It's the biggest 'What if?' in American history: What if Lincoln hadn't been shot? The assassination could so easily have failed and things went so wrong in the aftermath (looking at you Andrew Johnson). Could Reconstruction have looked different with Abraham Lincoln at the helm?

Don's guest is friend of the pod Aaron Sheehan-Dean, professor of history at Louisiana State University.

Edited by Tim Arstall, produced by Freddy Chick. The Senior Producer was Charlotte Long.

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All music from Epidemic Sounds.

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