The Price of Peace in Europe

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Britain and other European nations were still reeling from the last Great War. They could feel the next one brewing, and they were desperately trying to figure out a path to avoid it. The Italian airplanes completely unopposed, flitted through the skies over Abyssinia and dropped their bombs. 1,700 people were reported killed in the war's first air raid. Highly salassie protested to the League of Nations over the bombing of helpless non-combatants. The League nodded in agreement and did nothing.

An authoritarian ruler moves to invade a smaller country and take it for himself. People around the world rally to that country’s defense. European and American leaders grapple with how to stop the invasion and prevent a wider war. But this isn’t Russia and Ukraine in 2022. It’s Italy and Ethiopia in 1935. Rachel Maddow and Isaac-Davy Aronson explore what we can learn from the very different choices made decades ago, when the world faced a similar challenge.

Featuring:

Deborah Cohen, the Richard W. Leopold Professor of History at Northwestern University, and author of Last Call At The Hotel Imperial: The Reporters Who Took on a World at War.

Susan Pedersen, the Gouverneur Morris Professor of History at Columbia University, and author of The Guardians: The League of Nations and the Crisis of Empire.

Anne Applebaum, staff writer at The Atlantic, and author of Twilight of Democracy: The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism.