For the Ages: A History Podcast

Spain’s involvement in early American history might feel limited, but Spanish people and their descendants have been involved in American military conflicts, both through direct fighting and the supply of weapons and...

By winter 1777, the Continental Army was exhausted, having barely escaped annihilation by the world’s most formidable fighting force. Two years into the war, King George, determined as ever to bring the rebellious...

For many Americans, Harriet Tubman can seem more like a character out of myth than a flesh-and-blood historical figure. Many know of Tubman’s escape from slavery and her brave work on the Underground Railroad, but...

<p>Mark Twain was America’s first literary celebrity, a master of his craft whose legacy hangs over our literary tradition. Twain’s words captured the nation’s imagination because the life he led touched on so many...

<p>Known as “America’s pastime,” baseball is much more than a game in the United States. Both a source of national pride and symbol of our identity, the sport is also a window into our past. Born out of alleys and...

<p>It’s been said that if you remember the ‘60s, you weren’t really there, but when Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Doris Kearns Goodwin and her late husband, Dick, started to go through his papers from his time as one...

<p>The argument over states’ rights versus a strong federal government is far from a new debate in this country. Before the divisions of today, two men represented contrasting visions of what America could be: Thomas...

<p>Born in wartime Shanghai and brought to the United States at age eleven with no knowledge of English, financier and philanthropist Oscar Tang reflects on a life shaped by displacement, ambition, and civic...

<p>From his childhood in Venezuela’s famed El Sistema music education program to his rise as one of the world’s leading conductors, Gustavo Dudamel reflects on the experiences that shaped his musical life. In...

<p>At the beginning of 1776, virtually no one in the colonies was advocating independence. What changed over the course of one year? From Thomas Paine’s Common Sense in January to the Continental Congress that first...

<p>Secretary of defense and friend and ally to two presidents, Robert S. McNamara was one of the most controversial men in American history for his role in the Vietnam War. Beyond his time at Harvard Law, his service...

<p>The American Revolution was three wars rolled into one: a fight for independence, a civil conflict, and a struggle between nations. In this conversation with David M. Rubenstein, bestselling author Geoffrey Ward...

<p>The teenagers who made up the US Naval Academy class of 1940 arrived in Annapolis as boys on the eve of Hitler’s aggression and graduated as Europe collapsed, only to find themselves thrust into every major front of...

<p>History may be written by the victors, but it is illustrated by its painters, and perhaps few so famously or evocatively as John Trumbull—American Revolution army officer, spy, artist. In this conversation with David...

<p>Covering 2.2 million acres, Yellowstone National Park is a geographic behemoth and, as the birthplace of America’s national park system, a cultural giant as well. But since its official establishment in 1872, the...