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The Last Best Hope? — History
The Last Best Hope?

Abraham Lincoln called the United States “the last best hope of Earth.” In this podcast, we ask whether that claim still holds — and whether it ever did.

Each episode takes a figure, idea, or moment in American political history and asks what it tells us about the country’s understanding of itself, always with an eye to how America looks from the outside in. The Last Best Hope? takes ideas seriously: America as a creed, the arguments of the people who built and remade it, and what America has meant to the rest of the world. We take our subjects from history, not the news — though the present is rarely far away.

Hosted by Adam Smith, Orsborn Professor of American Political History and Director of the Rothermere American Institute at Oxford, The Last Best Hope? brings him into conversation with leading scholars and public figures, including Hillary Clinton, Annette Gordon-Reed, Eric Foner, David Frum, Heather Cox Richardson, Stacy Schiff, Jonathan Freedland, James Morone, Michael Kazin, Kevin Kruse, Julian Zelizer, Bruce Schulman, Ty Seidule, Liz Varon, Eric Rauchway, Phil Tinline, Emily Bazelon, Richard Carwardine, Rachel Shelden, Richard Blackett, Devin Fergus, and Dan Jackson.

“Adam Smith is one of the UK’s foremost historians of America, and communicates his expertise with zest, wit and unforced passion. The Last Best Hope? brings him together with fellow scholars to provide a unique insight we can’t do without.” — Phil Tinline, BBC radio documentary-maker and author

“The Last Best Hope is an absolutely brilliant podcast. Thoughtful, clever, engaging and accessible, Adam Smith always gets the best out of his guests, and I’ve learned an enormous amount from every episode. I love it.” — Dominic Sandbrook, historian and co-host of The Rest is History

“The must-listen US podcast.” — Nick Bryant, former BBC Correspondent in New York

Produced by the Rothermere American Institute, University of Oxford. https://www.rai.ox.ac.uk/home

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Copyright: © 2022 The Last Best Hope?: Understanding America from the Outside In

Latest Episodes:

How have presidential primaries shaped modern US politics? Feb 21, 2024

Show notes

Presidential primaries – the circus that has traditionally wended its way from Iowa to New Hampshire and beyond every four years -- is one of the most distinctive features of American political life. From the insurgent campaigns of Jimmy Carter in 1976 to Barack Obama in 2008 and even Donald Trump in 2016, primaries have enabled the rise of politicians who could never have succeeded under the old boss-controlled system. US political parties are private organisations albeit without the formal membership of parties in other countries, yet their candidate nomination process is regulated by state law. So, how, why, and when did US political parties come to choose their presidential candidates in this way? How have primaries shaped elections and the trajectory of politics? And in a year in which both parties appear set to nominate unpopular candidates, does this reflect the failure of this system for presidential candidate selection? Adam talks about these issues with the leading historian of modern US politics, Professor Julian Zelizer of Princeton University, a CNN contributor and author or editor of fifteen books on political history.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How are Latino voters changing America? Feb 07, 2024

Show notes

Today, Mexicans and people from Latin America make up about half of the total immigrant population and Latinos are now the single largest “non-white” block in the electorate – if, that is, they can be considered a coherent “block” at all. In the early years of the twenty-first century one of the axioms of American politics was that the ever-rising share of Latinos in the electorate would deliver Democratic majorities. That’s not exactly how things have panned out. So, who are we really talking about when we talk about Latino voters, what binds these 60 million people who are from, such different experience and such different histories together? How has their vote mattered in the past and how does it matter now? Joining Adam to discuss these issues are Jason Casellas of the University of Houston, currently Winant Professor of American government at Oxford, and Anna Sampaio, Santa Clara University.

The Last Best Hope? is the podcast of the Rothermere American Insitute at the University of Oxford. Presenter: Adam Smith. Producer: Emily Williams.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

American Fascism Jan 24, 2024

Show notes

In 1930s America, fascism was on the march – not just right-wing politicians who might be pejoratively described like that, but actual fascists who embraced the title. And the core claim they made was that fascism was as American as motherhood, apple pie, and George Washington himself. Yet the US eventually entered the war against Naziism because fascism and Americanism were antithetical. To explore the fraught relationship and enduring appeal of fascist ideas in America, Adam talks to Sarah Churchwell, author of Behold America: A History of America First, and Will Hitchcock, host of the Democracy in Danger podcast who’s working on a book on the fascist threat and America’s path to World War II.

