Moving Histories

Death By Lightning

John Trafton, Kim Nelson, and Robert Burgoyne Season 3 Episode 3

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0:00 | 54:44

History usually remembers the rock stars—Lincoln, Washington, the giants—but Death by Lightning shifts the camera toward the hustlers, dreamers, and delusional outsiders who actually move the machinery of history. In this episode, we explore how the series turns the assassination of James Garfield into a strange and revealing thought experiment about fame, failure, and the fragile human ecosystem behind American history.