American History Tellers

By Wondery

Society & Culture History Kids & Family

What's American History Tellers about?

The Cold War, Prohibition, the Gold Rush, the Space Race. Every part of your life - the words you speak, the ideas you share - can be traced to our history, but how well do you really know the stories that made America? We'll take you to the events, the times and the people that shaped our nation. And we'll show you how our history affected them, their families and affects you today. Hosted by Lindsay Graham (not the Senator). From Wondery, the network behind American Scandal, Tides of History, American Innovations and more. New episodes come out every Wednesday for free, with 1-week early access for Wondery+ subscribers. Listen ad-free on Wondery+ or on Amazon Music with a Prime membership or Amazon Music Unlimited subscription.

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Reconstruction Era | The Ra...

06.07.2023

In December 1865, the first postwar Congress convened in Washington, D.C. With Black Southerners still facing rampant violence and discrimination, the Republican majority blocked the former Confederate states from rejoining the Union. Determined to protect Black rights and curb the ...

American History Tellers episodes:

06.07.2023 Reconstruction Era \| The Radical Revolution \| 2 In December 1865, the first postwar Congress convened in Washington, D.C. With Black Southerners still facing rampant violence and discrimination, the Republican majority blocked the former Confederate states from rejoining the Union. Determined to protect Black rights and curb the ...
06.06.2023 Wondery Presents: I Love My Kid, But… This is a safe place for parents to get away from it all. It’s a cliche that having kids is both the most rewarding and the hardest thing you’ll ever do. And it never ends: just when you’ve figured out ...
06.05.2023 History Daily: The Assassination of Robert. F. Kennedy June 5, 1968. At a campaign stop in Los Angeles, US senator and presidential candidate Robert Kennedy is assassinated. Listen ad free with Wondery+. Join Wondery+ for exclusives, binges, early access, and ad free listening. Available in the Wondery App. ...
05.31.2023 Reconstruction Era \| From the Ashes of War \| 1 In the spring of 1865, the United States celebrated the end of four years of Civil War. As American soldiers laid down their weapons, four million formerly enslaved Black people in the South grappled with the daunting task of building ...
05.24.2023 United Farm Workers \| The Fall \| 3 By the early 1970s the United Farm Workers had won a series of successes in California and were attempting to extend their reach into other states. But soon, conservative politicians began to push back and the losses started mounting. Cesar ...
05.17.2023 United Farm Workers \| The Grape Strike \| 2 In 1964, the United States finally ended the controversial Bracero Program, which had flooded American farms with millions of low-paid guest workers from Mexico who competed for jobs with resident laborers. Soon after, the two largest farm worker unions in ...
05.15.2023 Introducing: Reign of Error James Dolan was born into immense privilege. He could have done anything with his life. But he chose the family business — a cable television empire that came to include ownership of the New York Knicks, one of the most ...
05.10.2023 United Farm Workers \| Birth of a Movement \| 1 In the 1940s and ‘50s, farm laborers in California, many of them Mexican and Filipino, faced low wages and brutal working conditions. Their demands for change were often met with harsh tactics from the powerful growers. Soon, a plainspoken but ...
05.03.2023 Boston Molasses Disaster \| The Legend and the Legacy \| 2 The 1919 Molasses Flood was a terrifying and telling moment in the history of Boston’s North End. It was also a snapshot of a developing city in the wake of the first World War. Jake Sconyers explored the events for ...
04.26.2023 Boston Molasses Disaster \| A Deadly Deluge \| 1 On January 15, 1919 a giant storage tank holding more than two million gallons of molasses collapsed, sending a deadly wave crashing into the streets of Boston’s busy North End. The flood was over in minutes, but it left death ...
04.19.2023 Hawai'i's Journey to Statehood \| Lost Kingdom \| 5 After she was deposed by powerful American business interests, Hawai’i’s Queen Liliʻuokalani lived out the rest of her days advocating for her people. Julia Flynn Siler, author of Lost Kingdom: Hawaii's Last Queen, the Sugar Kings, and America's First Imperial ...
04.12.2023 Hawai'i's Journey to Statehood \| Day of Infamy \| 4 On December 7, 1941, Hawai’i was hit by one of the most unexpected military assaults in modern warfare. More than 300 Japanese fighter planes and dive bombers attacked the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor, killing 2,400 people and plunging ...
04.05.2023 Hawaiʻi's Journey to Statehood \| Waves of Change \| 3 After Hawai’i became a U.S. Territory in 1900, tourism to the islands exploded. Luxury steamships brought tourists eager to buy fashionable Hawaiian shirts, try their hand at surfing, and stay at fancy hotels that began to dot the beach at ...
03.29.2023 Hawaiʻi's Journey to Statehood \| The Pineapple King \| 2 In the early 1900s, an enterprising young American named James Dole introduced pineapples to a windy plateau in Central Oahu. He’d been warned that the crop was perishable and unprofitable and that his venture was sure to fail. But within ...
