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History That Matters Now

History That Matters Now

History That Matters NowPodcastWar

So many awful 20th century roads lead back to the First World War. And despite conventional wisdom, there could have been peace two years before it came to an official (but not really) end. Through a process of detective work,

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Foreign AffairsHistory That Matters NowPodcastPresident Biden

“Crisis at the Border.” The truth is: unless we get to the root of how bad it has to be to force people to leave home, the refugees will keep coming. On this show political anthropology professor David Vine reveals

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History That Matters NowPodcastProtests & ResistanceWar

Traditional liberals argued we’d alienate some by civil disobedience in the streets of Washington. The idea was to stop the center of the war machine to stop the war, which went on an on despite marches and speeches and everyone

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History That Matters NowMilitary and Defence PolicyPodcastProtests & ResistanceWar

Self-professed “patriots” stormed the US Capitol Building January 6th, but it was Vietnam Veterans Against the War in late April 1971 who were the real patriots. They came for what they considered another tour of duty, after serving in the

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Civil LibertiesHistory That Matters NowJusticePodcastTrump

Thanks to January 6th, the word sedition is in our consciousness again.  Trump is more likely guilty of treason than of mere sedition according to the former director of the CIA and our guest, history teacher and essayist William Pruden

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History That Matters NowJusticePodcastProtests & ResistanceWomen

Pounding on windows, yelling Stop the Count; the tactics of physical intimidation (led by the president’s men) succeeded in crushing democracy in the US election of 2000. On part one, our guest historian Robert Toplin tells the story where fear

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History That Matters NowJusticePodcastPresident BidenProtests & ResistanceRacism

They are often pictured as competitive opponents, but Malcolm X and Martin Luther King were “The Sword and the Shield” leading the same revolution with the shared goal of human dignity. On this show, Dr Peniel Joseph talks about his

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CultureHistory That Matters NowPodcast

Unlike other industrialized nations, America values celebrity over governing well. FDR was a rare exception,he became a celebrity because he served America so well. Then there was Reagan, who did great lasting damage to our country yet remains revered as

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Covid 19History That Matters NowJusticePodcastPopulismWar

Sure, the south was defeated militarily, but their attitudes remained, as we saw in the January 6th insurrection. What we saw is not a fringe, in fact it has deep roots. Disunity is traditional in American history. People in the

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Fascism on the RiseHistory That Matters NowPodcastTrump

The similarities are uncanny and deeply disturbing: Kaiser Wilhelm II and Donald Trump share an amazing number of attributes. Such as fascination with and envy of more powerful people, the need to belittle other heads of state, believing themselves physically

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Civil LibertiesHistory That Matters NowPodcastRacism

It was either another civil war or ratify a backroom deal to choose the next president. In that deal, the rights of newly emancipated people were sacrificed. Moving on from abolition, white northerners figured locking in white supremacy and the

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Fascism on the RiseHistory That Matters NowPodcastPopulismTrump

It didn’t start with Trump and it won’t end when he leaves office. There is an historic pattern to strongmen and he fit the playbook perfectly.  In her new book, Strongmen From Mussolini to the Present, historian of authoritarian governments

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Civil LibertiesEducationFascism on the RiseHistory That Matters NowPodcast

He called our current history education in our schools “a form of child abuse.” Teaching critical thinking and the real history of America would be shut down in Trump’s “Patriotic Education.” The popular 1619 Project and Zinn’s Education Project which

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History That Matters NowJusticePodcastPopulismTrump

As John Kerry said: “To understand Donald Trump, you have to understand Joe McCarthy first.” Though his name is only mentioned at the start and end of his new book, Larry Tye says Trump is there on every page of

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CultureFascism on the RiseHistory That Matters NowJusticePodcastRacism

With the killing of George Floyd and the resulting rage in the streets, this is a year like none other. Old reassuring myths are falling away. Statues are being ripped down. What is still worth preserving?  Can we use today’s

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Civil LibertiesCultureFascism on the RiseHistory That Matters NowPodcastRacism

In 1980, candidate Ronald Reagan had the advisors and discipline to be subtle enough about racist messages. Southern white fundamentalists and the NAACP’s Ralph Abernathy all endorsed him for president. As our guest author Rick Perlstein says, Trump turned a

