Trump and the Panama Canal
History As It Happens
President-elect Donald Trump says China has taken over the Panama Canal. In a news conference, Trump said U.S. military force may be necessary to seize the canal, which would abrogate the 1978 treaty between the U.S. and Panama ceding its control to that Central American country. In this episode, historian Jonathan Brown traces Panama's history from 1903, the year of its independence, through the rule of dictator Omar Torrijos, who persuaded the United States to give up control of the world’s busiest waterway. The canal is an important symbol of Panama's sovereignty, and China, contrary to...
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The Folly of Mass Deportation
History As It Happens
President-elect Donald Trump, who has said illegal immigrants are "poisoning the blood of our country," vows his administration will implement the largest deportation program in U.S. history. Mass deportations are part of the American story; Mexicans were targeted in "repatriation raids" in the 1930s, and in 1954 the Eisenhower administration undertook "Operation Wetback," a racist slur for people who crossed the southern border by swimming. What were the consequences of these past deportations? Is it possible to deport all the undocumented people in the United States? In this episode,...
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To Love the Bomb
History As It Happens
A new nuclear arms race is underway. Almost all the landmark treaties of the Cold War and post-Cold War period restricting the U.S. and Russian arsenals are no longer in effect, having been abrogated or abandoned. China is arming. Other states may be interested in joining the nuclear club, despite the strictures of the non-proliferation treaty of 1968. In this episode, nuclear weapons expert Joe Cirincione, who writes on Substack, discusses the "arms control extinction" and the potential consequences of President-elect Trump's proposals, as stated in Project 2025, to spend trillions in...
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Consequences of President Carter
History As It Happens
On Dec. 29, 2024, James Earl Carter died at 100. From 1977 to 1981, he was the 39th president of the United States. Carter's passing reignited a debate over the successes and failures of his one term in the White House. He is remembered for stagflation, gas lines, and the "crisis of confidence." His presidency was upended by economic problems at home and major crises abroad, none greater than the Iran hostage ordeal that vexed his administration for more than 400 days. Yet Carter also left a positive legacy in human rights and racial equality. In this episode, historians Jeremi Suri and...
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2024 Year in Review
History As It Happens
Note: This episode was produced before the news of the passing of former president Jimmy Carter. The episode scheduled for this upcoming Friday, Jan. 3, will cover Carter's legacy. Today's episode: Biden's humiliating fall. Trump's historic comeback. Assad was ousted. Israel destroyed Gaza. Russia continued to wage war on Ukraine. Democracy retreated. An accused murderer became a folk hero. Caitlin Clark was Time's Athlete of the Year. And the New York Jets -- Martin Di Caro's favorite sports team -- had another miserable campaign. It's the 2024 Year in Review, with historians Jeremi Suri and...
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Back in the USSR
History As It Happens
The West celebrated the collapse of the Soviet Union. "This is a victory for democracy and freedom. It's a victory for the moral force of our value," said President George Bush from the Oval Office on Dec. 25, 1991, as the final curtain came down on the USSR. Few Russians today are celebrating. The end of one-party rule was welcomed, but the 1990s brought on economic collapse, widespread criminality and corruption, and national humiliation. The decade ended with Putin in power. Yet this does not mean Russians want to return to communism. In this episode, the journalist and political scientist...
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The Christmas Truce
History As It Happens
Something remarkable happened as British, French, and German soldiers shivered in their trenches on Christmas Eve along a 20-mile-long stretch of the Western Front in 1914. Instead of killing one another, they met in no-man's-land to fraternize. They shared songs and cigarettes rather than bullets and bombshells. In this episode, historian Terri Blom Crocker separates history from memory, myth from reality concerning the Christmas Truce of 1914. The myths say more about man's uses of memory than the First World War itself. Further reading: by Terri Blom Crocker
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Religious Right and Left: Archie Bunker to Donald Trump
History As It Happens
Let's talk religion and politics as if we were on the set of All in the Family, the smash 1970s sitcom designed to expose the problems of racism, sexism, and religious intolerance. In this episode, historian Louis Benjamin Rolsky traces the rise and fall of the religious left through the career of Norman Lear, the legendary TV producer and writer. In Lear's view, if Archie Bunker personified the wrong ideas and attitudes, the millions of Americans watching All in the Family would see the errors of his mind. Would Archie Bunker vote for Donald Trump? Recommended reading: by L....
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Georgia Between the Kremlin and the West
History As It Happens
Since emerging as an independent state in 1991, Georgia has struggled to establish its nationhood. "Joining 'the West' has driven Georgian elites’ strategic thinking for decades," writes the historian Bryan Gigantino. Yet, at the same time, Tbilisi must not antagonize Russia, as the legacy of the 2008 war over South Ossetia and Abkhazia still looms over Georgian society. For the past three weeks, demonstrators have staged massive protests, often clashing with police, over the ruling Georgian Dream party's decision to suspend talks to join the European Union. In this episode, Gigantino...
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Goodbye Assad / Hello Who?
History As It Happens
The fall of Bashar al-Assad marked the historic end of more than 50 years of cruel tyranny that began with his father Hafez, who took power in 1970. The world watched moving scenes of Syrians being freed from the regime's dungeons after a 13-year-long civil war killed hundreds of thousands of people. But who are Syria's new leaders? Who are the rebels that toppled Assad? In this episode, Sefa Secen, an expert on Syria and Middle East security, delves into the country's murky future and dark past.
info_outlineIsrael’s invasion of southern Lebanon is evoking comparisons to 1982, the year Israel tried to rout an enemy on the other side of the border, leading to a catastrophe for Palestinian civilians. What happened at Sabra and Shatila sparked international outrage and a rebuke from Washington. Forty-two years later, Israel is risking falling into a Lebanese abyss once more. In this episode, historian Ahron Bregman, who was an IDF soldier during the siege of Beirut, discusses the causes of the carnage in 1982, why Israel may get stuck in Lebanon again as it fights Hezbollah, and the U.S. role in de-escalating the crisis.