Putin soon.

As all of this fast-developing news comes at us against the backdrop of the slow grind of this war, and the inescapable realization is that this may be a long war.  And as Russia pummels Ukrainian cities, civilians and infrastructure, the realization is setting in that far from decisive battles, this may become a war of attrition! 

Clearly, Mr. Putin believes that he can bring Ukraine to its knees by basically attrition warfare. In this episode, you'll discover that, historically speaking, he is not alone - many autocracies and democracies engaged in attrition warfare with similar beliefs. Their successes and failures all depended on how they choreographed their resources, politics, peoples, and combined arms warfare. 

But when does an armed conflict transition from decisive strategies and swift battles into long-drawn wars, in which attrition becomes the strategy? Has human history experienced more decisive wars or more wars of attrition? What is a prime example of attrition warfare? And what military strategies have had to be adopted for these long, grinding wars - these wars of attrition?

To better understand attrition warfare, I spoke with Dr. Sebastian Lukasik, a professor in the Department of Leadership and Research Development at Air Command and Staff College, in Air University, which is a professional military education university system of the United States Air Force, where Dr. Lukasik is the director of the ACSC In-Residence Electives Program.

To learn more about Dr. Lukasik, you can visit his academic homepage.

In addition, below are links to two fascinating episodes:

S2E16: Russian Reforms, Rebellions & Revolutions, Dr. Mark Steinberg

S3E6: History of Tank Warfare, Dr. Alaric Searle

I hope you enjoy these episodes.

Adel

Host of the History Behind News podcast

⁠⁠⁠⁠SUPPORT⁠⁠⁠⁠:

⁠⁠Click here⁠ and join⁠⁠⁠ our other supporters in the news peeler community. Thank you.

To watch our distinguished guests tell the history behind our news, follow us on ⁠⁠⁠Twitter⁠⁠, ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Facebook⁠⁠, ⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠, ⁠⁠TikTok

Although China won't admit it, its huge balloon hovering over the United States, in plain view of ordinary Americans, was a huge geopolitical blunder. To boot, that we shot it down and were able to confirm it was equipped with spying equipment, which negated their claim that it was just a weather balloon, internationally undermined their credibility. 

But we have had our own share of blunders. First, we sent reconnaissance balloons over the Soviet Union, until they told us to stop it. Second, our "weather" plane (no doubt similar to China's "weather" balloon), was shot down over the Soviet Union. This is the infamous story of the U-2 spy plane, which became a major embarrassment for the Eisenhower administration. 

To get the full U-2 story and much more about aerial reconnaissance, I spoke with Dr. Tim Schultz, Associate Dean of Academics at the US Naval War College. Prior to this, Dr. Schultz served as the Dean of the United State Air Force School of Advanced Air and Space Studies. And prior to his teaching career, he was a U-2 pilot. Dr. Schultz is a retired colonel of the United States Air Force and was the Commander of the 1st Expeditionary Reconnaissance Squadron, which is a U-2 combat squadron. 

He is the author of Air Power in the Age of Primacy: Air Warfare since the Cold War - a 2021 book; and also The Problem with Pilots: How Physicians, Engineers, and Airpower Enthusiasts Redefined Flight - a 2018 book.

To learn more about Dr. Schultz, you can visit his academic homepage.

In addition, below are links to two fascinating episodes:

S3E2: U.S. Stealth Bombers & Air Superiority, Dr. Melvin Deaile

S2E36: China's Leaders: Overreaction & Overreach, Dr. Susan Shirk 

I hope you enjoy these episodes.

Adel

Host of the History Behind News podcast

⁠⁠⁠⁠SUPPORT⁠⁠⁠⁠:

⁠⁠Click here⁠ and join⁠⁠⁠ our other supporters in the news peeler community. Thank you.

To watch our distinguished guests tell the history behind our news, follow us on ⁠⁠⁠Twitter⁠⁠, ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Facebook⁠⁠, ⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠, ⁠⁠TikTok

Western countries, mainly the United States, the United Kingdom and Germany, are supposed to be sending tanks to Ukraine, to help its valiant fight against Russia. There are two points to consider here. The first is that despite the original enthusiasm and the display of a united front to help Ukraine, these Western may not be arriving anytime soon - save for Germany. The second is that if and when the tanks do arrive in Ukraine, their true effectiveness may not be much more than propaganda value - at least initially so! 

To better understand the history of tanks and armored warfare, I spoke with Dr. Alaric Searle. who joined me from Manchester, the United Kingdom, where he is a professor of Modern European History at Salford University. Dr. Searle is a historian with research interests in several subjects including German, British and Chinese militaries. He has been a Visiting Scholar and Visiting Fellow at the University of Oxford, and also an Honorary Fellow and Distinguished Visiting Professor at German and Chinese universities, respectively. He is the author of several books, including the following: 

1) Genesis, Employment, Aftermath: First World War Tanks and the New Warfare, 1900-1945, 

2) Armoured Warfare: A Military, Political and Global History, 

3)  Kurdish Armour Against ISIS, and 

4) The Military Papers and Correspondence of Major-General J.F.C. Fuller, 1916-1933. 

To learn more about Dr. Searle, you can visit his academic homepage.

In addition, below are links to two fascinating episodes:

S2E8: History of War In Ukraine, Dr. David Stone

S2E20: Why Do Humans War? Dr. Chris Blattman

I hope you enjoy these episodes.

Adel

Host of the History Behind News podcast

⁠⁠⁠⁠SUPPORT⁠⁠⁠⁠:

⁠⁠Click here⁠ and join⁠⁠⁠ our other supporters in the news peeler community. Thank you.

To watch our distinguished guests tell the history behind our news, follow us on ⁠⁠⁠Twitter⁠⁠, ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Facebook⁠⁠, ⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠, ⁠⁠TikTok