History As It Happens

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This is the fifth episode in an occasional series for the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, America's semiquincentennial.
Americans have always contested the meanings and purpose of the Revolution. During the 1850s, both unionists and secessionists, the anti-slavery movement and pro-slavery stalwarts, cited the Declaration of Independence to defend their positions. How could Americans who were on opposite sides of the all-important slavery conflict cite the same document invoking fundamental human equality? In this episode, historian James Oakes takes us into the mind of Abraham Lincoln, who reached back to 1776 to denounce the South's peculiar institution.
Recommended reading:
The Radical and the Republican: Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln, and the Triumph of Antislavery Politics by James Oakes
Further listening (America250 series):
Episode 1 w/ Lindsay Chervinsky
Episode 2 w/ Kate Carté
Episode 3 w/ Alan Taylor
Episode 4 w/ Lindsay Chervinsky

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Every May, Israelis celebrate the anniversary of their independence. For Palestinians, their memories are of dispossession and displacement.
Beginning in late 1947, months before the official creation of the Jewish state, Jewish forces expelled Palestinian Arabs and destroyed their homes and villages. By the time the Nakba, which means catastrophe in Arabic, was over, some 750,000 Palestinians had been expelled in one of the first ethnic cleansing operations of the post-WWII era.
Yet it took generations for this story to receive the attention it deserves — an alarming erasure because today's conflict cannot be understood without this "other half" of Israel's origin story. Historian Mark LeVine of the University of California-Irvine is our guest.
Further reading:
Art Beyond the Edge: Creativity and Conflict in the World on Fire by Mark LeVine
Overthrowing Geography: Jaffa, Tel Aviv, and the Struggle for Palestine, 1880-1948 by Mark LeVine

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This is the fourth episode in an occasional series for the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, America's semiquincentennial.
What if we approached this coming Fourth of July not as a single day to celebrate a special national birthday, but as the start of a decade-long commitment to a "civic renaissance"? The story of the founding of the United States didn't end on July 4, 1776 — it remains a work in progress (with plenty of setbacks, too). Indeed, a question people pondered at the time remains important today: What does it mean to be a republican citizen? Historian Lindsay Chervinsky, the executive director of the George Washington Library at Mount Vernon, is our guest.
Further reading:
A Bold Civic Renaissance for America's 250th by Lindsay Chervinsky and Julie Silverbrook (National Constitution Center)
Further listening:
Episode 1 w/ Lindsay Chervinsky
Episode 2 w/ Kate Carté
Episode 3 w/ Alan Taylor

Keep the narrative flow going! Subscribe now for ad-free listening, early access, and bonus content!
In the history of the long, misbegotten American project in Vietnam, an episode that pulled the country deeper into the quagmire deserves more attention. In 1963, the Kennedy administration green-lit a coup to topple the regime of Ngo Dinh Diem in South Vietnam. Diem was an ardent anti-Communist who lost U.S. support after a cascade of missteps in his war against the Viet Cong and his crackdown on the majority Buddhists. As "regime change" dominates today's headlines, the historian-journalist Jack Cheevers explains why the attempt to control South Vietnam ended in ruin — and with Diem murdered.
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President Trump is the eighth U.S. president to visit China since Richard Nixon's bold gamble to establish diplomatic relations with the Communist country in 1972. During his two-day summit with Xi Jinping last week, Trump's first China trip since 2017, the two leaders praised one another and discussed several pressing issues, but they came away with few, if any, substantive breakthroughs. Anatol Lieven of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft offers his post-summit analysis.