Join me this week as I explore the vital but often overlooked role of Black women in the Reconstruction-era South. In the aftermath of the Civil War, Black women were central to rebuilding Black communities and creating the social foundation fo...

Join me as I sit down with Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer William Taubman to explore his latest work, McNamara at War: A New History. Authors Philip and William Taubman take readers behind the scenes of Robert S. McNamara’s career, ...

After the Civil War, education became one of the most powerful tools for newly freed Black Americans and one of the most fiercely contested. Join me as I explore the rise of Black education during Reconstruction, from grassroots schools built b...

How do you replace enslaved labor and rebuild an economy?In the aftermath of the Civil War, the Southern economy didn’t just have to recover; it had to reinvent itself. Join me as I explore how systems like sharecropping and the cotton l...

What can a miniature portrait painter teach us about fame, fortune, and forgotten women of the Gilded Age?In this episode I welcome historian and author Kathleen Langone to explore the fascinating life and career of Amalia Kussner — one ...