American History Hit

Where did baseball come from? Why is every stadium unique? And how do you make it to the Hall of Fame?  For half the year, baseball remains a national pastime in the USA. It is also a game of many myths, and plenty of legends. In this episode, Don speaks to one of them - Joe Posnanski is a two time Emmy Award winner and has been named National Sportswriter of the Year by five different organi...

Please note, this episode contains discussion of suicide. On 1 April 1945, as the Second World War in Europe was reaching its end, one of the bloodiest battles in the whole conflict commenced on a small island south of mainland Japan. It was the Battle of Okinawa. Saul David joined Dan Snow on our sister podcast, Dan Snow's History Hit, to provide a fascinating rundown of this truly horrific battl...

Vice President to a narrow election winner, Chester Arthur was a very unlikely President. But on September 20th 1881 he took his seat as the 21st President of the United States at the dawn of the modern administrative state and presidency. So what kind of President did he become? Was he progressive? What was his role in the creation of the Civil Service? And how did the Presidency impact him as a...

11 Tonys, a Grammy, a Pulitzer Prize and broken box office records - there's no denying the impact of Lin-Manuel Miranda's Hamilton. Throughout this series on the real Hamilton, we have been trying to uncover the man the musical is based on. But how much of the show and its production is truthful? And how much does this matter? Renee Romano joins Don to look into this new American Myth. Renee is a...

Today we dive into the little-known true story of American castaways abandoned on the Falkland Islands during the War of 1812 ― a tale of treachery, shipwreck, isolation and a desperate struggle for survival. In this fascinating episode, best-selling author Eric Jay Dolan joins Don to explore this wild encounter between an American sealing vessel, a shipwrecked British brig and a British warship i...

When Alexander Hamilton took a bullet to the abdomen on the morning of the 11th July 1804, he joined a long list of people who had fallen foul of this very strange practice. So where did duelling come from? And how did these two revolutionary American politicians find themselves with pistols in their hands? Don is joined for this third episode of our Real Hamilton series by Mike Loades, British au...

This may have been the second shortest Presidency in the history of the United States, but the term of James Garfield is definitely not one to miss. From his dark horse nomination to his assassination by Charles Guiteau, Don is speaking with bestselling author of ‘An Assassin in Utopia,' Susan Wels. Produced by Sophie Gee. Edited by Aidan Lonergan. Senior Producer was Charlotte Long. Enjoy unlimit...

Founding Father, first Secretary of the Treasury and focus of one of the world's first political sex scandals - we couldn't do a series about Alexander Hamilton without touching on his personal life. Don is joined by Elizabeth Cobbs in this episode to explore the private lives of the Hamiltons. Who was Elizabeth Schuyler? Did her sister have an affair with her husband? And was the Reynolds affair...

Theodore Roosevelt is arguably the most masculine president in American history. So how was he influenced by the women around him? And how was he impacted by the deaths of two of them on the same day? In this episode, Edward O'Keefe introduces us to Theodore Roosevelt's mother, two sisters, and two wives: Mittie, Bamie, Conie, Alice and Edith. Edward O'Keefe, Prime Time Emmy award and Peabody winn...

Who really was Alexander Hamilton, and what do we actually know about his life? A Founding Father, he fought in the Revolutionary War, founded the American financial system and was the first ever Secretary of the Treasury. But who really was Hamilton? How did his face come to be on our bank notes? Did he love his wife? And why would he go to duel even after his son had died in doing so? In this fi...

Emerging victorious from an electoral quagmire in 1876, Rutherford B. Hayes became the 19th President of the United States. Professor Mark Zachary Taylor joins Don to explore the first great depression and how Hayes navigated the US towards recovery from it. From strike and unrest to growth and stability, how did Hayes lay the groundwork for economic prosperity? Produced by Freddy Chick. Edited by...

An iconic signature on the Declaration of Independence - that is what John Hancock is best known for. But how did he come to be the first signatory? What was his role in the American Revolution? Brooke Barbier joins Don in this episode to take us through the life and works of John Hancock, and to explain how he got the nickname, 'King Hancock'. Brooke is the author of ‘Boston in the American Revol...

