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.

4.7

12,843 ratings

Download our free app to listen on your phone

LAST EPISODE

Great American Authors | Lo...

11.29.2023

In 1840, eight-year-old Louisa May Alcott moved to the small town of Concord, Massachusetts with her family. There, she spent her days wandering through the woods, putting on plays with her sisters, and learning from famed writers and philosophers such ...

American History Tellers episodes:

11.29.2023 Great American Authors \| Louisa May Alcott: The Breadwinner \| 2 In 1840, eight-year-old Louisa May Alcott moved to the small town of Concord, Massachusetts with her family. There, she spent her days wandering through the woods, putting on plays with her sisters, and learning from famed writers and philosophers such ...
11.27.2023 Listen Now: 'Tis The Grinch Holiday Talk Show Cuddly as a cactus and charming as an eel, he’s your new favorite snarky talk show host. Join The Grinch (and his faithful dog Max) each week as he rants against Christmas cheer and roasts celebrity guests like chestnuts on ...
11.22.2023 Great American Authors \| Edgar Allan Poe: Master of Macabre \| 1 In February 1826, 17-year-old Edgar Allan Poe was a promising student at the University of Virginia. But within a few months, gambling debts forced him to abandon his studies. It was just one of many setbacks Poe endured in a ...
11.20.2023 History Daily: Fire at Windsor Castle November 20, 1992. After a year of bad press for Britain's royals, Windsor castle catches fire, raising questions about the cost and future of the British monarchy. You can listen ad-free in the Wondery or Amazon Music app. Or for ...
11.16.2023 Listen Now: Over the Top with Beadle and Rosenberg Get ready for a quick hitting, last topic standing battle of badass sports and pop culture takes. Sports heavyweights Michelle Beadle and Peter Rosenberg pit the biggest, wildest, and most hyped sports and pop culture stories against each other in ...
11.15.2023 1906 San Francisco Earthquake \| Out of the Ruins \| 4 After the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire reduced the city to rubble and ash, reporters fanned out across the burning landscape. The San Francisco Chronicle, along with several other papers,] continued to publish amidst the chaos. Today, Lindsay is ...
11.08.2023 1906 San Francisco Earthquake \| The Last Stand \| 3 In the wake of a devastating earthquake that rocked the city of San Francisco, thousands of people were left homeless. The military set up temporary camps in western parts of the city to house the destitute, as far as possible ...
11.01.2023 1906 San Francisco Earthquake \| The Sky Burned \| 2 Less than 24 hours after a devastating earthquake struck San Francisco, fires were raging across the city. Firefighters watched helplessly as the flames devoured homes and businesses, unable to draw water from cracked cisterns and empty hydrants. Mayor Eugene Schmitz ...
10.31.2023 Listen Now: Ghost Story Tristan Redman is a journalist who doesn’t believe in ghosts. But weird things happened in his teenage bedroom – weirder than normal. When, years later, he discovers subsequent occupants of his family home were haunted by the ghost of a ...
10.25.2023 1906 San Francisco Earthquake \| The Earth Shook \| 1 In the early morning hours of April 18th, 1906, residents of San Francisco were awakened by the violent shaking of a massive earthquake. People on the streets watched in horror as entire city blocks were reduced to rubble. Those who ...
10.18.2023 Salem Witch Trials \| A Descendant Remembers \| 5 In the midst of the public hysteria surrounding the Salem Witch Trials, a respected Puritan woman named Rebecca Nurse was accused of using witchcraft to “afflict” girls in Salem. Despite her status as a pious church member, Nurse became one ...
10.16.2023 History Daily: The Unearthing of the Cardiff Giant October 16, 1869. An American trickster masterminds the discovery of a mysterious petrified giant in upstate New York. You can listen ad-free in the Wondery or Amazon Music app. Or for all that and more, go to IntoHistory.com History Daily ...
10.11.2023 Salem Witch Trials \| A Great Delusion \| 4 By September 1692, the witch panic in Salem, Massachusetts had sent 11 women and men to the gallows. Dozens more languished in jail awaiting trial.But that fall, growing public doubt began to cast a shadow over the proceedings. Several elite ...
10.04.2023 Salem Witch Trials \| Specter of Injustice \| 3 In May 1692, William Phips, the new royal governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, sailed into Boston Harbor and was immediately faced with an unprecedented crisis. The colony was in the throes of a full-blown witchcraft panic. Dozens of accused ...
09.27.2023 Salem Witch Trials \| The Devil Against Us \| 2 By the first week of March 1692, three Salem women had been jailed for witchcraft, and accusations continued to spread. Authorities publicly questioned people suspected of witchcraft, turning legal proceedings into dramatic spectacles. Witnesses cried out in pain, stamped their ...
