The Union War

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Crossroads of Freedom: Antietam

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The Fall of the House of Dixie: The Civil War and the Social Revolution That Transformed the South

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April 1865: The Month That Saved America

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The Bloody Shirt: Terror after Appomattox

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Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era

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Marching Home: Union Veterans and Their Unending Civil War

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Hymns of the Republic: The Story of the Final Year of the American Civil War

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The Last Lincoln Republican: The Presidential Election of 1880

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Seceding from Secession: The Civil War, Politics, and the Creation of West Virginia

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Waking Giant: America in the Age of Jackson

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American Visions: The United States 1800-1860

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Shiloh, 1862

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The Great War in America: World War I and Its Aftermath

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The War after the War: A New History of Reconstruction

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The Cause: The American Revolution and its Discontents, 1773-1783

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Germantown: A Military History of the Battle for Philadelphia, October 4, 1777

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Washington's Farewell: The Founding Father's Warning to Future Generations

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The War That Made America: A Short History of the French and Indian War

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The Road to Disunion: Volume II: Secessionists Triumphant, 1854-1861

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Armies of Deliverance: A New History of the Civil War

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Confederate Reckoning: Power and Politics in the Civil War South

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Bloody Mohawk: The French and Indian War & American Revolution on New York's Frontier

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The Cause of All Nations: An International History of the American Civil War

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Brotherhood of the Revolution: How America's Founders Forged a New Nation

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The Will of the People: The Revolutionary Birth of America

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America's Great Debate: Henry Clay, Stephen A. Douglas, and the Compromise That Preserved the Union

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Forever Free: The Story of Emancipation and Reconstruction

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Lions of the West: Heroes and Villains of the Westward Expansion

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The 10 Key Campaigns of the American Revolution

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America Aflame: How the Civil War Created a Nation

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The 48 Laws of Power

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You Can't Joke About That: Why Everything Is Funny, Nothing Is Sacred, and We’re All in This Together

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Behold a Pale Horse

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Cobalt Red: How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives

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Nazi Hunting: A Love Story: The husband and wife who, for six decades and counting, have made catching war criminals the family business

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The Prince

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How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States

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The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion

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The Overstory

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How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy

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All the Sinners Bleed: A Novel

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Razorblade Tears: A Novel

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The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women

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Son of Hamas: A Gripping Account of Terror, Betrayal, Political Intrigue, and Unthinkable Choices

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The Cult of Trump: A Leading Cult Expert Explains How the President Uses Mind Control

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American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America

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Elon Musk

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Small Mercies: A Novel

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The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory: American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism

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The MAGA Diaries: My Surreal Adventures Inside the Right-Wing (And How I Got Out)

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The Nazi Conspiracy: The Secret Plot to Kill Roosevelt, Stalin, and Churchill

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White Fragility (Adapted for Young Adults): Why Understanding Racism Can Be So Hard for White People (Adapted for Young Adults)

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Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World--and Why Things Are Better Than You Think

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Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation

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The Vision of the Anointed: Self-congratulation as a Basis for Social Policy

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Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media

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An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States

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Enough

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While Time Remains: A North Korean Girl's Search for Freedom in America

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The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America

Podcast episode

Lecture 23 - Black Reconstruction in the South: The Freedpeople and the Economics of Land and Labor: Professor Blight begins this lecture in Washington, where the passage of the first Reconstruction Act by Congressional Republicans radically altered the direction of Reconstruction. The Act invalidated the reconstituted Southern legislatures, establishing five military districts in the South and insisting upon black suffrage as a condition to readmission. The eventful year 1868 saw the impeachment of one president (Andrew Johnson) and the election of another (Ulysses S. Grant). Meanwhile, southern African Americans struggle to reap the promises of freedom in the face of economic disempowerment and a committed campaign of white supremacist violence. Transcript Lecture Page

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Lecture 25 - The "End" of Reconstruction: Disputed Election of 1876, and the "Compromise of 1877": This lecture focuses on the role of white southern terrorist violence in brining about the end of Reconstruction. Professor Blight begins with an account the Colfax Massacre. Colfax, Louisiana was the sight of the largest mass murder in U.S. history, when a white mob killed dozens of African Americans in the April of 1873. Two Supreme Court decisions would do in the judicial realm what the Colfax Massacre had done in the political. On the same day as the Colfax Massacre, the Supreme Court offered a narrow reading of the 14th Amendment in the Slaughterhouse cases, signaling a judicial retreat from the radicalism of the early Reconstruction years. The Cruikshank case, two years later, would overturn the convictions of the only three men sentenced for their involvement in Colfax, and marked another step away from reconstruction. Professor Blight concludes with the Panic of 1873 and the seemi

