History As It Happens

Subscribe now for ad-free listening, early access, and bonus content.
Now well into its fifth year, Russia's invasion of Ukraine appears to be a stalemate on the ground while the combatants seek a decisive edge in the air with drones and missiles. Diplomacy to end the war seems to be going nowhere. No one can say with any certainty how or when the war may end. Do the war's origins point toward an exit? Anatol Lieven is our guest.
Anatol Lieven is Director of the Eurasia Program and the Andrew Bacevich chair in American Diplomatic History at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft.

Subscribe now for ad-free listening, early access, and bonus content.
Herman Melville's masterpiece Moby-Dick has something to teach us about democracy, citizenship, and the rule of law. A flop when published in the mid-nineteenth century, Moby-Dick has long been considered a quintessential American novel — an epic adventure story layered with allegory. In this episode, historian Michael Kimmage revisits the novel with a focus on the character Starbuck, the first mate who clashes with Captain Ahab over his mad pursuit of the white whale.
Recommended reading:
Citizen Starbuck, or Democracy and the Whale by Michael Kimmage (Liberties Journal)
Subscribe: https://historyasithappens.supercast.com/

This is a special episode of History As It Happens.
South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham is dead. His office says Graham died from "a brief and sudden illness" on Saturday night in Washington. He was 71.
Graham was first elected to the U.S. House in 1994 and the Senate in 2002. He was seeking a fifth term in the midterm elections this November. After first condemning Donald Trump during the 2016 campaign, the conservative Republican turned into one of Trump's most fawning supporters.
In this episode, University of Texas at Austin historian Jeremi Suri examines Graham's extensive legislative and political legacy. Jeremi Suri writes the Democracy of Hope newsletter on Substack. 
Subscribe to skip ads! https://historyasithappens.supercast.com/

Keep the narrative flow going while supporting the show! Subscribe now for ad-free listening, early access, and bonus content.
The discourse is drowning in -isms. President Trump is railing against an imaginary resurgence of communism. Many of its critics say the Trump administration is putting the country on the road to fascism. Others are trying to define something called Trumpism.
In this episode, historian Roger Griffin, one of the world's foremost experts on fascism and ideological movements, explains how these ideas developed over time through the prism of his own career.
Recommended reading:
The Nature of Fascism by Roger Griffin
Subscribe: https://historyasithappens.supercast.com/

Subscribe now for ad-free listening, early access, and bonus content.
When the Trump administration attacked Iran in late February, some war backers dreamt that the Iranian people would rise en masse and take control of their country. It proved to be a dangerous fantasy. But then the history of U.S.-Iran relations is full of cruel ironies. More than 70 years ago, a democrat and nationalist named Mohammad Mossadegh galvanized the Iranian people and tried to liberate his country from foreign domination, only to be betrayed by the United States. Historian Roham Alvandi is our guest.
Further listening:
Operation Ajax (podcast w/ Gregory Brew)
Recommended reading:
Patriot of Persia by Christopher de Bellaigue
America and Iran by John Ghazvinian