For the Ages: A History Podcast

Latest Episodes:

American Happiness and Discontents: The Unruly Torrent, 2008-2020 May 08, 2023

Show notes

For decades, Pulitzer Prize-winning author and journalist George F. Will has been regarded as one of this country’s leading columnists and public intellectuals. In an expansive conversation that encompasses American history, the Supreme Court, and beyond, Will shares his perspective on the political, social, and cultural trends that have shaped the national experience since 2008.
Recorded on October 6, 2021

Hanoi's War: An International History of the War for Peace in Vietnam May 01, 2023

Show notes

Half a century later, the contested history of the war in Vietnam continues to elicit national debate, deep soul-searching, and purported lessons for America's role overseas. In a conversation that visits new historical terrain of the Vietnam War past, award-winning historian and former war refugee Lien-Hang T. Nguyen draws on her personal and professional journey researching that war to offer new insights for its significance today.
Recorded on February 2, 2022

Our First Civil War: Patriots and Loyalists in the American Revolution Apr 24, 2023

Show notes

Long before the first battle of the American Revolution, the conflict between Loyalists and Patriots swept through all facets of American society, with colonists, Native Americans, and the enslaved all forced to choose a side. Would this constitute America’s first civil war, beginning before the Revolution had even been won? Pulitzer Prize finalist H.W. Brands examines this question and looks at the deep-seated divisions that made up the war before the war—between Loyalists and Patriots, families, friends, and neighbors.
Recorded on March 16, 2022

Silent Spring Revolution: American Presidents and the Great Environmental Awakening Apr 17, 2023

Show notes

The post-World War II economic boom came at a high cost: smog made breathing difficult in cities, the oceans were dying, wilderness vanished, and species went extinct at alarming rates. Acclaimed historian Douglas Brinkley chronicles how Rachel Carson’s 1962 book, Silent Spring, launched an eco-revolution and inspired the rise of environmental activism during the presidencies of John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, and Richard Nixon.
Recorded on November 22, 2022

The Year of Peril: America in 1942 Apr 10, 2023

Show notes

In the United States, World War II is often regarded as a time of unrivaled national unity and optimism, however in reality this traumatic period tested the American resolve in the most significant way since the Civil War. How did the nation rise to the occasion? Author and historian Tracy Campbell, in conversation with David M. Rubenstein, examines the critical year of 1942, when a series of setbacks and challenges in the war threatened to splinter the nation from within.
Recorded May 7, 2021

Cuba: An American History Apr 03, 2023

Show notes

Whether you are looking at proxy conflicts during the Cold War, the power of the Cuban-American voting bloc, or how Cuban-American relations are used as a cipher for a president’s foreign policy, the power of Cuba on American politics is undeniable. From the severing of diplomatic relations in 1961 to the hard-won normalization of Cuba-U.S. relations under the Obama administration and the subsequent chipping away of those normalizations under President Trump, Ada Ferrer unravels the complex intertwining of the U.S. and Cuba’s foreign policy and domestic affairs.
Recorded March 23, 2022

The Great War, a Violent Peace, and Democracy’s Forgotten Crisis: Part II Mar 27, 2023

Show notes

Adam Hochschild, author of American Midnight: The Great War, a Violent Peace, and Democracy's Forgotten Crisis, once again joins David M. Rubenstein to discuss the culture of violence, vigilantism, and censorship that permeated US government and society in the years during and immediately following World War I. In this conversation, they explore the grim economic conditions that followed the war, the wave of major municipal and labor union strikes, inflamed white violence toward Black workers, anti-immigrant sentiment, and the attempts at mass deportations following the Palmer Raids.
Recorded on February 17, 2023

The Great War, a Violent Peace, and Democracy's Forgotten Crisis: Part I Mar 20, 2023

Show notes

The US’s entrance into World War I marked the beginning of a period in American history characterized by lynching, aggressive union-busting, mass civilian arrests, and stringent government censorship of the press, all amidst the backdrop of the war, a pandemic, and the specter of the Russian Revolution. In this first of two discussions, Adam Hochschild, author of American Midnight: The Great War, a Violent Peace, and Democracy's Forgotten Crisis, illuminates the dark currents of this oft-overlooked historical moment, with a focus on the years immediately surrounding America’s entrance into the war.
Recorded on February 17, 2023

Ways and Means: How the Confederacy Financed the Civil War Mar 13, 2023

Show notes

Roger Lowenstein once again joins David M. Rubenstein to discuss the complex financial circumstances of the Civil War. In this episode, he explores the financial challenges faced by the Confederacy; looking at the resources they had available to them compared to the North, how they envisioned global trade impacting their cause, and how the desire to preserve the institution of slavery influenced both their military strategy and economic philosophy.
Recorded on February 10, 2023

Ways and Means: How the Union Financed the Civil War Mar 06, 2023

Show notes

For both the Union and the Confederacy, one of the most persistent battles of the Civil War was financing. To meet this challenge head-on both Lincoln and Jefferson Davis attempted a number of strategies to tackle the enormous financial demands of their armies, subsequent gold shortages, and an evolving diplomatic landscape abroad. In this first of two talks, David M. Rubenstein is joined by Roger Lowenstein to explore how the North sought to finance the Civil War.
Recorded on February 10, 2023