HISTORY This Week

Malcolm Gladwell and President Barack Obama introduce us to one of the most chaotic,
complicated, and fascinating times in American history, revealing why Reconstruction still
defines our country today.
Listen to Reconstruction: The Unfinished Promise on Audible, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Reconstruction begins where, for most Americans, the story of the Civil War ends: The North is
victorious and slavery is abolished. But what happened next was one of the most important
decades in American history, a moment when our country grappled with its original sin and
imagined — and briefly enacted — a more perfect union.
Drawing from archives, letters, diaries, court records, eyewitness testimonies and some of
America’s most accomplished scholars and storytellers, Reconstruction: The Unfinished Promise
explores this unprecedented historical moment in rich, kaleidoscopic detail. The series unpacks a
time when a determined band of reformers attempted to radically reimagine American society —
from the Constitution to the roots of its economy to the very nature of citizenship itself.
Reconstruction was a time when Americans struggled over fundamental questions about our
country. Who gets to be a citizen? Who has the right to vote? Who can own property? In short,
who belongs? Reconstruction: The Unfinished Promise explores what America might have
looked like if Reconstruction had truly succeeded, and how the ultimate backlash to
Reconstruction prevented our country from becoming a truly multiracial democracy.
Guiding us through this extraordinary moment in American history is best-selling author and
host of Revisionist History Malcolm Gladwell. He’ll have help from luminaries, historians, and
storytellers such as President Barack Obama, Jelani Cobb, Wyatt Cenac, David Blight, Kai
Wright, Kellie Carter Jackson, Ashley C. Ford, Manisha Sinha, Kidada Williams, and Eric Foner.
This is a series about why America has yet to make good on the promise of Reconstruction, and
how it still might.
An Audible Original in partnership with History Channel. Produced by Higher Ground and
Pushkin Industries.

June 15, 1865. German-American statesman Carl Schurz is traveling to Washington to meet with President Andrew Johnson when he stops at a friend’s home in Philadelphia. That night, during a séance, a teenage medium claims to summon the spirit of Abraham Lincoln… and delivers Schurz a mysterious command from beyond the grave.
Soon, Johnson sends Schurz on a fact-finding mission through the defeated South. What he discovers will help shape the course of Reconstruction and expose the violence threatening America’s fragile new democracy.
Today, Sally speaks with bestselling author and podcaster Malcolm Gladwell about Reconstruction’s forgotten history, the battle over how it has been remembered, and why the questions it raised remain unfinished today.
Listen to Reconstruction: The Unfinished Promise now on Audible, or anywhere you get your podcasts, starting June 18th. Link: https://lnk.to/reconstructionHW
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June 8, 1191. The Crusaders and Muslim forces are locked in battle over the city of Acre. On one side is Saladin, the great Muslim leader who has already recaptured Jerusalem. On the other, an armada arrives carrying England’s king: Richard the Lionheart.
The Crusades will become one of the defining conflicts of the Middle Ages. But for centuries, their history fades into legend… until a Scottish writer named Walter Scott brings them roaring back. His novels turn knights, tournaments, and holy war into blockbuster entertainment. But Scott’s message was more complicated than simple nostalgia: he saw the Crusades as reckless, violent, and hollow. His readers mostly saw the armor.
How did a Scottish poet revive this religious war and turn it into an international phenomenon? And how did his underlying message get lost, warped, and then repurposed to justify even more violence?
Special thanks to Ian Duncan,  professor of English at the University of California, Berkeley, and author of Scott's Shadow: The Novel in Romantic Edinburgh.

You can find the rest of the books we used to research this episode at historythisweekpodcast.com.
Get in touch: historythisweek@history.com
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June 6, 1944. As thousands of Allied soldiers prepare to storm the beaches of Normandy, they climb down rope nets into small wooden landing craft bobbing in the dark waters of the English Channel. Within hours, these boats will carry them into the largest amphibious invasion in history.
The craft are known as Higgins boats, named for their inventor, Andrew Higgins: a hard-driving New Orleans boatbuilder who built his reputation designing vessels that could speed through swamps, crash through obstacles, and go places other boats couldn't. Higgins was stubborn, abrasive, and relentless. The Navy repeatedly dismissed his ideas. He refused to go away.
How does a small-time New Orleans boatbuilder force his way into the military industrial complex? And what exactly is so special about these boxy little Higgins boats?
Special thanks to Dr. John Curatola, Samuel Zemurray Stone Senior Historian at the National WWII Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana. His book is Armies Afloat: How the Development of Amphibious Operations in Europe Helped Win World War II.
You can find the rest of the books we used to research this episode at historythisweekpodcast.com.

Check out new episodes of History's Greatest Machines with Dolph Lundgren on the HISTORY Channel, premiering on June 1st. Stream the next day at History.com.
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Search "World War II with Tom Hanks" wherever you get your podcasts! New episodes drop every Tuesday.

World War II with Tom Hanks reexamines history’s most devastating conflict for a new century. Across twenty hours, the series traces the war’s full arc–from the rise of fascism to Hiroshima–uncovering the decisions, hidden networks, and lasting consequences that continue to shape our world.

Episode 1 – The Beginning

In September 1939, enabled by a secret pact between Adolf Hitler and Josef Stalin, Germany invades Poland with its lightning style of tank warfare, plunging Europe back into war. Adolf Hitler can now pursue his longed-for racial war, as the world watches in horror, and the stage is set for global conflict.

This episode features interviews with (in order of appearance):

Dan Carlin, podcaster, Hardcore History

Alexandra Richie, professor, Collegium Civitas

Robert Citino, senior historian, National WWII Museum

Cameron Zinsou, associate professor, Command and General Staff College

Geoffrey Wawro, professor, University of North Texas

Jadwiga Biskupska, associate professor, Sam Houston State University

Simon Sebag Montefiore, historian and author

Roger Moorhouse, historian and author

Leah Wright Rigueur, associate professor, Johns Hopkins University

James Bulgin, Imperial War Museum

General Wesley Clark, US Army, Ret.

Sean McMeekin, professor, Bard College