Ever since independence, a question has hovered over the government of the United States. How much power should the President have? Not too much, lest they become a monarch. But not too little, they are elected to do a job and that job must be done.

In this episode of American History Hit, Don is joined once again by Professor of Political Science, Graham G Dodds. Graham is author of 'The Unitary Presidency' and, together, he and Don discuss the power of the President.

Can they commit a crime? How has the unitary executive been used in domestic, and foreign, spaces? And where was this theory born - with the Constitution, Hamilton, Reagan or Bush?

Produced by Sophie Gee. Edited by Aidan Lonergan. Senior Producer was Charlotte Long.

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When fossils were discovered in the US during the 19th Century, it altered American understandings of science, religion, race and more. So what was the Hadrosaurus Foulkii, and why did it have such an enormous effect?

Caroline Winterer, William Robertson Coe Professor of History and American Studies at Stanford University, joins Don for this episode. Caroline's book on this topic is 'How the New World Became Old: The Deep Time Revolution in America'.

Produced by Sophie Gee. Edited by Nick Thomson. Senior Producer was Charlotte Long.

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Today we're delving into the archives and revisiting Don and Michael Kauffman's conversation on the Assassination of Abraham Lincoln...

On the evening of 14th April, 1865, the Union was celebrating victory in the civil war, won 5 days earlier with General Lee's surrender at Appomattox. President Abraham Lincoln was watching a play at Ford's Theatre in Washington DC. But some Southern sympathisers still thought the Confederacy could be restored. Among them was the actor John Wilkes Booth. He entered the theatre, made his way to Lincoln's box and carried out the first assassination of a US president. Michael Kauffman takes Don through the conspiracy to murder Lincoln and the act itself, after which Booth fled on horseback, into the night.

Produced by Benjie Guy. Mixed by Aidan Lonergan. Senior Producer: Charlotte Long.

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All music from Epidemic Sounds.

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Today we're delving into our back catalogue and revisiting the topic of the Boston Tea Party...

On December 16th 1773, Bostonian colonists took a stand against the British Crown in the Boston Tea Party.

In this episode, we dive deep into the events of that evening in Boston Harbor. Don is joined by Benjamin Carp, the Daniel M. Lyons Professor of American History at Brooklyn College. Who was involved? What signalled the start of the event? And was it really a non-violent protest?

Benjamin is the author of ‘Rebels Rising: Cities and the American Revolution’; ‘Defiance of the Patriots: The Boston Tea Party and the Making of America’; and ‘The Great New York Fire of 1776: A Lost Story of the American Revolution’

Produced and edited by Sophie Gee. Senior Producer was Charlotte Long.

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It's one of the most iconic symbols of early Americana; it conjures up images of bustling saloon bars and Mark Twain. But as glamorous as they may seem, there's a dark side the history of the Steamboats of the Mississippi River.

In this episode we welcome Professor of History at Colorado State University, Robert Gudmestad. His newest book is The Devil’s Own Purgatory: The United States Mississippi River Squadron in the Civil War.

Edited by Rich Power. Produced by Tom Delargy. Senior Producer is Freddy Chick.

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Reunion with the dead. The return of lands, food supplies and buffalo. The disappearance of white settlers.

By the end of the 19th Century, the forced assimilation of Native American people was official government policy and Native populations were already in severe decline. The promises of the Ghost Dance had a very story appeal.

Professor Gregory Smoak is with Don in this episode to explore the Ghost Dance. What was it? Where did it come from? Was it as dangerous as some suggested?

Gregory is Professor of History at University of Utah and author of ‘Ghost Dances and Identity: Prophetic Religion and American Indian Ethnogenesis in the Nineteenth Century’. His work with Indigenous Nations has included projects with the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes, Navajo Nation, Big Sandy Rancheria of Western Mono Indians, Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, and the Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation.

Edited by Aidan Lonergan. Produced by Sophie Gee. Senior Producer was Freddy Chick.

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All music from Epidemic Sounds.

American History Hit is a History Hit podcast.

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What would you do if you discovered that members of your family had spied for the Japanese at Pearl Harbor? When this happened to Christine Kuehn, she wanted to find out more.

Alongside her husband, former journalist Mark Schiponi, Christine has been researching her father's family's movements from Nazi Germany, to Hawaii, and into the hands of the FBI. They join Don for this episode to untangle this story.

Their book, 'Family of Spies: A World War II Story of Nazi Espionage, Betrayal, and the Secret History Behind Pearl Harbor' is out now.

Edited by Aidan Lonergan. Produced by Sophie Gee. Senior Producer was Freddy Chick.

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All music from Epidemic Sounds.

American History Hit is a History Hit podcast.

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How could walking naked through town be seen as religious? What about digging up a corpse? Or bursting into church services to cause mayhem?

In this episode, Dr Erica Canela takes Don back to the first years of Quakerism to explore where this religion came from, and how it ended up in the United States.

Erica is the author of Zealous: A Darker Side of the Early Quakers.

Edited by Aidan Lonergan. Produced by Sophie Gee. Senior Producer was Freddy Chick.

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For thousands of years, North America was a frozen frontier buried beneath miles-deep ice... How did the first people reach the Americas live here? What was it like to share the land with mammoths, mastodons, and sabre-toothed predators? And what triggered the dramatic warming that brought this icy epoch to a close?

Our guest today is Dr. David Meltzer, archaeologist and Professor at Southern Methodist University in Texas. He's the author of numerous works including First Peoples in a New World: Populating Ice Age America.

Edited by Aiden Lonergan. Produced by Tomos Delargy. Senior Producer is Freddy Chick.

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In the fall of 1621, a year after the pilgrim ship the Mayflower landed on the coast of New England, the settlers of the Plymouth Colony celebrated their first successful harvest. Joining them at the three day feast were the Wampanoag people, Native Americans who had to taught the settlers how to grow corn, ensuring the community would survive the coming winter. Richard Pickering tells Don about the difficulties faced by the pilgrims as they made their way from Europe and how the first Thanksgiving forged diplomatic relations with the Wampanoag people. Creating the foundations for the national holiday now celebrated every year in America.

Produced and mixed by Benjie Guy. Senior Producer: Charlotte Long.

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