History Tavern Podcast

Arthur Garfield Hays was one of the twentieth century’s most influential attorneys. A champion of free speech and civil liberties, he fought prohibition, housing discrimination, and censorship, while taking part in some of the era’s most significant civil rights cases. He was also an early opponent of Hitler and Nazism, helping defend the communists accused of setting the Reichstag fire in 1933. D...

Follow the paper trail of a Civil War veteran's brutal death in 1901, near the Soldiers' Home in Bath, NY.

George Boutwell was a state legislator, the youngest Governor of Massachusetts, the first commissioner of the internal revenue, congressman, treasury secretary, and US senator. He was also a staunch antislavery advocate, close ally of Abraham Lincoln, and champion of black civil rights. Throughout his seven decades of public service, Boutwell left an unmistakable mark on American history. How is i...

Churchill Archives Centre Director Allen Packwood talks about his new book Churchill's D-Day: The British Bulldog's Fateful Hours During the Normandy Invasion. Countless historians and commentators have criticized Churchill arguing the British Prime Minister delayed and obstructed the plans for the Normandy invasion. Packwood and co-author General Richard Dannatt, offer a fresh perspective on Chur...

Matthew Christopher Hulbert dropped by the History Tavern to talk about his book Oracle of Lost Causes: John Newman Edwards and His Never-Ending Civil War. John Newman Edwards was a popular newspaperman and a historian who grew up devouring heroic tales of knights and soldiers. He was also a Confederate and unapologetic supporter of the Confederate and Southern cause long after the Civil War ended...

Kylie Hulbert dropped by the History Tavern to talk about her book The Untold War at Sea: America's Revolutionary Privateers. Lacking a functioning Navy, the Continental Congress turned to privateers to wage war against the British on the high seas. In covering their story, Hulbert highlights the global nature of the struggle for American independence and the cultural exchanges produced by the war...

David Gellman talked about his book Liberty’s Chain: Slavery, Abolition, and the Jay Family of New York.

William Blair talked about his new book The Record of Murders and Outrages: Racial Violence and the Fight Over Truth at the Dawn of Reconstruction where he examines the role the Freedmen's Bureau played investigating widespread racial violence across the South during Reconstruction.

Kent Masterson Brown talks about Meade's actions during the Gettysburg campaign and his abilities as an operational commander.

Emancipation was an uncertain process and one that enslaved people had to pursue throughout the Civil War. Or as Embattled Freedom author Murrell Taylor writes, "Freedom had to searched for and found." In this special re-released episode, listen to my discussion with Amy Murrell Taylor at the 2019 Civi War Institute Summer Conference.

Dr. Jeanne Abrams talked about her book A View From Abroad: The Story of John and Abigail Adams in Europe. John and Abigail's time in Europe helped define what it meant for them to be American. They detested the excesses of European aristocracy and the rule of a hereditary monarch. Instead, the were unwavering republicans.

In 1946, World War II vets took a stand against the corrupt political machine that ran their small Tennessee town for over a decade. In order to restore democracy, the vets had to take up arms against the government and ultimately won the first armed rebellion since the Revolution.

Dr. David J. Silverman talked about his book This Land is Their Land: The Wampanoag Indians, Plymouth Colony, and the Trouble History of Thanksgiving.

Dr. Paul Finkelman discussed the debates over slavery at the Constitutional Convention, Thomas Jefferson’s legacy as a slaveowner and perpetuator of slavery, and the roles John Marshall, Joseph Story, and Roger Taney played in protecting slavery as justices on the United States Supreme Court.

Dr. Gary Gallagher talked about his new book The Enduring Civil War, the way Civil War history is covered, monuments, his favorite Civil War movies, and much more.

Historian David T. Dixon talked about the life of August Willich, a Prussian nobleman turned communist revolutionary who became an unlikely American Civil War Hero.

City of Albany historian Anthony Opalka talked about the Albany fire of 1848. The fire destroyed nearly 600 buildings and killed several people.

On August 4th, 1892, Abby and Andrew Borden were brutally murdered in their Fall River home. The crime was shocking and grisly. Lizzie Borden was acquitted of having committed the murders despite an abundance of evidence. Former Borden Bed and Breakfast tour guide and creator of the website Lizzie Borden: Warps and Wefts Shelley Dziedzic takes us on a deep dive into the case.

The defeat at Gettysburg left Lee's army hobbled and in desperate need of returning to to friendlier territory south of the Potomac River. Heavy rain, however, flooded the Potomac, delaying Lee's retreat. Historian Richard Schaus talks about this understudied aspect of the Gettysburg campaign and whether Meade pursued the Army of Northern Virginia aggressively enough.

Cory Pfarr - Longstreet at Gettysburg by History Tavern Podcast

Artist and author Mark Dunkelman dropped by the History Tavern Podcast to discuss his book Gettysburg's Unknown Solider: The Life, Death, and Celebrity of Amos Humiston.

Dr. Theresa Kaminski dropped by the History Tavern Podcast to talk about her new book Dr. Mary Walker's Civil War: One Woman's Journey to the Medal of Honor and the Fight for Women's Rights.

D-Day historian and author of Omaha Beach: D-Day, June 6, 1944 Joseph Balkoski talked about the years of preparation for the invasion of Europe and the fighting that took place on Omaha Beach.

Author Christopher Leahy talked about his new book President without a Party: The Life of John Tyler. Though Tyler is often remembered for his unremarkable presidency, he had long career in politics which included stints as a Virginia legislator, U.S. Congressman, Governor of Virginia, and U.S. Senator. He was involved in many of the seminal legislative battles of the nineteenth century including...

Historians Joan Waugh, Paul Kahan, Chris Mackowski, and Gary Gallagher discuss the history and memory of Reconstruction, Grant's presidency, and Grant's memoirs.