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History As It Happens

Oct 5, 2023

In most major works of history, the "intelligence dimension" has been badly lacking. Enter Calder Walton, a scholar at the Harvard Kennedy School and author of "Spies: The Epic Intelligence War Between East and West." The Cold War did not begin after 1945, Walton argues, but rather the Soviet Union had been at war with...


Aug 2, 2022

For most of the 137 years after his death in 1885, Ulysses S. Grant was remembered by historians as a failed president who led a hopelessly corrupt administration. In recent years, however, Grant’s reputation has undergone a scholarly renaissance that has set straight his record of accomplishments, not least in the...


Jul 21, 2022

George Wallace was a segregationist. He was a pro-union Democrat who railed against federal power and pointy-headed bureaucrats. He demanded law and order while standing up for downtrodden, working class whites. He ran for president as an independent in 1968, winning 13 percent of the popular vote and five states....


Jun 30, 2022

On July 4, 1852, Frederick Douglass delivered remarks of enduring significance and American eloquence to an audience of abolitionists. He mixed condemnation of the nation's tolerance of slavery with hope and uplift. He embraced the founding fathers and defended the Constitution while attacking his fellow citizens...


Jun 21, 2022

President Biden's upcoming trip to Saudi Arabia is an example of reality imposing itself on a situation Mr. Biden vowed to change. In November 2019, Democratic candidate Biden said the kingdom should be punished and treated as a pariah, because its de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, had been implicated in...