American History Hit

Clarence Lang, a Penn State dean and historian of African American politics, breaks down the making of Malcolm X. He traces family trauma, prison transformation, and the rise through the Nation of Islam. Discussion covers the split from Elijah Muhammad, the pilgrimage that reshaped his views, and how his ideas influenced Black Power and later movements.

Justene Hill Edwards, historian at the University of Virginia and author of Savings and Trust, explores the origins and expansion of Atlantic slavery. She traces early Portuguese contacts and the transatlantic trade. The conversation covers legal racialization, plantation systems, the Middle Passage, regional differences, resistance, and how slavery became embedded in finance and American institutions.

Dr. Tracey Hanshue, assistant professor of history and specialist in cowgirls and rodeo culture, explores rodeo's Spanish vaquero roots and rise from ranch work to spectacle. She traces Wild West shows, 1920s standardization, racial segregation and separate circuits, and the evolving role of women and modern media-driven revival.

Brian VanDeMark, historian and former Naval Academy professor who wrote Kent State: An American Tragedy, guides the conversation. He traces 1970 campus unrest, Nixon’s Cambodia decision, and why Kent State became a flashpoint. He examines local politics, National Guard deployment, training failures, the chaotic confrontation on Blanket Hill, and the national fallout that followed.

Christopher Nichols, historian and national security scholar at Ohio State, explores how an 1823 presidential proclamation transformed into a long-running justification for U.S. hemispheric influence. He traces revolutions in Latin America, diplomatic debates in 1823, later expansionist turns, the Roosevelt Corollary, Cold War interventions, and modern invocations of the doctrine.

John E. Moser, historian of economic crises and author of The Global Great Depression, guides listeners through the Great Depression’s origins and fallout. He explores liquidity collapses, bank failures, policy failures of the 1920s, Hoover-era limits, FDR’s radio strategy, rural hardship and migration, and how global politics and the New Deal reshaped American government.

The Civil War along the Mississippi was reaching a critical moment by the Summer of 1862. The Union had advanced and planted its flag in Louisiana’s state capital without firing a shot. To many observers, Confederate grip seemed to be slipping away for good. But before that was for certain, one desperate gamble remained...Today, we’re telling the story of the lesser known Battle of Baton Rouge: why it happened, how it unfolded, and the accounts of those who witnessed it. On today's show, Don welcomes Prof. Aaron Sheehan-Dean of Louisiana State University back onto the show. His works include ‘Why Confederates Fought: Family and a Nation in Civil War Virginia’ and most recently ‘Fighting with the Past: How Seventeenth Century History Shaped the American Civil War’.Edited by Aidan Lonergan. Produced by Tom Delargy. Senior Producer is Freddy Chick.Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.  All music from Epidemic Sounds.American History Hit is a History Hit podcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Aaron Sheehan-Dean, Fred C. Frey Professor of Southern Studies and Civil War historian, explores the origins of the 'brother against brother' idea. He traces Biblical framing, border-state mixed loyalties, famous families split by choices, and how reunion stories and Lost Cause narratives reshaped memory. Short, sharp stories illuminate how war divided households and politics.

Noah Dolim, Assistant Professor of History at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, specializes in 19th-century Hawaiʻi. He traces the overthrow of the Hawaiian kingdom, the role of U.S. military and businessmen, and the delayed path to annexation. Short segments cover land privatization, sugar and strategic interests, cultural suppression, and ongoing sovereignty and community priorities.

Who was the worst American army general of all time? We round off our month of military history by looking at the leaders who standout for all the wrong reasons. Don's guest is the wonderful Cecily Zander author of the upcoming 'Abraham Lincoln and the American West', and 'The Army Under Fire: Antimilitarism in the Civil War Era'. Edited by Aidan Lonergan, produced by Sophie Gee. Senior Producer was Freddy Chick.Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.  All music from Epidemic Sounds.American History Hit is a History Hit podcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.