25 books for 250 years. My big birthday bibliography. Some of the books that have helped me make sense of America. open.substack.com/pub/historyn...

The myths of American history - my long read about what we often get wrong about the American past and how it animates and distorts the American present. Free to all. #America250 open.substack.com/pub/historyn...

“History is an argument without end,” the Dutch scholar Pieter Geyl has argued. What a statement of algorithmic allure for social media giants whose business models rely on stoking disunion, and for populist politicians seeking new battlefields in the culture wars. My latest……

The history glut - why are we facing such a historical deluge? Why have the Twenties seen history go into overdrive? open.substack.com/pub/historyn...

America at 250: a bibliography. I've been recommending a book a day ahead of July 4th. I've listed 20 already. There are five to come before the weekend. Happy to get recommendations........ open.substack.com/pub/historyn...

Great to reunite with my former colleague and fellow trainee Terry Stiastny on the History Never Ended podcast. We talked the post-Brexit chaos in British politics. substack.com/@historyneve...

In the post-Brexit political recession, British prime ministers have become the voodoo dolls. The UK’s culture has got meaner, nastier, more excitable and less serious. open.substack.com/pub/historyn...

In the post-Brexit political recession, British prime ministers have become the voodoo dolls. The UK’s culture has got meaner, nastier, more excitable and less serious. open.substack.com/pub/historyn...

Journalists should defend other journalists when they come under personal attack. open.substack.com/pub/historyn...

While brute MAGA force was on display at the White House, Trump revealed American weakness on the international stage, a far more consequential arena. open.substack.com/pub/historyn...

America at 250: a bibliography - the first tranche of some books that have helped me make sense of the United States. open.substack.com/pub/historyn...

My conversation with the legendary documentary maker Ken Burns on America at 250. www.abc.net.au/listen/progr...

Why Donald Trump keeps abusing female journalists - my conversation on ABC news podcast based on my Substack piece on how White House reporters, and their employers, could do more to protect colleagues. www.abc.net.au/listen/progr...

White House journalists need to defend their colleagues against Donald Trump’s attacks. My latest Substack. No paywalls. open.substack.com/pub/historyn...

“Totalitarianism demands … the continuous alteration of the past, and in the long run probably demands a disbelief in the very existence of objective truth,” said George Orwell. So, too, does Trumpism, which has tried to re-write US history.

As America marks its 250th birthday, Trump not only wants to render history glorious, he wants it to be vainglorious. The White House is also whitewashing US history. A weekend essay on Trump’s assault on history: open.substack.com/pub/historyn...

Trump’s war on history - how the White House is whitewashing the country’s past. The first essay in my America 250 series at History Never Ended. Free to all. open.substack.com/pub/historyn...

“Monthly marginalia” - a new column on my Substack “History Never Ended”. The Pope, the Vicar of St Albion, the best TV show since Succession ended three years ago this week, Professor A.C. Grayling on democratic decay and my brush with Banksy. No paywall. open.substack.com/pub/historyn...

The Iran war is a strategic defeat for Trump’s America. My weekend read: open.substack.com/pub/historyn...

After America’s forever wars comes Trump’s futile war. My latest at History Never Ended, with no paywalls. open.substack.com/pub/historyn...

Watching Trump with Xi is becoming a little like observing the NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte with Trump. One half-expected the US president to call his Chinese counterpart “daddy.” My weekend read. open.substack.com/pub/historyn...

President Xi demonstrates his personal dominance over President Trump, who, as ever was sucked in by the trappings of authoritarianism. My latest at History Never Ended. And, as ever, no paywalls. open.substack.com/pub/historyn...

Are we as journalists, with our excitable coverage of politics, contributing to democratic instability and a crisis of governance? Yes, I would say…. open.substack.com/pub/historyn...

Populism at a time of an unpopular war - my latest Substack on the rise of Nigel Farage’s Reform UK and Pauline Hanson’s One Nation. open.substack.com/pub/historyn...

The Supreme Court was never meant to be supreme. It was not supposed to dismantle laws made by Congress, especially bipartisan landmark legislation such as the 1965 Votings Rights Act which belatedly made universal suffrage a reality. My weekend read: open.substack.com/pub/historyn...

The myths of US democracy, as the Supreme Court mounts its latest attack on voting rights. My latest Substack post at History Never Ended. All content is free. open.substack.com/pub/historyn...

