American History Tellers

In Spring of 1943, hundreds of scientists and technicians moved to a remote location in the mountains of New Mexico to work at a secret laboratory. Under the guidance of their leader, J. Robert Oppenh...

In Spring of 1945, the tides of World War 2 turned. Germany surrendered to the Allies, but Japan vowed to keep fighting. To prevent further casualties, America knew they would have to demonstrate thei...

Following the success of the Manhattan Project, the U.S. sought to develop a potentially more powerful and deadly weapon – the Hydrogen Bomb. Despite having led the team at Los Alamos, J. Robert Oppen...

January 22, 1879. After years of displacement, the northern Cheyenne, led by Chief Morning Star, face off against the U.S. Army in an attempt to return to their ancestral lands. You can listen ad-free...

In February 1826, 17-year-old Edgar Allan Poe was a promising student at the University of Virginia. But within a few months, gambling debts forced him to abandon his studies. It was just one of many ...

In 1840, eight-year-old Louisa May Alcott moved to the small town of Concord, Massachusetts with her family. There, she spent her days wandering through the woods, putting on plays with her sisters, a...

In the late 1850s, a young man named Samuel Clemens started out piloting steamboats on the Mississippi River. Within a few years, he embarked on a writing career, adopting the pen name that became fam...

Growing up in the Salinas Valley of Northern California, John Steinbeck dreamed of becoming a professional writer. In his youth he took on odd jobs and worked amongst ranch hands and migrant workers, ...

Born into poverty in Harlem in 1924, James Baldwin rose to become a celebrated novelist, essayist, playwright, and poet, and a leading voice in the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s. In his debut nov...

In 1949, aspiring writer Nelle Harper Lee moved from her home in small-town Alabama to New York City. She was following in the footsteps of her childhood friend, author Truman Capote. Within a few yea...