History

In this episode of The Empire: A 250 Year American Story, JB Shreve explores one of the most pivotal turning points in American history—the...

The Civil War in Missouri and Kansas looked very different from the great battles fought at Gettysburg, Antietam, or Shiloh. Here, the war was...

The Battle of Gettysburg sits at the hinge point of the American story—a moment when the nation’s identity, its moral compass, and even its...

George B. McClellan remains one of the most talented, controversial, and frustrating figures of the American Civil War. Gifted with remarkable organizational ability but...

Our podcast series plunges into the brutal transformation of the American Civil War as it shifted from romantic expectation to industrial‑scale devastation. By 1862,...

Before Ulysses S. Grant emerged as the Union's dominant commander, the Army of the Potomac and other Union armies were led by a cast...

Before Robert E. Lee came to symbolize the Confederate war effort, and even while he commanded the Army of Northern Virginia, a number of...

The latest episode of The Empire: A 250 Year American Story turns toward the human architecture of the Civil War—its generals, its illusions, and...

Few Americans have embodied courage, conviction, and unwavering faith like Sojourner Truth. Born into slavery and denied even the most basic human rights, she...

The latest installment of The Empire: A 250 Year American Story marks a turning point in the series, stepping into one of the most...

Few figures in American history embody the triumph of courage, intellect, and perseverance more completely than Frederick Douglass. Born into slavery around 1818 on...

When Abraham Lincoln entered the White House in March 1861, he inherited not only a nation on the brink of civil war but also...

Harriet Tubman was born into slavery around 1822 on Maryland's Eastern Shore, where she was given the name Araminta "Minty" Ross. From childhood, she...

Black Americans stand at the center of the American story long before the Civil War begins, shaping the nation’s identity, economy, and moral contradictions...

From the first arrival of enslaved Africans in Virginia in 1619 to the vast cotton plantations of the mid-nineteenth century, slavery in America underwent...

This episode steps away from the main political storyline of The Empire: A 250 Year American Story to examine the experiences of those who...

Before the Civil War, no commodity shaped the global economy more profoundly than American cotton. During the first half of the nineteenth century, cotton...

Before the Civil War, the United States experienced an explosion of religious experimentation unlike anything in its previous history. The same forces that fueled...

Christian dispensationalism is one of the most influential theological systems to emerge from the modern evangelical world. For millions of Christians, it provides the...

The early nineteenth century was a turning point in the American story—a moment when the nation’s identity, economy, and spiritual life were all being...

The Beecher family became one of the most influential families in nineteenth-century America, standing at the crossroads of revival religion, education, abolitionism, women’s rights,...

The Second Great Awakening was one of the most influential religious movements in American history. Sweeping across the United States between roughly 1790 and...

The story of the Trail of Tears is one of the most tragic chapters in American history. It was not simply the forced movement...

America’s westward surge in the first half of the nineteenth century wasn’t just a geographic story—it was the moment the young republic transformed its...

Few Americans have become as legendary as Daniel Boone. In popular imagination, Boone was the fearless woodsman wearing buckskin, carrying a long rifle, and...

Episode 20 of The Empire: A 250 Year American Story traces the moment when the young United States stepped out of its revolutionary shadow...

Few Native American leaders have inspired as much admiration as Tecumseh and his younger brother, Tenskwatawa, better known as the Prophet. Together, they led...

The election of 1800 didn’t unfold with muskets or barricades, yet it transformed the United States more profoundly than many events that did. This...

The United States emerged from the American Revolution united in victory but divided almost immediately over what that victory meant. The Constitution had settled...

The early American republic did not emerge fully formed from the Revolution—it had to be invented, argued over, and lived into by real people...

Alexander Hamilton rose from obscurity in the Caribbean to become one of the indispensable architects of the United States. As George Washington’s trusted aide...

America’s identity has always been wrapped in a tension between faith, history, and national myth. This episode steps back from the chronological march of...

The latest installment of The Empire: A 250 Year American Story traces the turbulent years when the young United States stood on the brink...

George Washington’s Farewell Address stands among the most influential political documents in American history. Published in September 1796 as he prepared to retire from...

The American Revolution may have ended on the battlefield, but the true test of the new nation began in the uneasy silence that followed....

  This post is part of our collection and series The Empire: A 250 Year American Story. Each week for the duration of 2026, new...

The latest episode of The Empire: A 250 Year American Story returns to the Revolutionary War at the moment the conflict shifts south—where the...

The American Revolution enters its most turbulent phase in this installment of The Empire: A 250 Year American Story. What begins as a northern...

The American Revolution is often remembered as a clean, heroic struggle—Minutemen at Lexington, Washington at Valley Forge, Paul Revere racing through the night. But...

The story of American independence is often remembered as a clean break—an inevitable march toward liberty guided by visionary founders. This episode peels back...

In this episode of The Empire: A 250‑Year American Story, JB Shreve traces the moment when Britain and its American colonies first realized they...

The newest episode of Empire: A 250 Year American Story steps into the threshold of the American Revolution—not through battles or declarations, but through...

This episode traces the southern arc of Britain’s North American colonies and the forces that quietly reshaped them long before independence was on anyone’s...

Bartolomé de las Casas stands as one of the most remarkable and morally complex figures of the early colonial era—a man who began his...

Francisco Vázquez de Coronado was born around 1510 in Salamanca, Spain, into a noble but not wealthy family. As a younger son, he would...

Hernando de Soto was born around 1496 in Jerez de los Caballeros, in the Extremadura region of southwestern Spain—a land of rugged hills, poor...

This episode continues the unfolding story of the original thirteen colonies, tracing how distinct communities—often separated by belief, ambition, and circumstance—took root along the...

Hernán Cortés de Monroy y Pizarro Altamirano was born in 1485 in Medellín, Spain, to a family of minor nobility. Though his lineage carried...

This episode of The Empire: A 250 Year American Story zooms in on the origins of the first English colonies, tracing how their distinct...

This episode traces the unlikely, often harrowing path that led a small band of English believers to the edge of a continent—and into the...