Didn’t expect my latest Substack post to make news in the Daily Mail, Daily Telegraph and Hollywood Reporter. Quiet news day. But here is what caused the fuss: “My Brush with Banksy”. open.substack.com/pub/historyn...

My brush with Banksy and the BBC decision not to reveal his identity. A gentle weekend read. All content at History Never Ended, my Substack, is free. open.substack.com/pub/historyn...

My brush with Banksy and the BBC decision not to reveal his identity. A gentle weekend read. All content at History Never Ended, my Substack, is free. open.substack.com/pub/historyn...

America at 250 - a conversation with one of my favourite US historians, the brilliant Professor Jill Lepore of Harvard University: www.abc.net.au/listen/progr...

“Even with all those decades of apprenticeship, you have to hand it to the King for pulling off such a dexterous diplomatic dance. It’s quite something to extend the hand of friendship to Donald Trump, while at the same time raising a middle finger.” open.substack.com/pub/historyn...

My extended interview on ABC Saturday Extra with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. www.abc.net.au/listen/progr...

Tune in to Saturday Extra on ABC Radio National for my extended interview with Prime minister Anthony Albanese:

Move over James Bond. Britain can deploy a more effective agent of the state. The man with the golden mace. My latest on that Royal visit, and that subversive speech to Congress. Historical anomalies abound….. open.substack.com/pub/historyn...

Startlingly, America only achieved universal suffrage in 1965, with the passage of the landmark Voting Rights Act. That's why attacks on the Voting Rights Act by the Supreme Court - a court the founding fathers never intended to be so supreme - is so dangerous for US democracy.

Like the response to mass shootings, the reaction to political violence is starting to follow a familiar template, which says more about Trump’s America than the shooting itself. My latest at History Never Ended: open.substack.com/pub/historyn...

As a young Washington correspondent in the 1990s, I used to love these set-piece black-tie dinners, but the rot set in years ago. A few curmudgeonly and random thoughts on the White House Correspondents' Dinner........ substack.com/@historyneve...

I launched my History Never Ended Substack on the eve of the Iran war. It’s now the primary home for my writing. I hope people will give it a look and considering subscribing. All the content is free. open.substack.com/pub/historyn...

My interview on ABC Saturday Extra with the national treasure that is Deborah Mailman on her new film Wolfram and the need to tell more Indigenous stories. www.abc.net.au/listen/progr...

Trump is finding it harder to conjure an alternative reality. The illusionist is no longer so spelling-binding. One of his most devastating political superpowers, to bend the truth in his favour, is failing him. A weekend read: open.substack.com/pub/historyn...

Trump is having an annus horribilis: the presidential illusionist is no longer so spellbinding and losing his power to create Trumpian alternative realities. open.substack.com/pub/historyn...

News organisations need to be unflinching in their use of strong language to describe Trump. Too often we have normalised the abnormal. Mea culpa. I did it myself at the BBC and often came up against institutional timidity. My weekend read. open.substack.com/pub/historyn...

“Jesus of Mar-a-Lago” and the questions it raises for the media. With some lessons that I learnt from covering Trump 1.0. My latest at History Never Ended. open.substack.com/pub/historyn...

From Rocky to Rock of Ages….

Trump’s double blockade, a NASA splashdown and the sinking of Viktor Orbán. My latest at History Never Ended….. open.substack.com/pub/historyn...

The Everything War - US v. Iran; West v. West; Trump v. Trump, MAGA v. MAGA; President v. Pope; America v. America. So much to unpack. My weekend read at History Never Ended: open.substack.com/pub/historyn...

The everything war - US v. Iran; Trump v. Trump, US v. NATO; MAGA v. MAGA; President v. Pope; Ameruca v. America. My latest at History Never Ended: open.substack.com/pub/historyn...

Before the conflict began, the Strait of Hormuz was regarded as an international waterway. Now it looks more like an impregnable fortification offering a security guarantee for a murderous regime. Trump’s mission unaccomplished. open.substack.com/pub/historyn...

Later this month King Charles will visit Washington, stand alongside Donald Trump and pretend that everything is normal and that this social media post never happened. That is how captive Britain has become to a special relationship that has long been a servile relationship.

After his open “Open the Fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell — JUST WATCH” post, this piece feels timely. What to tell a child Trump: open.substack.com/pub/historyn...