Looking back on 2024
Plus, I’ll see you on C-SPAN Saturday
This week’s newsletter is coming out earlier than usual, Tuesday rather than Friday. The “deadline” for year-in-review articles or essays is Dec. 31. In today’s podcast episode with historians Jeremi Suri and Jeffrey Engel, we reflect on the big stories that defined 2024 with a couple of exceptions.
We did not discuss the legacy of Jimmy Carter, who died on Sunday at 100. We recorded our conversation several days before his passing. However, on Friday’s episode (Jan. 3), Suri and Engel will reflect on Carter’s presidency, and I’ll release a newsletter concentrating on the 39th president of the United States. Our year-in-review podcast did not touch on President Joe Biden’s legacy, either. I’ll dedicate an entire episode to Biden later in January as his term comes to an end.
2024 was a rollercoaster year for the podcast. After nearly four years at The Washington Times, the budget ax came down in October. Fortunately, I found new backers within weeks and began publishing new episodes in November.
This coming Saturday, Jan. 4, I will be a guest on C-SPAN’s Washington Journal at 8 a.m. EST. We’ll discuss my podcast along with the pressing (and depressing) stories that defined our lives in 2024 – with a look ahead to 2025. Tune in! Call in!
Rather than write a long essay encapsulating the past year, I compiled a list of many of my favorite History As It Happens episodes covering the origins of the events that shape our world.
The most listened-to episode of the year
The Crisis of Liberalism w/ historian Daniel Bessner. After Trump’s victory, Bessner argued liberalism itself, not merely the Democratic Party, has been in long-term decline.
The fascism debate
Fascists, Fascists Everywhere w/ historian Roger Griffin. We need a new lexicon to understand the de-liberalization of the liberal world.
Humanizing Hitler w/ historian Richard Evans. He discusses the new urgency surrounding what “made and sustained” the Third Reich and Adolf Hitler’s dictatorship as they relate to today’s threats to democratic institutions.
Hitler Enters the Race w/ historian Omer Bartov. We talked about the uses and abuses of fascism and Hitler comparisons in U.S. politics.
History and memory
Memories of Liberation (D-Day at 80) w/ historian Kate Lemay. The French remember their liberation differently than Americans do. Lemay explores the “living memories” held in U.S. military cemeteries in France.
The Christmas Truce w/ historian Terri Blom Crocker. Let’s visit the Western Front in Dec. 1914.
American politics and the origins of the Age of Trump
The “New Economy” w/ historian Nelson Lichtenstein. Remember the early 1990s optimism about a “wondrous high-tech tomorrow”?
Oblivion in the Age of Trump w/ scholar and author Linda Kinstler. Does the historical concept of oblivion offer a way out of our ruptured political life?
NAFTA’s Long Shadow w/ journalist Dan Kaufman. Understanding how NAFTA upended our politics requires more than counting the number of jobs that crossed the border.
American Democracy w/ historians Sean Wilentz and James Oakes. Democracy has always been on the ballot.
Why the Electoral College? w/ Sean Wilentz. Why exactly are we stuck with this thing?
Do Not Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor w/ journalist Jonathan Blitzer. The origins of our immigration crisis by the author of one of the best books I read in 2024, Everyone Who Is Gone Is Here.
Vietnam/Nixon
Bombs Away! Nixon’s Lawless Legacy w/ historian Carolyn Eisenberg, the author of the magnificent Fire and Rain: Nixon, Kissinger, and the Wars in Southeast Asia. One of the best books I read in 2024.
The Chennault Affair w/ Ken Hughes, the master of the White House tapes. This episode is loaded with archival audio of Nixonian machinations.
The Supreme Court
Supreme Court vs. Founders w/ Sean Wilentz. The historical disgrace of a nakedly partisan court.
Trump Against the Founders w/ Joseph Ellis. The great historian of the American founding reflects on the high court’s consideration of a truly outrageous argument: that the U.S. president has criminal immunity.
My visit to Mount Vernon
Part 1 and Part 2 of my conversation with the new director of the George Washington Presidential Library, historian Lindsay Chervinsky.
The Middle East
Life and Death in Gaza w/ historian Jean-Pierre Filiu. Gaza through the decades of Israeli domination.
Palestinians and the “Rules-Based Order” w/ Victor Kattan of the University of Nottingham. Why have Palestinians never attained statehood? We begin in 1947 at the U.N.
Hezbollah w/ the Middle East Institute's Randa Slim, a native of Lebanon who witnessed the Israeli invasion of 1982. She explains Hezbollah's origins and staying power.
Who are the Houthis? w/ Eurasia Group analyst Gregory Brew.
After Arafat w/ Omar Rahman of the Middle East Council on Global Affairs. Arafat died 30 years ago. Today his dream of Palestinian statehood is in tatters.
1967 and the West Bank Today w/ Omar Rahman. He comprehensively explains the problems of Israel’s occupation and de facto annexation of Palestinian land.
Who is ISIS-K? w/ CNN national security analyst Peter Bergen.
When Reagan Pressured Israel w/ historian Salim Yaqub. A look back at the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon.
The Looming Quagmire w/ historian (and IDF veteran) Ahron Bregman, who fought in the siege of Beirut in 1982.
What is Zionism? w/ Ian Lustick. The uproar on college campuses inspired this episode.
What is Intifada? w/ Khaled Elgindy of the Middle East Institute. Same as above.
The British Mandate w/ historian Tom Segev. How the British laid the groundwork for the problems after 1947-48.
Saddam and His American Friends w/ journalist and historian Steve Coll, whose remarkable book sheds light on the long dance between Washington and Baghdad.
Is It Genocide? w/ historian Omer Bartov. He examines Israel’s conduct in Gaza and the long war against Palestinian autonomy.
Goodbye Assad / Hello Who? w/ political scientist Sefa Secen. Syrian historian from the 1950s to present.
Russia
Who Was Alexei Navalny? w/ Miriam Lanskoy of the National Endowment for Democracy.
After Putin w/ Liana Fix of the Council on Foreign Relations and Maria Snegovaya of the Center for Strategic & International Studies. What would happen if Russia’s dictator dropped dead tomorrow?
Recovering Kennan w/ historians Michael Kimmage and Frank Costigliola. Kennan’s enduring influence is often misunderstood.
Georgia Between the Kremlin and the West w/ historian Bryan Gigantino. A tour de force on Georgia’s quest for nationhood from 1991.
Elections Series
Catch up on the elections of:
1980 and 1992 and 2008 w/ Jeremi Suri and/or Jeffrey Engel
1860 and 1864 w/ Sean Wilentz and James Oakes
1932 w/ David M. Kennedy
1800 w/ Alan Taylor
The above is a partial list. I am proud of all 100 episodes I produced in 2024 and deeply grateful to the historians and thinkers who make History As It Happens a success. Talk to you in 2025!