History As It Happens

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This is the third episode in an occasional series for the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.
The idea of the frontier compelled Americans to seek new lands and independence since before the days of the American Revolution. Before the United States became a powerful global empire, ordinary Americans sought to conquer a continent, making war against Native Peoples. In this episode, historian Alan Taylor explains what drove common farmers to cross the Appalachians despite a royal proclamation forbidding such settlement.
Alan Taylor is professor emeritus of history at the University of Virginia and a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner.
America250 podcast series:
Episode 1:  Thomas Paine's Common Sense
Episode 2:  Ideas of the American Revolution
Recommended reading:
American Revolutions: A Continental History, 1750-1804 by Alan Taylor

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Editor's note: Shortly after this episode was published, news broke that Iran's Supreme Leader, the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed in an air strike.
Americans awoke on Saturday to learn their leaders, along with Israel, launched another unprovoked air attack against Iran. Unlike last June's 12-day-long war, President Donald Trump says the goal this time around is to topple the clerical regime in Tehran so the Iranian people can rise up. Historian Jeremi Suri, an expert on U.S. foreign policy, joins this special episode of History As It Happens to assess the start of another U.S. war of choice in the Greater Middle East.
Historian Jeremi Suri teaches at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin. He co-hosts This is Democracy podcast and co-writes Democracy of Hope newsletter.

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Twenty-six years after coming to power, Vladimir Putin is prosecuting a ruinous war in Ukraine and tightening the screws of repression at home. How much longer can his rule endure under these suffocating circumstances? In this episode, historian Nina Khrushcheva shares what she saw during her recent trip to Russia — in a society descending into tyranny, but where some expressions of discontent are still permitted.
Khrushcheva teaches at the New School. She is an editor of and a contributor to Project Syndicate. She's the author of several books, including one about her great-grandfather: Nikita Khrushchev: An Outlier of the System (2024).
Recommended reading:
Russia's Descent into Tyranny by Nina Khrushcheva in Foreign Affairs, the official publication of the Council on Foreign Relations.
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The Russian invasion of Ukraine is entering its fifth year with no end in sight despite several rounds of U.S.-mediated negotiating sessions. The battlefield dead and wounded have reportedly surpassed a million men, yet neither side is on the brink of military or political collapse. Neither side is close to victory. In this episode, historians Michael Kimmage and Mark Galeotti try to place this tragic and unnecessary conflict in historical perspective, as the opposing armies send a generation of their young to fight and die over piles of rubble in eastern Ukraine.
Michael Kimmage is the founding director of the independent Kennan Institute. He is the author of "Collisions: The War in Ukraine and the Origins of the New Global Instability."
Mark Galeotti is an Honorary Professor at University College London, an expert on Russian military history, and the author of many books, including "Forged in War: A Military History of Russia From Its Beginnings to Today."
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The United States may soon be at war in the Middle East — again! President Trump is weighing whether to attack Iran, although neither he nor any administration official has bothered to fully explain why. Congress seems unwilling or incapable of intervening, although there is little public enthusiasm for another unnecessary war in the Greater Middle East. What the hell is going on? The Cato Institute's Justin Logan takes us inside the "imperial presidency."

Justin Logan is the director of defense and foreign policy studies at the Cato Institute. He is an expert on U.S. grand strategy, international relations theory, and American foreign policy.