Are You the Son of H W Brands, the History Guy?

Are we living through a new Cold War? Possibly. But we’re certainly in a new era of great-power competition between China and Russia and the United States. In a Remnant surprisingly lacking in ‘80s references, historian and American Enterprise Institute scholar Hal Brands joins Jonah to explore what America’s victory over the Soviet Union can teach us about how it should prosecute today’s global conflicts. Hal and Jonah also take a deep, extra-nerdy dive into Cold War history and the nature of American foreign policy during that strange era. Was the Cold War just about economics? Should Joe Biden pursue a modern version of Harry Truman’s containment strategy? And was China’s authoritarian turn inevitable?

Show Notes:

- Hal’s page at AEI

- Hal’s new book, The Twilight Struggle

- Hal Brands and John Lewis Gaddis: “The New Cold War”

- Charles Krauthammer: “The Greatest Cold War Myth of All”

- The Truman Doctrine speech

- Henry Wallace’s divided mind

- Jonah on the perils of our virtual reality

- The Remnant with Leon Aron

- The Remnant with Edward Carr

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