Martin Di Caro

History As It Happens: Historians vs. Trump

Distinguished historians explain the meaning of the 14th Amendment as the Supreme Court prepares to decide Trump ballot case.

February 5, 2024

History As It Happens: Why Skokie matters

Anyone confused as to why unpopular speech is protected by the First Amendment need only look back at what happened in a Chicago suburb in 1977.

January 31, 2024

History As It Happens: Fascists, fascists everywhere

An Oxford scholar argues against labeling modern politicians "fascists" because a new lexicon is necessary to define the rise of authoritarians.

January 29, 2024

History As It Happens: The economy, stupid!

A labor historian contends the Clinton boom of the 1990s moved U.S. economic policy toward a neoliberal order whose free trade orthodoxy and Wall Street deregulation led to disaster.

January 24, 2024

History As It Happens: Beyond Taiwan

The Taiwanese elections had global implications while rebuffing China's local claim to sovereignty over the island.

January 22, 2024

History As It Happens: Who are the Houthis?

The militant rebel movement that controls much of Yemen is inflicting pain on global shipping. Who are they?

January 17, 2024

History As It Happens: China’s real historians

Courageous individuals are wielding the truth about China's history in the face of Communist repression.

January 15, 2024

History As It Happens: Life and death in Gaza

Before Gaza became synonymous with Palestinian suffering, it had a rich history as a crossroads for empires and a commercial hub.

January 10, 2024

History As It Happens: Hitler enters the race. Rhetorically, anyway.

President Biden's campaign will make comparing Donald Trump to Adolf Hitler a leitmotif of 2024.

January 8, 2024

History As It Happens: Hold your nose and vote for Humphrey

A historian of political and social movements says young leftists may want to absorb a lesson from the 1968 election, when opposition to the incumbent's war policy may have helped elect Nixon.

January 3, 2024

History As It Happens: Biden’s foreign policy in 2024

The president will run for re-election while managing U.S. involvement in wars where Americans are not directly fighting, but where voters have serious questions about the commitment.

January 1, 2024

History As It Happens: Year in review, Part 2

The free speech scandal on college campuses, an unprecedented presidential campaign to look forward to and personal triumphs to celebrate.

December 27, 2023

History As It Happens: Year in review, Part 1

The enduring appeal of Trumpism, the retreat of democracy and the return of war to the Middle East.

December 25, 2023

History As It Happens: Collapse of the USSR, revisited

Christmas Day 1991 was an inflection point in history. But the fall of the Soviet Union didn't work out the way the Western optimists believed.

December 20, 2023

History As It Happens: Saving Napoleon

Historians and biographers say Ridley Scott's epic missed what's most important about Napoleon Bonaparte.

December 18, 2023

History As It Happens: Recovering Rustin

The Obamas' Netflix biopic about civil rights leader Bayard Rustin fails to portray its subject.

December 13, 2023

History As It Happens: Ordinary men, extraordinary crimes

What is genocide? What makes regular people commit mass murder? A new Netflix documentary on the Holocaust raises unsettling questions.

December 11, 2023

History As It Happens: From Beirut to Gaza City

Israel's war against Hamas is drawing parallels to its 1982 invasion of Lebanon. The common thread: military force cannot solve the Arab-Israeli conflict.

December 6, 2023

History As It Happens: Diplomat, intellectual, war criminal?

Henry Kissinger, who died at 100 on Nov. 29, left an enormous imprint on U.S. foreign policy. His record continues to divide historians.

December 4, 2023

BOOK REVIEW: ‘Conflict: The Evolution of Warfare From 1945 to Ukraine’

Does war work? This question lingers in the pages of Andrew Roberts' study of the roles that strategic leadership, exemplary tactics and technological prowess played in determining the outcome of conflicts.

November 30, 2023