09.20.2023 Salem Witch Trials \| An Evil Hand \| 1 In January 1692, two young girls in Salem Village, Massachusetts began behaving strangely. They screamed, barked like dogs, and writhed on the floor. A doctor concluded that the girls had been bewitched. Under pressure from their elders, including Reverend Samuel ...
09.13.2023 Encore: The WWII Home Front \| United We Win \| 2 As the nation’s factories and shipyards ramped up production for the war, the demand for labor exploded. Millions of women and minorities entered the workforce for the first time, finding a path to prosperity and opportunity. But as Americans joined ...
09.06.2023 Encore: The WWII Home Front \| Arsenal of Democracy \| 1 On December 7, 1941, hundreds of Japanese warplanes rained death and destruction down on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor—shocking the nation and drawing it into World War II. The U.S. had been ravaged by the Great Depression. Mobilizing ...
08.30.2023 Encore: Supreme Court Landmarks \| Jane Roe \| 7 In 1970, a 22-year-old woman in Texas named Norma McCorvey tried and failed to get an abortion from her doctor. Abortion was illegal in Texas, just as it was in most states. Women hoping to terminate their pregnancies had few ...
08.23.2023 Encore: Supreme Court Landmarks \| A Recount in Florida \| 6 The morning of Nov. 8, 2000, Americans woke up to an undecided election. Pollsters had predicted a close race between Vice President Al Gore and Texas Governor George W. Bush, but no one knew just how narrow the margins would ...
08.16.2023 Encore: Supreme Court Landmarks \| The Warren Court \| 5 Before the 1950s, the Supreme Court was best known as an institution that adhered to the status quo. It often sought to protect the rights of property owners and businessmen, shying away from cases that took direct aim at controversial ...
08.09.2023 Encore: Supreme Court Landmarks \| Loaded Weapon \| 4 Through most of 1941, as fighting raged across Europe, the United States held back from entering the war. That all changed in December, when Japanese fighter planes bombed Pearl Harbor and the nation found itself mobilizing for World War II. ...
08.02.2023 Encore: Supreme Court Landmarks \| Separate and Unequal \| 3 After the Civil War, America began to rebuild a shattered nation. For the first time, the country could create a society without slavery, and a nation where Black people could forge their own path as independent citizens. But by the ...
07.26.2023 Encore: Supreme Court Landmarks \| The Cherokee Cases \| 2 In the early 1800s, the United States was growing rapidly, seeking land and resources for its expanding population. But the growth threatened Native American communities throughout the East. In the southern Appalachia region, the Cherokee Nation held millions of acres ...
07.19.2023 Encore: Supreme Court Landmarks \| The Predicament of John Marshall \| 1 After the War of Independence, the new American government created the Supreme Court to be the final word on disputes that the states couldn’t settle. But at first, the Court was anything but Supreme. For nearly a decade, Congress and ...
07.12.2023 Reconstruction Era \| Counter Narratives \| 7 After Federal troops withdrew from the South in 1877, Reconstruction officially came to an end, and the battle to control the narrative began. For the next century, white Southerners espoused the Lost Cause mythology, shifting the blame for the failure ...
07.05.2023 Reconstruction Era \| The Great Betrayal \| 6 In 1876, Republican Rutherford B. Hayes and Democrat Samuel Tilden vied for the presidency. But when Election Day was over, no clear winner emerged. Amid reports of voter fraud, intimidation and violence, both parties claimed victory in South Carolina, Louisiana, ...
06.28.2023 Reconstruction Era \| The Panic \| 5 On Easter Sunday, 1873, an armed white mob battled a Black militia over control of a courthouse in a rural Louisiana parish. In the end, as many as 150 Black citizens were massacred. It was one the deadliest incidents of ...
06.21.2023 Reconstruction Era \| The Bloody Chasm \| 4 In 1870, the ratification of the 15th Amendment enshrined Black men’s right to vote in the Constitution. Senator Hiram Revels became the first Black man to serve in Congress. Across the South, Black men were elected to office in unprecedented ...
06.14.2023 Reconstruction Era \| Impeachment \| 3 In the spring of 1867, over President Andrew Johnson’s veto, the Republican-controlled Congress passed the Reconstruction Acts, putting the U.S. Army in control of the South and giving Black Southerners expanded political rights. For the first time they organized and ...
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 ...
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 ...
05.10.2023 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 ...

Older episodes