American History Hit

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...

15 Apr 202450min

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 histori...

11 Apr 202440min

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 ...

8 Apr 202450min

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 it...

4 Apr 202429min

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 mo...

1 Apr 202425min

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 ensl...

28 Mars 202445min

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...

24 Mars 202440min

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 authoriti...

21 Mars 202456min