History As It Happens

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There was an old idea behind President Trump's threats to annihilate Iran's bridges, power plants, and other civilian infrastructure. It's called strategic bombing, and it was devised more than a century ago by an Italian air power theorist with a French-sounding name. Giulio Douhet said air power should be used to destroy the enemy's capacity to make war while terrorizing its citizens to crush their will to persevere. In this episode, historian David M. Kennedy discusses Douhet's ideas and the sinister purposes to which they can be applied.
Recommended reading:
Freedom From Fear: The American People in Depression and War, 1929-1945 by David M. Kennedy

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After 16 years in power, the self-described illiberal democrat Viktor Orbán and his Fidesz political party were trounced in Hungary's national elections. Critics of Orbán's authoritarian style had long become concerned that he had so tilted the electoral system in Fidesz's favor that he might never be beaten. So, what happened to MAGA darling Viktor Orbán? Political scientist Veronica Anghel of the European University Institute is our guest.

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Great Britain, France, and Israel's secret plan in 1956 to invade Egypt, regain control of the Suez Canal, and force the nationalist strongman Gamal Nasser from power ended in strategic disaster. The Eisenhower administration angrily opposed the surprise attack and pressured the aggressors to withdraw, ensuring Egypt would maintain control of the vital waterway. Today, as the U.S. fights a war of choice against Iran with no easy way to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, some believe the United States is experiencing its own 'Suez moment,' which will accelerate its strategic decline in a region where so many American projects have failed. Historian Salim Yaqub is our guest.
Salim Yaqub is a historian at U.C. Santa Barbara and an expert on U.S. involvement in the Middle East in the postwar era. He's the author of "Containing Arab Nationalism: The Eisenhower Doctrine and the Middle East."

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Over eight long years in the 1980s, Iraq and Iran pulverized each other in an unwinnable, pointless war that nonetheless began as an existential threat to the new revolutionary government in Tehran. In the crucible of war, the Islamic Republic cemented hardline clerical rule, crushed dissent, forged an identity, demonstrated its resilience, ensured the country's independence, and created a powerful national narrative to challenge hostile "imperialists" in the West and East.

In this episode, political scientist Hussein Banai, an expert on U.S.-Iran relations, discusses the enduring relevance of the Iran-Iraq War as the theocratic regime attempts to survive a U.S.-Israeli onslaught in 2026.
Recommended reading:
Republics of Myth: National Narratives and the US-Iran Conflict by Hussein Banai, Malcolm Byrne, and John Tirman
Iran-Iraq War (Encyclopedia Britannica)

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Can a Siberian peasant influence the course of history? In the case of Grigori Rasputin, the answer was yes. A wanderer, mystic, and spiritual healer, Rasputin was also corrupt and lecherous — and his meddling in the affairs of state helped bring down the Tsarist autocracy in the crucible of war and revolution. In this episode, Antony Beevor, the renowned military historian, talks about his new biography, 'Rasputin: The Downfall of the Romanovs.'
Further reading:
Russia: Revolution and Civil War, 1917-1921 by Antony Beevor