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Lecture 14 - Never Call Retreat: Military and Political Turning Points in 1863: Professor Blight lectures on the military history of the early part of the war. Beginning with events in the West, Blight describes the Union victories at Fort Donelson and Fort Henry, introduces Union General Ulysses S. Grant, and narrates the horrific battle of Shiloh, fought in April of 1862. Moving back East, the lecture describes the Union General George McClellan's abortive 1862 Peninsula campaign, which introduced the world to Confederate General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson. The lecture concludes with Confederate General Robert E. Lee's decision to take the battle to the North. Transcript Lecture Page

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#317- BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG (Part the Third): "the devil's to pay"

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Lecture 15 - Lincoln, Leadership, and Race: Emancipation as Policy: Professor Blight follows Robert E. Lee's army north into Maryland during the summer of 1862, an invasion that culminated in the Battle of Antietam, fought in September of 1862. In the wake of Antietam, Abraham Lincoln issued his preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, a document that changed the meaning of the war forever. Professor Blight suggests some of the ways in which Americans have attempted to come to grips with the enigmatic Lincoln, and argues that, in the end, it may be Lincoln's capacity for change that was his most important characteristic. The lecture concludes with the story of John Washington, a Virginia slave whose concerted action suggests the central role American slaves played in securing their own freedom. Transcript Lecture Page

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Lecture 24 - Retreat from Reconstruction: The Grant Era and Paths to "Southern Redemption": This lecture opens with a discussion of the myriad moments at which historians have declared an "end" to Reconstruction, before shifting to the myth and reality of "Carpetbag rule" in the Reconstruction South. Popularized by Lost Cause apologists and biased historians, this myth suggests that the southern governments of the Reconstruction era were dominated by unscrupulous and criminal Yankees who relied on the ignorant black vote to rob and despoil the innocent South. The reality, of course, diverges widely from this image. Among other accomplishments, the Radical state governments that came into existence after 1868 made important gains in African-American rights and public education. Professor Blight closes the lecture with the passage of the 15th Amendment, the waning radicalism of the Republican party after 1870, and the rise of white political terrorism across the South. Transcript Lecture

Podcast episode

#04 NULLIFICATION CRISIS: In which we discuss the Tariff of Abominations, the Nullification Crisis of 1832/33, and we wonder who had the pre-Civil War era's most impressive head of hair: John C Calhoun or Andrew Jackson. Plus, Manifest Destiny beckons & we set the stage...

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Lecture 18 - "War So Terrible": Why the Union Won and the Confederacy Lost at Home and Abroad: This lecture probes the reasons for confederate defeat and union victory. Professor Blight begins with an elucidation of the loss-of-will thesis, which suggests that it was a lack of conviction on the home front that assured confederate defeat, before offering another of other popular explanations for northern victory: industrial capacity, political leadership, military leadership, international diplomacy, a pre-existing political culture, and emancipation. Blight warns, however, that we cannot forget the battlefield, and, to this end, concludes his lecture with a discussion of the decisive Union victories at Gettysburg and Vicksburg in July of 1863. Transcript Lecture Page

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Lecture 17 - Homefronts and Battlefronts: "Hard War" and the Social Impact of the Civil War: Professor Blight begins his lecture with a description of the sea change in Civil War scholarship heralded by the Social History revolution of the 1960s and 1970s. Along with a focus on the experience of the common solider, women, and African Americans, a central component of this shift in scholarly emphasis was an increased interest in the effects of the war on the Union and Confederate home fronts. After suggesting some of the ways in which individual Americans experienced the war, Professor Blight moves to a discussion of the war's effect on industry and economics, North and South. The lecture concludes with a description of the increased activism of the federal government during the war, an activism that found expression in finance, agriculture, taxation, building railroads, and, most importantly, in emancipation. Transcript Lecture Page

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Lecture 19 - To Appomattox and Beyond: The End of the War and a Search for Meanings: Professor Blight uses Herman Melville's poem "On the Slain Collegians" to introduce the horrifying slaughter of 1864. The architect of the strategy that would eventually lead to Union victory, but at a staggering human cost, was Ulysses S. Grant, brought East to assume control of all Union armies in 1864. Professor Blight narrates the campaigns of 1864, including the Battles of the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, and Cold Harbor, and the siege of Petersburg. While Robert E. Lee battled Grant to a stalemate in Virginia, however, William Tecumseh Sherman's Union forces took Atlanta before beginning their March to the Sea, destroying Confederate morale and fighting power from the inside. Professor Blight closes his lecture with a description of the first Memorial Day, celebrated by African Americans in Charleston, SC 1865. Transcript Lecture Page

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#320- BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG (Part the Sixth): "hearing that a supply of shoes was to be obtained in gettysburg"

