History As It Happens

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The fascism debate is intensifying as the Trump administration lurches deeper into authoritarianism. Analogies abound, trying to connect or liken what's happening today to the death of democracy in interwar Europe — or to dark chapters in America's past. Is there an American fascism? Is it possible to look for it without invoking history's most infamous fascist, Adolf Hitler? Historian Gavriel Rosenfeld is our guest.
Gavriel Rosenfeld is a historian at Fairfield University and the president of the Center for Jewish History. He's the author or editor of eight books, including The Fourth Reich: The Specter of Nazism from World War II to the Present and Fascism in America: Past and Present.
Additional reading:
An American Führer? Nazi Analogies and the Attempt to Explain Donald Trump by Gavriel Rosenfeld (Cambridge University Press — article)
The Counterfactual History Review — Blog by Gavriel Rosenfeld

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It wasn't very long ago when U.S. policymakers relied on a species of grand strategist known as the Sovietologist. It was the Cold War, and the strategies for dealing with the USSR ranged from containment to rollback, to détente and peaceful bridge-building. Zbigniew Brzezinski formulated the latter. President Jimmy Carter's national security adviser was an ardent anti-communist with a pragmatic streak, whose goal was to accelerate the breakup of the Soviet Empire. He also supported Palestinian autonomy, and after the Cold War, Brzezinski backed NATO expansion in Eastern Europe while criticizing the excesses of the global war on terror.
In this episode, the Financial Times' Edward Luce discusses his timely biography, Zbig: The Life of Zbigniew Brzezinski, America's Great Power Prophet.
Also read:
Martin Di Caro's review of Luce's book for Responsible Statecraft.

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President Trump's harsh immigration crackdown would not be possible without a militarized law enforcement apparatus that presidents and legislators of both political parties built over decades. Even before the 9/11/2001 terrorist strikes, immigration began to be viewed as a national security concern requiring billions to beef up enforcement and deportations, while sensible immigration reform failed to pass Congress time and again. In this episode, historian Jeremi Suri explores the origins of today's crisis as President Trump's federal paramilitary force terrorizes American communities.
Jeremi Suri teaches history at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin. He writes the newsletter Democracy of Hope and co-hosts This is Democracy podcast.
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Further reading:
ICE Needs the DOGE Treatment by Jeremi Suri (Wall Street Journal)

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On the streets of Minnesota, a federal paramilitary force in combat gear is executing a deliberate policy of terror and violence against American citizens and their immigrant neighbors. The lawless conduct of President Trump's immigration enforcers has supercharged a debate that's been roiling since 2016: Is Trumpism a form of fascism?
In this episode, historian Roger Griffin argues that American (and global) democracy is under assault not from a resurgence of fascism, but from anti-liberal forces and ideas at odds with the universal values that were supposed to gain ascendance after 1945: democracy, human rights, and tolerance.

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The Trump administration's National Security Strategy calls for "flexible realism" in foreign policy, a supposed departure from the military adventurism that led to disasters in the Greater Middle East. Realism prioritizes national interests rather than ideology or high principles, such as democracy and human rights. Is Donald Trump a realist? What are the historical origins of realism? What are its opposites? In this episode, scholars Linda Kinstler and Stephen Wertheim break it down.
Linda Kinstler is a contributing writer for New York Times Magazine and a junior fellow at the Harvard Society of Fellows.
Stephen Wertheim is a senior fellow in the American Statecraft Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. 

Recommended reading:
The Theory That Gives Trump a Blank Check For Aggression by Linda Kinstler (New York Times)