The hottest Modern History Substack posts right now

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The 50-Year War

Common Sense with Bari Weiss • 459 implied HN points • 01 Mar 26
🌍 World Politics Modern History
  1. This isn’t a new war but a decades-long struggle that stretches back to the 1979 Islamic revolution and hostage crisis.
  2. The confrontation is framed as targeting theocratic leaders—the mullahs and Islamist regime—rather than the Iranian people as a whole.
  3. A recent U.S. and Israeli strike, initiated under Trump, is seen by some as a possible turning point or the beginning of the end of that long conflict.

Australia: American FOB, American mimic

Kvetch • 60 implied HN points • 01 Mar 26
đź’ľ History Modern History
  1. American power has been the dominant force shaping Australian politics and culture for the last century, with Australia often following U.S. leads rather than acting independently.
  2. Australia’s security posture shifted from Britain to the United States early in the 20th century, effectively making Australia a U.S. forward operating base and binding its military policy to American interests.
  3. Major social and legal changes in Australia — from immigration and civil rights to disability and marriage laws — frequently mirrored American reforms, with U.S. ideas, movements, and precedents strongly influencing Australian law and public debate.

Economics Links, 1/5/2026

In My Tribe • 318 implied HN points • 05 Jan 26
đź’ľ History Modern History
  1. Smaller, non-kin family structures encouraged people to work with strangers and led to written laws, legal professions, and scalable institutions that make broad cooperation, entrepreneurship, and democratic checks possible.
  2. Major technological takeoffs happen when markets turn learning into systematic, profit-driven experimentation, evaluation, and evolution — that commercial incentive structure let Britain scale the Industrial Revolution.
  3. Economic trajectories depend heavily on property rules and transaction frictions: heavy, complex state procedures reduce formal transactions, while informal conventions can enable bottom-up commercialisation as happened in China.

No, Aleksander the Great Was Not "Great" in Any Sense with a Strong Connotation of "Admirable"

Brad DeLong's Grasping Reality • 215 implied HN points • 02 Jan 26
đź’ľ History Modern History
  1. Some people argue that Alexander’s victories show an exceptional, even divine, greatness and that modern critics are too materialistic or small-minded to recognize this kind of extraordinary leadership.
  2. Others insist that centering the victims and the violent realities of his campaigns makes it hard to call him admirable, and modern scholarship highlights his imperial aggression and moral costs.
  3. The dispute is tied to larger cultural fights over how to teach and define "Western civilization," with critics pushing for narrower, historically grounded frames like the "Dover Circle" rather than a grand, continuous West narrative.

2025 Reading List

Nemets • 219 implied HN points • 29 Dec 25
đź’ľ History Modern History
  1. Canada’s political identity is fragile and regionally divided, with strong provincial differences and historic ties to both Britain and the United States shaping competing loyalties. Constitutional and judicial changes have amplified these divides and made separatist movements and political strain more plausible.
  2. Legal and institutional shifts—especially expanded judicial review and civil‑rights era policies—have empowered courts and bureaucracies to reshape public life and corporate practices, producing wide cultural and administrative effects often called “woke.” These changes can discipline institutions without mass mobilization, but they also weaken direct democratic accountability.
  3. Geography, migration, and demography drive political outcomes: settlement patterns, resource booms, and cross‑border movements shaped provinces and regions and altered national trajectories. Paying attention to these material forces helps explain why states change, fragment, or endure.
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Contra Marx, the Record Since 1870 Is Rotating Upheavals in Leading Sectors, Not Synchronized Economy-Wide Revolutions

Brad DeLong's Grasping Reality • 92 implied HN points • 13 Jan 26
đź’ľ History Modern History
  1. Since about 1870, economic change looks more like rotating upheavals in leading sectors—sector-by-sector creative destruction—rather than a single, synchronized economy-wide Marxian revolution.
  2. Marx’s argument bundles several ideas: a stage theory of history, the claim that productive forces conflict with relations of production, and the view that economic shifts reshape legal, political, and ideological life.
  3. It’s useful to keep the insights about technology, institutional lag, and ideological conflict, but reject the millenarian, deterministic claim that a final social revolution is inevitable.

