Jeremi and Zachary sit down with Jeffrey Engel to discuss the recent indictments on former president Trump, and other instances of presidential law-breaking. Zachary sets the scene with his poem, “Some Messes Can Only Be Cleaned Up With Time.” Guest Jeffrey Engel is a professor of history at Southern Methodist University, where he is the […]
This is Democracy: Art of Strategy
Guest Benjamin Griffin is the Chief of the Military History Division in the History Department at the United States Military Academy at West Point, where he is a Major in the U.S. Army. Ben holds a PhD in History from the University of Texas at Austin. He is the author of: Reagan’s War Stories: A […]
Burying the Lede? The Iran Hostage Crisis “October Surprise” and Me
Introduction by John Gleb In February 1979, a popular revolution in Iran overthrew the authoritarian government of Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, a key ally of the United States. Ten months later, on November 4th, 1979, Iranian college students demonstrating against U. S. support for the Shah seized control of the U. S. embassy compound in […]
Bridging the Gap over Uncharted Waters: An Interview with Kyle Balzer
From the editors: Through our “Uncharted Waters” article series, Not Even Past has been exploring the history of U. S. international relations, examining understudied historical episodes in an accessible, engaging manner. Uncharted Waters taps into the wealth of knowledge produced by scholars affiliated with the University of Texas at Austin’s Clements Center for National Security. […]
Remembering LBJ: An Interview with Mark Atwood Lawrence
From the editors: January 22nd, 2023 marked the passage of fifty years since the death of former president Lyndon Baines Johnson, a man whose remarkable but also controversial career in public life looms large both over the history of his home state of Texas and the United States as a whole. To better understand LBJ’s […]
From Camp David to Baghdad: Scrambling for and Against Peace in the Middle East, Fall 1978
Commentators and scholars have long represented the United States as the supreme guarantor of a well-tempered international order. Today, however, agents of American international relations find themselves confronting uncertainty both at home and abroad. Nevertheless, as they navigate the uncharted waters of contemporary global politics, representatives of the United States and its international interlocutors can […]
Review of Guaraná: How Brazil Embraced the World’s Most Caffeine-Rich Plant (2022) by Seth Garfield
Guaraná: How Brazil Embraced the World’s Most Caffeine-Rich Plant is a luminous social biography of a single Amazonia fruit. Historian Seth Garfield re-invigorates the abiding relevance of the history of commodities as an entry point into Latin American history. As a history of consumption, science, and national mythology, the book invites readers into new terrain in the […]
This Is Democracy: Chinese Protests
This week, Jeremi and Zachary are joined by Dr. Joshua Eisenman to discuss protests and political upheaval in China. Zachary sets the scene with his poem entitled, “A Blank Sheet of Paper” Guest Joshua Eisenman is an associate professor of global affairs at the University of Notre Dame. His research focuses on the political economy […]
Confronting Dictatorship: Jimmy Carter and Human Rights Diplomacy in Argentina
Commentators and scholars have long represented the United States as the supreme guarantor of a well-tempered international order. Today, however, agents of American international relations find themselves confronting uncertainty both at home and abroad. Nevertheless, as they navigate the uncharted waters of contemporary global politics, representatives of the United States and its international interlocutors can […]
Crises as Catalysts: The Case for Optimism in Future US-Russia Arms Control Negotiations
Commentators and scholars have long represented the United States as the supreme guarantor of a well-tempered international order. Today, however, agents of American international relations find themselves confronting uncertainty both at home and abroad. Nevertheless, as they navigate the uncharted waters of contemporary global politics, representatives of the United States and its international interlocutors can […]