History That Matters Now
History That Matters Now

A Surprising Team for Justice: Malcolm X and Martin Luther King
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

The Price of Mythologizing Former Presidents
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

One Nation Indivisible: Really? Forever?
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

Brothers from Another Mother: Trump and Kaiser Wilhelm II
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

2020 Not the Worst Election; 1876 Was
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

Strongmen: From Mussolini to Trump’s Republicans
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

How Trump’s “Patriotic Education” is Anti-American
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

Joe McCarthy: Prelude to Trumpism
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

We’re all Historians Now!
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

Reagan’s Dog Whistles Worked; Trump Missed That Lesson
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

Kaiser Wilhelm and Donald Trump: Brothers from Another Mother
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

Never Again? Denying The Crime Is Part of the Crime
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

I) May Day 71 II) Silver Lining of Pandemic
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

Kent State Plus 50: Time to Face The Truth
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,

Rebel Cinderella: A True Story You’ve Never Heard
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

Railroaded: How We Got To Modern Corporate America
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.

Out of Disaster A Liberal Renaissance in the 1920s: House of Truth
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

Is Smaller Better? Devolution Considered.
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.

Two Early 19th C. Fugitive Black Boys Change a Nation
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

From 1792 to Nixon to Reagan to Trump’s New Levels of Malfeasance
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

Hardly A Science, Can We Actually Learn From History?
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

The Christmas Truce: Powerful, Brave, and Not So Isolated
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

The Kurds are a Nation; Why Don’t They Have a State?
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

Deport the Immigrants and Radicals: Trump’s Precedent 100 Years ago
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

A New Deal That’s Also Green
The New Deal aspect of the Green New Deal often gets forgotten. The goal now as in the 1930s is to make the state the instrument of the popular will. Democratizing the economy, making it work for the common good,

Democrats Took The Wrong Lessons from McGovern 1972
Conventional Democratic Party wisdom is that McGovern lost to Nixon because he was too liberal, and as a result of that belief, ever since that loss party insiders have trended steadily to the right. But if today’s measuring tools had

Concentration Camps-Never Again!//Red Summer 100 Years Ago
Did you ever imagine we would have actual concentration camps in America? What would you have done in Germany in the 1930s? Never Again means never again. On the first half, Sara Caplan talks about the new grassroots movement called

Woodrow Wilson And Trump: Fanning the Flames of Hate
Trump is not the first. Author of many history books Adam Hochschild writes: “The last time we had anything similar from Washington was almost exactly 100 years ago and it, too, involved a flood of angry rhetoric and a fear

The New EuroFascism//Slavery Ended Had Brits Won 1776?
On the first half of the podcast, from Barcelona Spain, professor of political philosophy and journalist Santiago Zabala reports on the rise of the new European nationalistic fascism. He answers these questions: What is it? Why is it happening? How

DNA of Democracy: It’s a Recessive Gene
We take democracy for granted, but as author Richard C.Lyons tells it, democracy is a recessive gene. Tyranny is much more able to dominate. Tyranny? What does that ancient word even mean? In his new book: The DNA of Democracy,