Events in the Past Are More Recent Than They Appear

Messy Progress • 23 implied HN points • 02 Feb 26
đź’ľ History Modern History
  1. People mentally split history into things that happened in their lifetime and things that are "ancient," which makes events before we were born feel equally distant even when some are actually much more recent. Overlapping lifetimes link events across centuries and can make past events seem closer than they appear.
  2. A modern interactive Histomap updates the 1931 original by showing flowing visualizations of civilizational power plus extra bands for technology, fiction, important people, and historical eras, and it lets users toggle layers, click events for more info, and export printable posters.
  3. Modern data sources and AI tools were used to estimate historical power and extract event data, speeding up the work and producing maps for the United States, Britain, and the world that can be refined through community contributions.

28 Years Later (Odds and Ends #69)

Odds and Ends of History • 201 implied HN points • 26 Jun 25
đź’ľ History Modern History
  1. The lack of investment in energy in Britain is causing serious problems. This means that there are unexpected issues popping up all the time.
  2. Mainstream politicians in Britain are using a troubling term, 'White British,' which is raising concerns about hidden messages in their words.
  3. There are suggestions on how to improve the film '28 Years Later' and also complaints about how slowly Britain handles election paperwork.

Journey to American Democracy: The Battle of the Bulge

Letters from an American • 17 implied HN points • 10 Jan 26
đź’ľ History Modern History
  1. The head of the Eisenhower Library was forced to resign after refusing to hand over Eisenhower’s sword to President Trump, even after offering a replica.
  2. His departure led to him joining a new video series about the Battle of the Bulge, bringing military history into a project about defending democracy.
  3. The series is framed as a timely warning, linking WWII’s fight against fascism to troubling actions by the Trump administration, and aims to remind people that Americans won that fight to defend democracy.

Makers of Modern Strategy with Hal Brands

ChinaTalk • 266 implied HN points • 18 Nov 24
đź’ľ History Modern History
  1. The _Makers of Modern Strategy_ series is crucial for understanding statecraft and warfare through history. It covers strategies from ancient times to modern conflicts, highlighting key thinkers and ideas.
  2. The 2023 edition includes unique essays on lesser-known figures like Tecumseh and contemporary issues like the Congo wars. These essays challenge traditional views and expand our understanding of strategy.
  3. Hal Brands emphasizes the role of history in shaping effective strategy. Studying past strategies helps inform current decisions and highlights the ongoing importance of strategic thinking in today's world.

November 30, 2024

Letters from an American • 19 implied HN points • 01 Dec 24
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Modern History
  1. The fight to strengthen liberal democracy is more important than just battling the far right. This is about ensuring everyone's rights and protecting our democracy.
  2. Historically, American leaders sought a balance where government plays a role in protecting individuals from the actions of powerful interests. This became even more important as society evolved.
  3. Movement Conservatives have shifted how Americans view government, framing it as a threat to individual rights. In reality, a strong government is needed to protect those rights and ensure fairness for all.

A Balanced History of Modern Right-Wing Politics

Holodoxa • 19 implied HN points • 23 Jun 22
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Modern History
  1. The Right by Matthew Continetti explores the history of right-wing politics in America between 1920 to 2020, shedding light on the tensions between elites and populists within the conservative movement.
  2. Continetti highlights the evolution of conservative ideologies and movements, from the era of Harding and Coolidge to the rise and fall of Donald Trump, showcasing how different factions shaped the narrative.
  3. The book delves into the complexities of the conservative movement, detailing the influence of various figures like William F. Buckley Jr. and the fractures that emerged during significant events like the invasion of Iraq and the 2008 recession.

Noroz, Norouz, Nowruz... Persian New Year

De Nada Nights • 0 implied HN points • 20 Mar 23
🎭️ Culture Modern History
  1. Nowruz marks the beginning of the year for over 60 million people and is celebrated during the equinox.
  2. The name 'Persian' actually stemmed from the region of Fars in modern-day Iran.
  3. Nowruz celebrations include painting eggs, enjoying special foods like Sabzi Polo Ba Mahi, and watching relevant movies like Taxi Tehran and Persepolis.

Master Plan: An Interview with John Lewis Gaddis

The Octavian Report • 0 implied HN points • 23 Dec 25
đź’ľ History Modern History
  1. Effective grand strategy mixes hedgehog focus and fox agility, knowing when to pursue one big aim and when to shift into adaptive, creative problem-solving.
  2. Planning and disciplined preparation are essential, but you must be ready to abandon plans and improvise when unexpected realities hit.
  3. Today’s short attention spans, political polarization, and technological pace make long-term strategy harder, so leaders should cultivate a lightness—flexibility and a broad perspective—rather than rigid ideology.