Martin Di Caro

History As It Happens: U.S. hegemony and multipolarity in Asia

American allies are in a difficult spot between a rising China and a U.S. intent on maintaining its primacy.

May 17, 2023

History As It Happens: From Saddam to the sanctions

An Iraqi native who now works as a professional peace builder reflects on life under Saddam Hussein and the devastating economic sanctions on the 1990s.

May 15, 2023

History As It Happens: From Khrushchev’s gamble to Putin’s hubris

Vladimir Putin thinks himself a student of history. Two historians of the Soviet Era say he's missing the lesson from a defining moment.

May 10, 2023

History As It Happens: Section 4 and the debt ceiling

Does the 14th Amendment provide a way out of the debt ceiling morass?

May 8, 2023

‘History Wars’: A visit to Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello

Visitors to Thomas Jefferson's historic estate are bringing emotional and ideological baggage. Monticello's exhibits often upset them.

May 3, 2023

History As It Happens: What Jefferson wanted

No founding father better articulated the ideals or personified the paradox of the American Revolution.

May 1, 2023

History As It Happens: The next Crimean War

Can Ukraine take back a peninsula that has been of vital importance to Russia for centuries?

April 25, 2023

History As It Happens: A decent interval

The U.S. agreed to withdraw the last of its forces from Vietnam 50 years ago in the Paris Peace Accords. But a peace deal it was not.

April 24, 2023

History As It Happens: The Daniloff affair

The plight of the Wall Street Journal's Evan Gershkovich recalls a Cold War-era incident that nearly wrecked U.S.-Soviet relations ahead of Reagan's second summit with Gorbachev.

April 19, 2023

History As It Happens: Heritage of treason

Mississippi's state government is once again marking "Confederate Heritage Month." Secession, slavery, and racism are unworthy of honor.

April 17, 2023

History As It Happens: Decade of drift?

As the 1990s began, the U.S. was excessively optimistic about the march of democracy and capitalism. The origins of our current problems might be found in that pivotal decade.

April 12, 2023

History As It Happens: Pardon me, Mr. President

A Watergate chronicler discusses the parallels and important differences between Nixon's woes and Donald Trump's unprecedented legal problems.

April 10, 2023

BOOK REVIEW: ‘Confronting Saddam Hussein: George W. Bush and the Invasion of Iraq’

The passage of 20 years has not healed the wounds inflicted by the U.S. invasion of Saddam Hussein's Iraq on March 20, 2003.

April 6, 2023

History As It Happens: The long 1960s

A major historian of the left traces the origins of our partisan gridlock.

April 5, 2023

History As It Happens: Star Wars

The world has moved a long way in the wrong direction from Ronald Reagan's vision of a world without nuclear weapons.

April 3, 2023

History As It Happens: Waco

Former President Donald J. Trump held his first 2024 campaign rally near the scene of a touchstone event in right-wing lore, the siege of the Branch Davidian compound by federal agents.

March 29, 2023

History As It Happens: Enter Beijing

As U.S. influence and credibility wanes in the Middle East, China enters the picture as a peace broker.

March 27, 2023

History As It Happens: The war through Iraqi eyes

An Iraqi journalist witnessed the fall of Saddam, U.S. occupation, civil war, and rise of ISIS. Ghaith Abdul-Ahad says there's been almost no accountability for the destruction of his country.

March 22, 2023

History As It Happens: The Iraq War, Part One

Historian Andrew Bacevich argues that most Americans would rather not reckon with the consequences of the failed war in Iraq.

March 20, 2023

History As It Happens: Bringing up Buckley

The conservative icon died fifteen years ago as the failed Bush presidency was coming to an end. Today, conservatism faces another major ordeal.

March 15, 2023