American History Hit

What made the Aztecs one of the most sophisticated empires of their age? How widespread was human sacrifice? And what brought about their fall from power?

Our guest today is Dr. Camilla Townsend, author of Fifth Sun: A New History of the Aztecs, to talk us through the rise of the Aztec Empire and the 16th century Spanish conquest.

Produced by Tomos Delargy. Edited by Tim Arstall. Senior Producer was Freddy Chick.

Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.

You can take part in our listener surveyhere.

All music from Epidemic Sounds.

American History Hit is a History Hit podcast.

History Hit is part of Little Dot Studios, a Certified B Corp™

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

Have you ever heard of the Jersey Devil? A creature with bat-like wings, horse's hooves and hellish horns that stalks the New Jersey Pine Barrens, terrorising humans and killing livestock.

According to legend, one cold New Jersey night in 1735, a woman in labour with her 13th child cried out, "Let this one be a devil!" If you believe the stories, she got her wish, and over the next two and a half centuries the Jersey Devil was sighted by some of history's most unlikely players, from Napoleon Bonaparte's brother to a distinguished Navy officer.

But what is the Jersey Devil really? Where did it come from? What can we learn from the continued popularity of the Jersey Devil today? And did Don ever catch a glimpse of it while camping in the Pine Barrens as a boy?!

Our guest today is Dr Lynne McNeill, Associate Professor of Folklore Studies in the Department of History, Culture & Ideas at Utah State University to bring the Jersey Devil to life like never before.

Produced by Tim Arstall & Sophie Gee. Edited by Aidan Lonergan. The Senior Producer is Freddy Chick.

Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.

You can take part in our listener surveyhere.

All music from Epidemic Sounds.

American History Hit is a History Hit podcast.

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

It all started with two young girls and three accused women. It ended with more than 200 accused, 20 executed and the name Salem forever connected with another word: witch.

Don is joined by Professor Mikki Brock from Washington and Lee University to find out what really happened in Salem Village in the late 17th century.

Produced by Sophie Gee. Edited by Aliza Dams. Senior Producer was Charlotte Long.

Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.

You can take part in our listener surveyhere.

All music from Epidemic Sounds.

American History Hit is a History Hit podcast.

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

In November 1969 a group of Native American activists, protesting against centuries of forced relocation, broken treaties and the erosion of tribal sovereignty, launched a daring operation to take over the old prison on the Island of Alcatraz. Over the following nineteen month, it would become one of the most remarkable acts of protest in American history... but who were the figures that led this movement? And what did it achieve?

Our guest today is Kent Blansett, Professor of Indigenous Studies and US History at the University of Kansas. He is the author of ‘A Journey to Freedom: Richard Oakes, Alcatraz, and the Red Power Movement’.

Produced by Tomos Delargy. Edited by Aliza Dams. Senior Producer is Freddy Chick.

Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.

You can take part in our listener surveyhere.

All music from Epidemic Sounds.

American History Hit is a History Hit podcast.

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

We're rerunning a classic episodes today from a mini-series we did all about Alexander Hamilton. Who really was he, and what do we actually know about his life?

A Founding Father, he fought in the Revolutionary War, founded the American financial system and was the first ever Secretary of the Treasury. But who really was Hamilton? How did his face come to be on our bank notes? Did he love his wife? And why would he go to duel even after his son had died in doing so? Don Wildman is talking to William Hogeland to find out. William is the author of 'The Hamilton Scheme: An Epic Tale of Money and Power in the American Founding' and his substack can be found here.

This was the first of a 4 part series on American History Hit, you can find the rest by going back to April 2024.

Produced by Sophie Gee. Edited by Aidan Lonergan. Senior Producer was Charlotte Long.

Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.

You can take part in our listener surveyhere.

All music from Epidemic Sounds.

American History Hit is a History Hit podcast.

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

On April 22, 1976 a bomb went off at Suffolk County Courthouse in Boston. 22 people were injured in the blast, but no one was ever tried for the crime.

Kevin Galvin joins Don today to explore who bombed the courthouse, why they did it, and who was caught up in it.

Kevin has been a correspondent for the Associated Press, a feature writer for The Seattle Times, and deputy national editor of the Boston Globe. His book is 'Troubled Times: The Boston Courthouse Bombing of 1976'.

Produced by Sophie Gee. Edited by Aidan Lonergan. Senior Producer was Charlotte Long.

Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.

You can take part in our listener surveyhere.

All music from Epidemic Sounds.

American History Hit is a History Hit podcast.

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

In 1848, James Marshall's discovery of gold in California's American River kicked off one of the biggest Gold Rushes in U.S. history. But what was life really like in California's Gold Fields? Who was actually making money? And how did gold fever shape a nation?

