Episodes
Interview with Robert Tracy McKenzie
In this conversation, historian Robert Tracy McKenzie reflects on a career spent studying and teaching America’s past, from the Civil War to the broader story of democracy. He shares how his upbringing in Tennessee and the in...
S1E6 – The Island in the Harbor
In early 1861, two men traveled east to become American presidents – Jefferson Davis of the Confederate States of America and Abraham Lincoln of the United States of America. Each was thrown into the fire of crisis. With sece...
S1E5 – Stars and Banners
The election of 1860 would alter the trajectory of the United States. First, the party conventions had to decide which candidates would run for the presidency, and second, Americans would make their choice. Easy, right? Not s...
S1E4 – A Political Free-For-All
What happens when a political party implodes? One newspaperman in hindsight said, “The Whig party died of too much respectability and not enough people.” The decade before the Civil War saw politics as figurative and literal ...
S1E3 – American Slavery
Why did slavery exist in the United States, and how did it get that way? To better understand America leading up to the Civil War, it’s vital to trace its roots back to its origins and how its British history morphed into the...
S1E1 – Introduction
“History never looks like history when you are living through it,” said John W. Gardner, US cabinet secretary. Too often we look at history as names, dates and information, but for those who had to live through it, they had n...
S1E2 – The Father of All
What caused the American Civil War? Better yet, what caused the causes? In order to discover the answers, it’s essential to explore the context of the United States at the time… How had the country changed since its independe...