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CultureHistory That Matters NowPodcastTrump

The similarities are uncanny and deeply disturbing: Kaiser Wilhelm II and Donald Trump share an amazing number of attributes. Such as fascination with and envy of more powerful people, the need to belittle other heads of state, believing themselves physically

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Fascism on the RiseHistory That Matters NowMiddle East NewsPodcastProtests & ResistanceWar

Denial is the final stage for a successful genocide. Since Nuremberg, we’ve heard the phrase “Never Again.” But that requires facing real history, hearing the voice of the victims not just the winners. Though the Turkish genocide of a million

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EnvironmentHistory That Matters NowPodcastProtests & Resistance

On part one, Ron Jacobs and MayDay veteran Burt Cohen discuss the virtually unknown MayDay 1971 protest in DC when 13,000 people were arrested. And on part two, five college world security professor Michael Klare examines the significant silver lining

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Fascism on the RiseHistory That Matters NowJusticeMilitary and Defence PolicyPodcastProtests & ResistanceWar

On May 4, 1970, Laurel Krause was just 15 years old. That night in a hospital with her parents she identified her 19-year-old sister Allison’s lifeless body. The bullets that killed Kent State University students Allison, Jeff, Sandy and Bill,

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Civil LibertiesHistory That Matters NowJusticePodcastSocialism

We’re all fascinated by Cinderella stories. This one happens to be true, with many twists. Extremely rich WASP man marries very poor Jewish immigrant in 1905. But she turns out to be the strong one. The new book by Adam

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CultureHistory That Matters NowNational PolicyPodcast

From the pre-coronovirus archives:  Nostalgia looks with fondness to the 19th century as a time of rugged individualism and unemcumbered free markets. As with so many mythic images, reality is exceedingly different. If you like corporate personhood, thank the railroads.

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Civil LibertiesCultureHistory That Matters NowJusticePodcastPopulism

From the Covid stay-at-home greatest hits:  Patriotic Americans were shocked by the outcome of the 2016 election. As they were in 1920 when Republicans put up Warren Harding, a big business Republican who campaigned and won on an America First

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Civil LibertiesCultureEconomyHistory That Matters NowPodcastPopulism

Creeping centralization. Tax dollars are being used to prop up bigness. Well there may be an answer. While I’m on vacation, enjoy this 2009 show with author Paul Starobin whose article “Divided We Stand” appeared  in the Wall Street Journal.

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History That Matters NowJusticePodcastRacism

It’s an amazing story that started well before the Civil War. Conventional wisdom was that African Americans could only progress so far. Their race was believed to hold limits. But through education and some incredible bravery, the two boys James

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History That Matters NowJusticePodcastTrump

According to our guest historian James Banner, “The first instance of executive branch malfeasance occurred in 1792, during Washington’s first term in office.”  So since instituting a new government designed to be of, by, and for all the citizens, it

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CultureFascism on the RiseFreedomHistory That Matters NowPodcastProtests & ResistanceTrump

Often called the father of scientific or objective history, the ancient Greek philosopher Thucydides did not see himself that way. According to our guest, history can never be a blueprint. We just can’t make sense of it. There are no

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History That Matters NowPodcastSocialismWar

You’ve heard of the famous Christmas Truce of 1914 between the trenches of the British and German soldiers. These were indeed brave men. But that was not the only such event: there were desertions, mutinies, and fraternizations. Today it seems

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Foreign AffairsHistory That Matters NowInternational NewsMiddle East NewsPodcastWarWomen

We all know that, thanks to Trump giving them a green light, Erdogan’s Turkish military is now aggressively slaughtering the stateless Kurdish people. Kurdish women warriors were exceptionally effective in their fight against our common enemy ISIS. Yet Trump abandoned

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Louis F.Post
Civil LibertiesHistory That Matters NowJusticeNational PolicyPodcastRacism

We were all startled by Donald Trump’s anti-immigrant frenzy launched in 2015. But there is solid precedent. In an article in The New Yorker, acclaimed author of many history books, Adam Hochschild tells the tale: When America Tried to Deport

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