The Last Best Hope? is the podcast of the Rothermere American Insitute at the University of Oxford. Presenter: Adam Smith. Producer: Emily Williams.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Last Best Hope? Season 11 Trailer Jan 22, 2024

Show notes

The first episode of Series 11 of The Last Best Hope drops on Wednesday January 24. We discuss the history and appeal of Fascism in the United States, the power of Latino voters, the history of presidential primaries and the strange death and rebirth of American cricket.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Destruction of the Tea, 250 Years On. Nov 29, 2023

Show notes

Two hundred and Fifty years ago, a group of men boarded three ships in Boston harbour and dumped their cargo of East Indian Company tea overboard. It was a dramatic defiance of the royal government in Massachusetts and of ministers in London who had levied a duty on the tea. Within eighteen months, the revolt against taxes imposed by a distant and unresponsive government had spiralled into armed rebellion. What is the long-term legacy for American political culture of this mass destruction of private property? Joining Adam to discuss the events originally known as "the destruction of the tea" and later re-named the "Tea Party", are acclaimed historian Benjamin Carp and Pulitzer Prize winner Stacy Schiff.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Kennedy Assassination and Conspiracy Culture Nov 15, 2023

Show notes

Sixty years ago, President John F. Kennedy was shot and killed in Dallas, Texas. It was quickly mythologised as an end-of-innocence moment, the death of "Camelot". It is natural to believe that big events must have big causes. Could such a shattering, shocking event really have been triggered--figuratively as well as literally--by one troubled man? The historians Phil Tinline and Steve Gillon join Adam to discuss how the assassination spawned the mother of all conspiracy theories and what that tells us about America.

The Last Best Hope? is the podcast of the Rothermere American Insitute at the University of Oxford. Presenter: Adam Smith. Producer: Emily Williams.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What is a “Colorblind Constitution"? Nov 01, 2023

Show notes

You cannot begin to understand US politics without encountering the 14th Amendment, ratified in 1868 in the wake of the Civil War. On the surface, the Amendment seems straightforward: it guarantees the equal rights of citizens. But does that mean that race cannot be taken into account even in order to help ensure equality? In his concurring opinion in the affirmative action cases this year, Justice Clarence Thomas argued that the framers of the 14th Amendment intended to create a “colorblind” constitution. Any policy that took race into account – even if well-intentioned – was therefore unconstitutional. In her dissenting opinion, Justice Jackson took a very different view, arguing that the 14th Amendment justified programmes that gave Black people the leg up they needed to be truly equal. As so often in America, an argument about current politics is also an argument about history. Adam is joined by Professor Liz Varon, this year’s Harmsworth Visiting Professor at Oxford, and Emily Bazelon, staff writer for the New York Times Magazine and co-host of the Slate Political Gabfest.

The Last Best Hope? is the podcast of the Rothermere American Insitute at the University of Oxford. Presenter: Adam Smith. Producer: Emily Williams.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Is there a Paranoid Style in American Politics? Oct 18, 2023

Show notes

In 1963, the historian Richard Hofstadter gave a famous lecture at Oxford (later an essay in Harper’s) arguing that a “paranoid style” was a recurrent strain in American politics. Hofstadter cited examples ranging from the Anti-Masons of the 1830s to MCarthyism. Today, pundits often turn to the concept of a “paranoid style” when trying to explain Trumpism. Why has Hofstadter’s idea been so influential? And does it really explain anything at all? Adam discusses these questions with Nick Witham, the author of Popularizing the Past, a brilliant new study of Cold War-era historians who shaped an understanding of American history far beyond the groves of academia.

The Last Best Hope? is the podcast of the Rothermere American Institute, University of Oxford. Presenter: Adam Smith. Producer: Emily Williams.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Last Best Hope? Season 10 Oct 16, 2023

Show notes

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Geordie South: How Northumbrians shaped Appalachia Jun 09, 2023

Show notes

Half a million Northumbrians, the proud people of the English-Scottish border region, settled in the Appalachian mountains in the eighteenth century. And they left their mark in the song, speech and maybe even politics. Geordie culture: the often overlooked element in the forging of the American South. Adam talks to Dan Jackson, author of The Northumbrians: Northeast England and its People, and Ted Olson, Professor of Appalachian Studies at East Tennessee State University.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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