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Lecture 26 - Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory: Having dealt with the role of violence and the Supreme Court in bringing about the end of Reconstruction in his last lecture, Professor Blight now turns to the role of national electoral politics, focusing in particular on the off-year Congressional election of 1874 and the Presidential election of 1876. 1874 saw the return of the Democrats to majority status in the Senate and the House of Representatives, as voters sick of corruption and hurt by the Panic of 1873 fled the Republicans in droves. According to many historians, the contested election of 1876, and the "Compromise of 1877," which followed it, marked the official end of Reconstruction. After an election tainted by fraud and violence, Republicans and Democrats brokered a deal by which Republican Rutherford B. Hayes took the White House in exchange for restoration of "home rule" for the South. Transcript Lecture Page

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#80 ULYSSES S GRANT (Part the Second): In which we continue with our look at Ulysses S. Grant's life story, bringing him up to speed with the podcast timeline.

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Lecture 21 - Andrew Johnson and the Radicals: A Contest over the Meaning of Reconstruction: In this lecture, Professor Blight begins his engagement with Reconstruction. Reconstruction, Blight suggests, might best be understood as an extended referendum on the meaning of the Civil War. Even before the war's end, various constituencies in the North attempted to control the shape of the post-war Reconstruction of the South. In late 1863, President Abraham Lincoln offered his lenient "Ten Percent Plan." Six months later, Congressional Republicans concerned by Lincoln's charity rallied behind the more radical provisions of the Wade-Davis Bill. Despite their struggle for control over Reconstruction, Congressional Radicals and President Lincoln managed to work together on two vital pieces of Reconstruction legislation in the first months of 1865--the 13th Amendment, which outlawed slavery in the United States, and the Freedmen's Bureau bill. Transcript Lecture Page

Podcast episode

Lecture 27 - Legacies of the Civil War: Professor Blight finishes his lecture series with a discussion of the legacies of the Civil War. Since the nineteenth century, Blight suggests, there have been three predominant strains of Civil War memory, which Blight defines as reconciliationist, white supremacist, and emancipationist. The war has retained a political currency throughout the years, and the ability to control the memory of the Civil War has been, and continues to be, hotly contested. Transcript Lecture Page

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#41 THE PURSUIT OF VICTORY: In which we discuss the Confederate and Union war aims & strategy at the beginning of the Civil War. Plus, we look at the Union's move in May 1861 to seize Alexandria, Virginia- just across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C.

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#323- BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG (Part the Ninth): "in retreat, double-quick, run!"

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#32 LINCOLN'S INAUGURATION: In which we look at Abraham Lincoln's inaugural journey from Illinois to Washington, D.C. and then his inauguration as the sixteenth President of the United States on March 4, 1861. 

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#363- BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG (Part the Forty-ninth): "the whole hillside seemed enveloped in a blaze"

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#49 ARTILLERY: In which we cover the third Civil War combat arm: the artillery.

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#02 SLAVERY & POLITICS: In which we take a look back at American history to see how slavery, even from the colonial period, played a major role in shaping & defining the country's political landscape. 

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Lecture 22 - Constitutional Crisis and Impeachment of a President: Professor Blight continues his discussion of the political history of Reconstruction. The central figure in the early phase of Reconstruction was President Andrew Johnson. Under Johnson's stewardship, southern whites held constitutional conventions throughout 1865, drafting new constitutions that outlawed slavery but changed little else. When the Republican-dominated U.S. Congress reassembled late in 1865, they put a stop to Johnson's leniency and inaugurated Radical (or Congressional) Reconstruction, a process that resulted in the immediate passage of the Civil Rights bill and the Fourteenth Amendment, and the eventual passage of four Reconstruction Acts. The Congressional elections in 1866 and Johnson's disastrous "Swing Around the Circle" speaking tour strengthened Radical control over Congress. Each step of the way, Johnson did everything he could to obstruct Congressional Reconstruction, setting the stage for his i

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071 Bruce Venter, Saratoga and Hubbardton, 1777: Ben Franklin's World: A Podcast About Early American History

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#324- BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG (Part the Tenth): "go like hell"

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#68 "BATTLE OF THE HEMP BALES": In which we discuss the successful siege of Lexington by Sterling Price's Missouri State Guard in September, 1861.

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#319- BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG (Part the Fifth): "the enemy are advancing in strong force"

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#72 McCLELLAN TAKES CHARGE: In which we discuss George B. McClellan's arrival in Washington in July of 1861, and his taking command of the defeated & demoralized force that would become the Union's famed Army of the Potomac.

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Pontiac's Rebellion: Native American tribes in the Great Lakes region fight British expansion and rule in their territory

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#38 SIEGE OF WASHINGTON (Part the Second): In which we wrap up our discussion of the dark days in April 1861 when Washington, DC was cut off from the North and in danger from Confederate invasion. 

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#51 GONE FOR A SOLDIER: In which we look at why Northern & Southern men signed up to fight at the beginning of the Civil War.