Our guest today is Stephen Aron, Calvin and Marilyn Gross Director and President and CEO of the Autry Museum of the American West. Stephen is Professor of History, Emeritus at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Produced by Hannah Feodorov. Edited by Tim Arstall. Senior Producer was Freddy Chick.

Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.

You can take part in our listener surveyhere.

All music from Epidemic Sounds.

American History Hit is a History Hit podcast.

History Hit is part of Little Dot Studios, a Certified B Corp™

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

Did you know that almost 40% of the land that is now Canada was once owned by a single commercial company?

The Hudson's Bay Company surrendered this area for the sum of £300,000 in 1869. But how did they come to control it? What was life like for fur traders in North America? And what was the Pemmican War?

Don is joined today by Stephen R. Bown, author of ‘The Company: The Rise and Fall of the Hudson’s Bay Empire’.

Produced by Sophie Gee. Edited by Aliza Dams. Senior Producer was Freddy Chick.

Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.

You can take part in our listener surveyhere.

All music from Epidemic Sounds.

American History Hit is a History Hit podcast.

History Hit is part of Little Dot Studios, a Certified B Corp™

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

After suffering defeat after defeat, George Washington’s battered army was forced to retreat into the forests of rural Pennsylvania, where they set up camp to wait out the winter. The encampment at Valley Forge would be their home for the next six months, during which thousands would endure freezing temperatures, hunger and disease...

Our guest today is Prof. Rick Herrera, Senior Historian at the U.S. Army War College. He is the author of the award-winning 'Feeding Washington’s Army: Surviving the Valley Forge Winter of 1778' and 'For Liberty and the Republic: The American Citizen as Soldier, 1775-1861.'

Produced by Tomos Delargy. Edited by Aliza Dams. Senior Producer is Freddy Chick.

Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.

You can take part in our listener surveyhere.

All music from Epidemic Sounds.

American History Hit is a History Hit podcast.

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

Why would the United States have welcomed Nazis after the Second World War? Through Operation Paperclip, more than 1,500 German and Austrian scientists and engineers moved to America to share technology developed in the Third Reich.

Don is joined by Eric Lichtblau in this episode to find out who these people were, why the US needed them, and whether any of them should have faced punishment.

Eric Lichtblau is a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and author of 'The Nazis Next Door - How America Became A Safe Haven For Hitler’s Men'.

Produced by Sophie Gee. Edited by Tim Arstall. Senior Producer was Freddy Chick.

Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.

You can take part in our listener surveyhere.

All music from Epidemic Sounds.

American History Hit is a History Hit podcast.

History Hit is part of Little Dot Studios, a Certified B Corp™

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

When did the first humans arrive in America? Archaeologists have long pushed the theory that human habitation in the Americas dates back only to about 10,000 years. But now there's overwhelming evidence that humans have been in the Americas for over 30,000 years. And perhaps much longer.

Our guest today is Dr. Paulette Steeves, professor of geography, archeology, and land stewardship at Algoma University. She is also author of the books The Indigenous Paleolithic of the Western Hemisphere, and Reclaiming Deep Human Histories of the Western Hemisphere: Archaeologists Who Braved Prejudice to Reveal the Evidence.

Produced by Hannah Feodorov. Edited by Tim Arstall. Senior Producer was Freddy Chick.

Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.

You can take part in our listener surveyhere.

All music from Epidemic Sounds.

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

How did a President who was so reluctant to ramp up America's presence in Vietnam become the one who increased it more than any other? When Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn in as President, he had big plans for his domestic agenda... but it would be his foreign policy decisions that eventually brought him down.

Our guest today is Pierre Asselin, professor of American Foreign Relations at San Diego State University. He is a leading authority on the Vietnam War and is the author of A Bitter Peace: Washington, Hanoi, and the Making of the Paris Agreement and Hanoi’s Road to the Vietnam War, 1954-1965.

Produced by Tomos Delargy. Edited by Tim Arstall. Senior Producer was Freddy Chick.

Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.

You can take part in our listener surveyhere.

All music from Epidemic Sounds.

American History Hit is a History Hit podcast.

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

What drew the Latter Day Saints to Utah? Was anyone living there before the arrival of Brigham Young? And how did the city develop?

Max Perry Mueller joins Don today to discuss Salt Lake City. Max is an associate professor of Religious Studies at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He writes more about this topic in 'Wakara’s America: The Life and Legacy of a Native Founder of the American West'.

Produced by Sophie Gee. Edited by Aidan Lonergan. Senior Producer was Freddy Chick.

Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.

All music from Epidemic Sounds.

American History Hit is a History Hit podcast.

History Hit is part of Little Dot Studios, a Certified B Corp™

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

Thomas Jefferson has had no issue being remembered in American History. Ask anyone, this man was fundamental to Independence. But did he fight in the Revolutionary war itself?

Don is joined by Michael Hattem, author of 'The Memory of ’76: The Revolution in American History'; 'Past and Prologue: Politics and Memory in the American Revolution'; and 'The Declaration of Independence: A Concise History', which will be published in November 2026.

Produced by Sophie Gee. Edited by Tim Arstall. Senior Producer was Freddy Chick.

Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.

All music from Epidemic Sounds.

American History Hit is a History Hit podcast.

History Hit is part of Little Dot Studios, a Certified B Corp™

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

76 people died on 19th April 1993 when the compound of a religious sect, the Branch Davidians, went up in flames. It had been under siege by government agencies for 51 days, but no one knows what started the fire.

Don is joined by Jeff Guinn, investigative reporter and author of ‘Waco: David Koresh, the Branch Dividians, and a Legacy of Rage’ to find out why the United States’ Government was interested in this religious compound outside Waco, Texas, and how the situation escalated to this point.

Produced and edited by Sophie Gee. Senior Producer was Charlotte Long.

Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.

You can take part in our listener surveyhere.

All music from Epidemic Sounds.

American History Hit is a History Hit podcast.

History Hit is part of Little Dot Studios, a Certified B Corp™

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

General William Tecumseh Sherman's famous invasion of the Confederacy in 1864 has become American legend... but what did Union troops do along their route and how consequential was it to the final defeat of the Confederates?

Our guest today is Anne Sarah Rubin, professor of history at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. She is the author of ‘Through the Heart of Dixie: Sherman’s March and American Memory’, and her most recent work is ‘The Perfect Scout: A Soldier’s Memoir of the Great March to the Sea and the Campaign of the Carolinas,’

Produced by Tomos Delargy. Edited by Tim Arstall. Senior Producer was Freddy Chick.

Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.

You can take part in our listener surveyhere.

All music from Epidemic Sounds.

American History Hit is a History Hit podcast.

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

What makes a bad President? Who was the worst of all time? In this episode from the archive, Don is joined by Professor Jeremi Suri, author of The Impossible Presidency and co-host of This Is Democracy.

Edited by Tim Arstall. Produced by Freddy Chick. Senior Producer was Charlotte Long.

Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.

You can take part in our listener surveyhere.

All music from Epidemic Sounds.

American History Hit is a History Hit podcast.

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

Signatory of both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, James Wilson was a sitting Supreme Court justice when he died. So why is he missing from popular history?

From inspiring the phrase 'we the people' to starting the ball rolling on the Electoral College, Jesse Wegman joins Don to discuss Wilson's influence on the United States.

Jesse is Senior Fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice and author of 'The Lost Founder: James Wilson and the Forgotten Fight for a People's Constitution'.

Edited by Tim Arstall. Produced by Sophie Gee. Senior Producer was Freddy Chick.

Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.

All music from Epidemic Sounds.

American History Hit is a History Hit podcast.

History Hit is part of Little Dot Studios, a Certified B Corp™

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

We're all taught in school about the Louisiana Purchase, supposedly the greatest bargain in American history. Napoleon's deal with the Americans is widely remembered as a triumph for the United States… but is this history really as simple as we’re often taught?

Our guest today is historian Alexander Mikaberidze, Professor of History at Louisiana State University in Shreveport. He is the author of award winning books including ‘The Napoleonic Wars: A Global History’ and, most recently, ‘The Louisiana Purchase: The Grand Bargain and the Making of America’.

Edited by Tim Arstall. Produced by Tomos Delargy. Senior Producer was Freddy Chick.

Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.

All music from Epidemic Sounds.

American History Hit is a History Hit podcast.

History Hit is part of Little Dot Studios, a Certified B Corp™

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

When and where did the Civil War end? Was it really over when Lee surrendered at Appomattox?

Don is joined for this episode by Caroline E. Janney, Professor at the University of Virginia and author of 'Ends of War: The Unfinished Fight of Lee’s Army after Appomattox'.

Listen to hear why Lee's and Grant's armies ended up at Appomattox Court House, what the terms of surrender were, and when the war actually ended.

Edited by Tim Arstall. Produced by Sophie Gee. Senior Producer was Freddy Chick.

Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.

All music from Epidemic Sounds.

American History Hit is a History Hit podcast.

History Hit is part of Little Dot Studios, a Certified B Corp™

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