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History As It Happens

May 30, 2023

Americans – many of them, anyway – revere the Constitution and the men who framed it. We can recite its preamble with its aim of securing "the blessings of liberty” for future generations. But more than 230 years after its ratification, historian Jack Rakove contends we’re still laboring under damaging myths...


May 25, 2023

Henry Kissinger, sage of American diplomats, is celebrating his milestone 100th birthday on May 27. To some, Kissinger is the embodiment of realpolitik whose shrewd diplomatic efforts left an enduring mark on the global order. To others, he's a war criminal. During the Vietnam War, Kissinger was a driving force behind...


May 23, 2023

Martin Luther King Jr. had serious problems with American capitalism. He considered himself more of a democratic socialist as he demanded the federal government spend billions to eradicate poverty, and as he worked to build a multiracial working-class movement. Today, as the share of American workers in labor...


May 18, 2023

American allies in the Indo-Pacific are in a difficult spot. They have economic ties to Beijing, but China's rising influence and coercive methods underscore the importance of their long-standing military pacts and trade relationships with the United States. The visit by South Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol...


May 16, 2023

This is the fourth episode in a multiple-part series marking the 20th anniversary of the Iraq War, which began on March 20, 2003. Earlier episodes were published in March.

From 1990 to 2003 the United States, through the U.N. Security Council, imposed the most punishing sanctions on a sovereign state in modern history....