American History Hit

The First Amendment of the US Constitution is just forty-five words long, but its impact has drastically shaped American life. For much of American history, the First Amendment was narrow, unevenly ap...

Eisenhower, Washington, Greene, Grant. There have been thousands of Generals in the United States' Armed Forces. Picking out the best of the crop would be impossible, right? In this episode, Don is jo...

The two-term limit, the idea that the President of the United States may not seek a third term, has a long history. Originating from a decision made by George Washington, it quickly became an establis...

New weapons, new opponents, new technology - as warfare evolves, armies need generals able to evolve with it. In this episode, Don is joined by Cecily Zander to discuss the most innovative generals in...

In July 1776, a group of men in Philadelphia committed an unthinkable act: they challenged one of the most powerful empires in the world by signing what became known as the American Declaration of Ind...

Ruthless tactics. Extreme violence. The loss of huge numbers of their own troops. The deaths of the most opposing troops. What makes a general 'bloody'? And who fits that description best? In this fir...

From the 1830s until the arrival of the transcontinental railroad, hundreds of thousands of people packed their possessions into wagons and headed west, seeking land and opportunity. Following in the ...

Ever since independence, a question has hovered over the government of the United States. How much power should the President have? Not too much, lest they become a monarch. But not too little, they a...

When fossils were discovered in the US during the 19th Century, it altered American understandings of science, religion, race and more. So what was the Hadrosaurus Foulkii, and why did it have such an...

Today we're delving into the archives and revisiting Don and Michael Kauffman's conversation on the Assassination of Abraham Lincoln... On the evening of 14th April, 1865, the Union was celebrating vi...