During the spring of 1921, eleven bodies were found in in rural Georgia. These men were victims of horrific murders, and also of a more widespread crime - peonage. Whilst enslavement had legally ended with the surrender at Appomattox and the 13th Amendment, black people across the south were still being entrapped into debt slavery half a century later, in the Twentieth Century. To find out more ab...

How does a heroic general of the Civil War become one of the lowest rated Presidents (at least until recently)? To discuss Grant's commitment to reconstruction, civil rights, and the crushing of the Ku Klux Klan, Don is joined by Professor Anne Marshall. Anne is a historian of the Nineteenth century U.S. South and the Civil War in historical memory at Mississippi State University. Produced by Fred...

Strategic brilliance? Relentless determination? Unbeatable leadership and cooperation with Lincoln? How did Ulysses S. Grant distinguish himself in the Civil War? Don speaks to Cecily Zander, a historian specializing in the Civil War era and the American West. Together, they discuss Grant's rise to General, his role in the war and why he has been known as 'the Butcher'. Produced by Freddy Chick an...

Al Capone is one of the most notorious gangsters in US history. His story of rags to riches, set against the backdrop of the prohibition era, is worthy of the many movies that it has inspired. Violent mobster, genius businessman or semi-professional baseball player, who was the real Al Capone? To find out, Don speaks to Claire White, Director of Education at the Mob Museum in Las Vegas. Produced a...

It comprises more than half of the world's defence spending, but what is the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation? How has the United States influenced it from its inception to today? And how, during its 75 years, has it impacted the United States in return? Don is joined by Peter Apps, journalist and Reuters global defence commentator. From the signing of the treaty by the first 12 members on 4th A...

A wealthy man in his early 30s. An army man. A German immigrant. A bootlegger. A lover. Who was Jay Gatsby? And if he was based on a real person, what do we know about them? To delve into one of the most famous fictional characters of the 20th century (from one of Don's favourite authors, F Scott Fitzgerald) Don speaks to Joe Nocera. Joe is the host of a new eight-part investigation that delves in...

Three quarters of a million people dead in the Civil War. A country separated in to two. How do you join it back together? Do you punish the secessionists? How do you grapple with the question of enslavement? And who do you choose to be at the controls? When Abraham Lincoln was assassinated in 1865, his Vice President, Andrew Johnson, became President. Johnson was a Southerner who had sided with t...

More than 200 accused, 20 executed and a village plagued with hysteria. Were the Salem Witch Trials of 1692 and 1693 the work of superstition, a power struggle, fungus or actual witchcraft? What makes them stand out in the history of witch trials? In this episode, Don speaks to Jessica Parr from Northeastern University about the alleged crimes, persecution and lasting memory of the so-called Salem...

Would the Cold War have happened if the nuclear bomb was never created? How did Gorbachev, Reagan and Thatcher reduce tensions between the East and West? And, according to one of the Russian authorities' most wanted journalists, how are echoes of the Cold War felt today? 'Turning Point: The Bomb and the Cold War' is a new, 9-part Netflix documentary which answers these questions and more. In this...

At least 23 of the Presidents of the United States can have their ancestry traced back to Ireland. So why did this diaspora come to America? What was their reception like? And how have they reached the top of the power structure so regularly? We are finding out in this episode with historian Kevin Kenny, Professor of History and Glucksman Professor in Irish Studies at New York University. Kevin is...

President and Commander-in-Chief at a major turning point in American History? Victim of a violent and public assassination? How do you remember Abraham Lincoln? Most likely it isn't for his role as a son, husband, friend and father. In this final episode of our Lincoln series, we're going to dig into Lincoln's personal life, upbringing, relationships and struggles with his mental health. Don spea...

A far-right hate group known the world over, the Ku Klux Klan emerged in the aftermath of the Civil War. So why did it emerge? Where did it get its name from? And how has its size, focus and influence changed in the years since? To demystify this terrorist organisation, Don spoke to Professor Kristofer Allerfeldt from the University of Exeter, England. Kristofer is the author of 'The Ku Klux Klan:...

Inaugurated into the thick of secession and assassinated just weeks after Confederate surrender, there is no separating the story of Abraham Lincoln from the Civil War. So in this second part of our series on Lincoln, Don speaks to Adam Smith about Lincoln's leadership of the Union army during the war. Adam is a professor at the University of Oxford and Director of their Rothermere American Instit...