History As It Happens

Subscribe now for ad-free listening, early access, and bonus content. This is the sixth episode in a series marking the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, America's semiquincentennial. The American Revolution was deeply rooted in Enlightenment philosophy and inspired by the principle of natural rights. Even before the fighting broke out at Lexington and Concord, some Americans were calling attention to the terrible contradiction of slavery. These few would grow in number and form the first organized antislavery movement in history. In this episode, Sean Wilentz discusses this long-neglected aspect of the American Revolution. Recommended reading: No Property in Man by Sean Wilentz Further listening (America250 series): Episode 1 w/ Lindsay Chervinsky Episode 2 w/ Kate Carté Episode 3 w/ Alan Taylor Episode 4 w/ Lindsay Chervinsky Episode 5 w/ Jim Oakes

Enjoy this entire 49-minute bonus episode! To listen to future bonus content and get early access to ad-free episodes, become a subscriber today. History As It Happens Premium costs $5 per month. **** On June 7, 2026, the historian Gordon Wood died at 92. He was one of the greatest scholars of the American Revolution and early Republic, who did "as much as anyone to deepen understanding and change perceptions of the forces and events that led to the birth of the United States," according to The New York Times. In this episode, three historians talk about why Gordon Wood's scholarship was so influential, and why his vision of the American founding remains valuable as the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence approaches. Daniel Gullotta teaches American religious history, with a focus on Christianity in Early America, at Ohio State University. Michael Hattem is a historian of the American Revolution specializing in historical memory, political culture, and intellectual history at Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute. Craig Bruce Smith is a professor of history at National Defense University in Norfolk, Va. (The views he expresses here are his and his alone.)

Keep the narrative flow going! Subscribe now for ad-free listening, early access, and bonus content! What emerged as a national movement to liberate Europe's Jews by establishing a Jewish homeland has become a racist, irrational, vengeful state ideology worthy of history's dustbin, contends historian Omer Bartov in his new book, "Israel: What Went Wrong?" Bartov, an expert on the Holocaust and genocide at Brown University, was among the first major historians to warn that Israel's destruction of Gaza could turn genocidal. He argues that decades of the occupation of Palestinian territories (since 1967) had already inured most Israeli Jews to the suffering of others before the Hamas atrocities of Oct. 7, 2023. Today, he says those feelings have hardened into outright hostility or utter indifference. Where did it start going wrong? Bartov points to Israel's founding: David Ben-Gurion's opposition to writing a constitution and to defining the new state's borders. History As It Happens Premium costs $5/month or $50/year. 10-day free trial, cancel any time. Subscribe here: https://historyasithappens.supercast.com/

Subscribe now for early access, ad-free listening, and bonus content! Lebanon, a small country on the Mediterranean coast that cannot defend its borders, is once again stuck in a hellacious bind, between Hezbollah fanaticism and Israeli destruction. Since its long civil war (1975-90), sectarian strife and foreign occupation have intermixed with economic mismanagement and political paralysis, leaving Lebanon in a near-permanent state of crisis. In this episode, Maha Yahya of Carnegie Middle East Center joins us from Beirut to explain the causes of the country's deep domestic problems. Recommended reading: Pity the Nation: The Abduction of Lebanon by Robert Fisk