The Catastrophe of the European War

2min Snip

00:00

Play full episode

Summary

Transcript

Episode notes

When Italy invaded Ethiopia in 1935, European and American empathy was limited by racism. If sacrificing a far away African country would head off a second world war then America and the major European powers decided so be it. But of course, it didn't work. And so in our time, when Russia rolled its tanks into Ukraine, the images that came to mind were from the catastrophic global conflict which powerful countries had tried to prevent.

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.