History As It Happens

Maybe we are getting the "border crisis" all wrong. If you step away from the daily headlines and avert your eyes from the border for a moment, you will see that the underlying causes of illegal migration to the United States are overlooked or ignored. In this episode, Ithaca College professor emeritus Paul McBride, a specialist in immigration history, says the way many Americans, from political leaders to ordinary citizens, view Central and South American migration misses some important realities and produces misplaced confidence in ineffective remedies, such as a border wall.

When President Biden became the first U.S. president to recognize the Armenian genocide, the massacres and deportations that took place in the Ottoman Empire in 1915 were suddenly back in the news. Past U.S. leaders refused to recognize the genocide to avoid angering Turkey, but times have changed. The relationship between the two NATO allies has turned icy. What happened in 1915 -- and why it matters -- with Middle East historian Howard Eissenstat.  

Like McCarthyism during the Red Scare of the 1950s, ex-President Donald Trump's "Stop the Steal" movement seeks to vilify powerful, internal enemies who are trying to undermine American society. In this episode, McCarthyism Redux, historian Gary Gerstle identifies the reasons why such conspiracy theories take hold in the public mind. It is no surprise, when politics are so polarized, that some people are quick to believe the worst about others with whom they disagree. 

Do U.S. wars ever end? Although President Biden has announced the final withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan by Sept. 11, the use of military force authorization passed by Congress 20 years ago is still on the books. In this episode of History As It Happens, The American Way of War, the Cato Institute's John Glaser explains why Congress should reassert its constitutional prerogatives over war-making and end the country's endless military commitments in Afghanistan, Iraq, and elsewhere. 

It is hard to believe the Cold War has been over for 30 years already, if we date its end to the final collapse of the Soviet Union on Dec. 25, 1991. The USSR lost. But what did the U.S. win? The notion that democracy and free markets were victorious, on the march, and the natural progression of human governments proved to be an illusion. In a wide-ranging interview, historian Jeffrey Engel discusses how the post-Cold War world turned out differently than many Americans assumed during those heady days of the early 1990s.

President Biden's decision to withdraw the last U.S. troops from Afghanistan in September is raising questions about the future of a country that has seen little but conflict and humanitarian crises since 1979. The U.S. war could end the way it started: with the Taliban in power. Former U.S. diplomat Johnny Walsh took part in negotiations with the Talibs at the peace table, and was a senior advisor on the Afghan peace process for 10 years during the Obama and Trump administrations. He explains what we might expect if the Taliban seizes power in Kabul again. 

Will history be made in the U.S. House? The Democratic-led chamber is expected to vote to make the District of Columbia the 51st state in the Union. Although the legislation faces poor odds in the Senate, the D.C. statehood movement believes it is closer than ever to achieving its goal. Opponents say the Constitution forbids Congress from acting because new states require ratification of a constitutional amendment. But what about taxation with representation? Let's look at the issues with D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton.   

Republican lawmakers in state legislatures nationwide are proposing more than 250 measures that, critics say, are designed to curb access to the ballot or open the road to partisan interference in elections. Georgia's new election laws are ground zero in the fight for voting rights, provoking a corporate backlash and comparisons to Jim Crow, the system of white supremacy that grew from the ashes of Reconstruction. Eric Foner, one of the preeminent scholars in the U.S., joins the podcast to discuss what is at stake.  

Filibuster, schmilibuster! The origins of the word filibuster seem to belie any claims that the tool of partisan warfare is really a pillar of senatorial greatness, and therefore must be guarded against efforts to weaken or eliminate it. Princeton historian Sean Wilentz returns to the podcast to discuss the pros and cons of doing away with the Senate's long-lasting accident. (Blame Aaron Burr!)

University of Virginia historian Philip Zelikow says President Woodrow Wilson made the most consequential diplomatic error in U.S. history. In his new book, "The Road Less Traveled," Zelikow presents compelling evidence that Wilson could have avoided getting the U.S. involved in the First World War and brought the conflict to a negotiated end in 1916 in the process. The peace ball was in his hands, but he fumbled it. This reassessment of a critical chapter in history holds important lessons for a world troubled by enormous problems that require international cooperation.