03.22.2023 Hawaiʻi's Journey to Statehood \| The Last Queen \| 1 In 1893 the independent island kingdom of Hawaiʻi flourished under the leadership of its monarch, Queen Lili’uokalani. But as the leaders of Hawaiʻi’s lucrative sugar industry gained power, the Queen struggled to maintain control. Soon, the so-called sugar barons, with ...
03.15.2023 Insurrection of Aaron Burr \| Fears of a Young Republic \| 5 Was Aaron Burr raising an army to invade Mexico? Plotting to break apart the Union? Overthrow the government? Or was his trial for treason – the greatest legal spectacle in our young nation’s history – all much ado about nothing? ...
03.08.2023 Insurrection of Aaron Burr \| Treason on Trial \| 4 In the summer of 1807, Richmond, Virginia hosted the most sensational trial in the young nation’s history. At stake was the life of Aaron Burr, who stood accused of plotting an armed insurrection against the United States. The battle over ...
03.01.2023 Insurrection of Aaron Burr \| The Severance of the Union \| 3 In August 1806, Aaron Burr began the final preparations for his mysterious expedition to the western frontier. As he traveled, rumors that he was plotting a dangerous conspiracy followed in his wake. Newspapers reported that Burr was planning to invade ...
02.22.2023 Insurrection of Aaron Burr \| Gathering Forces \| 2 In the summer of 1804, Vice President Aaron Burr was wanted for the murder of Alexander Hamilton. The fatal duel made him a political pariah and the target of widespread public outcry. But as Burr’s Vice Presidency came to an ...
02.15.2023 Insurrection of Aaron Burr \| An Affair of Honor \| 1 In July 1804, Aaron Burr faced political rival Alexander Hamilton on the cliffs of Weehawken, New Jersey, in a legendary duel that would change Burr’s life forever. As a young man, Burr had distinguished himself as a patriot, lawyer and ...
02.08.2023 California Gold Rush \| Gold Mountains \| 5 News of the 1848 discovery of gold in California spread quickly, and thousands of Chinese migrants flocked to California to seek a better life in the place they called "Gold Mountain." But the reality awaiting them was a far cry ...
02.01.2023 California Gold Rush \| Digging Deeper \| 4 In the early 1850s, as people continued to flood West, California’s booming cities experienced rapid growth, but also turmoil. Fires regularly swept through hastily erected towns, and battles broke out between lawless miners and new, civic-minded residents who wanted to ...
01.25.2023 California Gold Rush \| Battlelines \| 3 For white settlers, the Gold Rush offered a chance for fortune, but for California’s Native inhabitants, the sudden hunger for gold spelled disaster. As the numbers of miners grew, they forced Native people off their ancestral lands, often starving or ...
01.18.2023 California Gold Rush \| The Forty Niners \| 2 In early 1849, thousands of gold-hungry Americans began pouring into California from the eastern United States. But most of the so-called 49ers were wildly unprepared for the perilous journey west. Once they reached California, they found unexpected obstacles and fierce ...
01.11.2023 California Gold Rush \| The First Strike \| 1 After the discovery of gold at Sutter’s Mill in 1848, hundreds of thousands of prospectors poured into California, hoping to strike it rich. In the early days, rather than coming from within the U.S., most miners arrived from places like ...
01.04.2023 Presidential Assassinations \| Interview \| 5 The job of guarding the President’s life belongs to the men and women of the United States Secret Service. There have been many highs and lows in the agency’s more than 150-year history – most poignantly the assassination of JFK ...
12.28.2022 Presidential Assassinations \| Ricochet \| 4 In 1981, a gunman fired six shots at Ronald Reagan after the president gave a speech at a Washington D.C. hotel. Over the next several hours, split-second decisions made by Secret Service agents and D.C. hospital staff would determine whether ...
12.21.2022 Presidential Assassinations \| Three Shots in Dallas \| 3 On November 22, 1963, John F. Kennedy was shot and killed while riding in his presidential limo through downtown Dallas. His violent and public death became one of the most traumatic moments in the nation’s history — and one of ...
12.14.2022 Presidential Assassinations \| Anarchist at the Exposition \| 2 In September 1901, President William McKinley visited the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York to deliver a speech celebrating American achievements at home and abroad. But waiting in the crowd in Buffalo was an embittered Polish-American laborer seeking to prove ...
12.07.2022 Presidential Assassinations \| Murder for Spoils \| 1 On April 14th, 1865, John Wilkes Booth shot President Abraham Lincoln at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C. Lincoln died hours later, shocking the war-torn nation and becoming the first President to be assassinated in office. But he would not be ...
11.30.2022 Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793 \| The Great Debate \| 4 The yellow fever epidemic of 1793 posed one of the greatest threats to the young United States. Doctors and scientists couldn’t agree on the cause or the treatment. They split into factions and debated their theories publicly. On today’s show, ...
11.23.2022 Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793 \| Friends We Have Lost \| 3 In 1793, Philadelphia served as the nation’s temporary capital, and the yellow fever epidemic crippled the federal government. After fleeing the capital, President George Washington struggled to make decisions and govern the young nation. Meanwhile, Philadelphia was running out of ...
11.16.2022 Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793 \| Fears & Falsehoods \| 2 In September 1793, yellow fever continued to ravage Philadelphia. As the death toll mounted, Dr. Benjamin Rush raced to find a cure. Rush used an aggressive and controversial treatment to battle the grisly disease, sparking a political backlash. Soon Treasury ...
11.09.2022 Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793 \| Outbreak \| 1 In the hot and humid summer of 1793, a deadly epidemic struck Philadelphia, then the capital of the United States. Thousands suffered high fevers, yellow skin, and bloody vomit. Many died within days. At first, the cause of the illnesses ...
11.02.2022 The Age of Pirates \| Women of the High Seas \| 4 During the Golden Age of Piracy, two female pirates became infamous despite their short careers. Anne Bonny and Mary Read went down as some of the fiercest pirates in popular mythology.. Dr. Rebecca Simon is a historian of early modern ...
10.26.2022 The Age of Pirates \| Blackbeard and the Flying Gang \| 3 In 1717, the pirate known as Blackbeard launched an attack along the Atlantic seaboard, disrupting international trade and striking terror into sea captains and colonial governors. Working with his sidekick, the “Gentleman Pirate” Stede Bonnet, Blackbeard blockaded the busy port ...
10.19.2022 The Age of Pirates \| Captain Kid's Adventure \| 2 As England waged war against France in 1689, Scottish sailor William Kidd led a deadly mutiny aboard a French privateer in the Caribbean. It was his first act in becoming one of the most feared sea captains of his generation. ...
10.12.2022 The Age of Pirates \| A Gold Chain Or A Wooden Leg \| 1 At the end of the 17th century, pirates stalked the coast of North America and the waters of the Caribbean, attacking merchant vessels from every nation. But they were more than just armed robbers of the high seas. They were ...
10.05.2022 Encore: The Walker Affair \| The Last Filibuster \| 3 When he escaped Nicaragua in 1857, American William Walker was a failed despot responsible for the death of thousands of people and the destabilization of Central America. But he returned to New Orleans with fanfare, greeted by cheering crowds and ...
09.28.2022 Encore: The Walker Affair \| Nicaragua's Yankee President \| 2 In 1855, William Walker faced a criminal trial in the United States for his illegal, and unsuccessful, invasion of Mexico. But he emerged from court fully acquitted, and to some, a national hero. Emboldened by his popularity, Walker set his ...
09.21.2022 Encore: The Walker Affair \| The Gray-Eyed Man of Destiny \| 1 In the mid-1800s, the United States was full of adventurers and entrepreneurs looking to take advantage of the country’s ever-expanding boundaries. One of them was a young lawyer and newspaper editor from Tennessee named William Walker. Hoping to establish his ...
09.14.2022 Civil War \| Finding Freedom \| 8 During the Civil War, Black people in America took the opportunity to free themselves and to serve the Union cause. At great personal risk, tens of thousands of refugees -- men, women and children -- fled Southern slave owners for ...
09.07.2022 Civil War \| Bind Up the Nation's Wounds \| 7 In early 1865, after four long years of bloodshed, the Confederacy was on the brink of defeat. General William Tecumseh Sherman marched his army through South Carolina, where Union soldiers sought vengeance against the secessionist state that started the war. ...
08.31.2022 Civil War \| March To The Sea \| 6 In 1864, Ulysses S. Grant took charge of the entire Union Army and laid out his ambitious plans to finally win the war. Grant pursued Lee in Virginia in a campaign unrivaled in the history of the war for its ...
08.24.2022 Civil War \| Gettysburg \| 5 In the summer of 1863, General Robert E. Lee made a daring bid for victory. He marched his army north to invade Pennsylvania. For three sweltering days, two massive armies locked in combat in the Battle of Gettysburg, the defining ...
08.17.2022 Civil War \| The Fires at Home \| 4 As the Civil War raged on, families on the homefront faced increasingly heavy tolls, enduring crippling economic turmoil, food shortages and explosive class tensions. Meanwhile, Presidents Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis waged their own battles with congressmen and governors over ...
08.10.2022 Civil War \| Emancipation \| 3 The Civil War began as an effort to hold the country together. Few Northern soldiers marched into battle to end slavery. But tens of thousands of enslaved men, women, and children took matters into their own hands, using the chaos ...
08.03.2022 Civil War \| First Blood \| 2 On April 19th, 1861, an angry mob of Confederate sympathizers in Baltimore tried to stop a regiment of Union soldiers rushing to protect the capitol. Soon, four soldiers and 12 locals lay dead, and dozens more were wounded. It was ...
07.27.2022 Civil War \| The Gathering Storm \| 1 Over the first decades of the 19th century, Americans fought over whether slavery should be allowed to expand into newly settled western territories. The debate grew so fierce that it led to a bloody attack right on the floor of ...
07.20.2022 Encore: The Age of Jackson \| A Nation Divided \| 7 The Age of Jackson was a time of intense change and tremendous growth in the United States. But it was not without controversy. In the years leading up to the Civil War, slavery and the rising abolitionist movement divided the ...

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