logo
episode-header-image
May 2023
38m 40s

Reconstruction: Why We Didn't Learn Abou...

NHPR
About this episode

The Reconstruction Era, a period in American history at the end of and immediately following the Civil War, is one of the single-most important and instructive periods in American history. It has also, historically, been one of the least taught. Why is that, and what are we missing when we don't learn about it? A lot.

In this, the first in a three-part series on Reconstruction, we speak to Mimi Eisen of the Zinn Education Project about America’s first Civil Rights Era and why most of us don’t know enough - or anything at all - about it.

Want our new "Civics is my cup of tea" mug? CLICK HERE TO DONATE AND GET YOURS!

  • CLICK HERE: Visit our website to see all of our episodes, donate to the podcast, sign up for our newsletter, get free educational materials, and more! 
  • To see Civics 101 in book form, check out A User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro.
  • Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it!

Up next
Oct 7
Making Fun of Politicians
Did you know cartoonists were on Nixon's enemies list? Or that LBJ prevented a cartoonist from getting a medal when he made a cartoon against the Vietnam War? Today we talk about the history of editorial cartoons and political satire, from "Join or Die" to the Obama fist bump, fr ... Show More
21m 16s
Sep 30
The Grievances in the Declaration (part 2)
Click here to listen to part one of our airing of the grievances if you haven't yet! Today we tackle charges 13-27 against the King, as well as comparisons that have been made between George III and Donald Trump. Our guide is once again Craig Gallagher from Colby-Sawyer College, ... Show More
28m 34s
Sep 23
Can the president legally hide their health status?
The American public has long been on the lookout for unsteadiness in the leader of the free world. It's important to us (or, historically, has been) that the president seems, well, well. If not robust. Of course, the president is a human, and as such is not immune to malady. So w ... Show More
31m 7s
Recommended Episodes
May 2022
Reconstruction III: Eric Foner and Henry Louis Gates Jr. on Du Bois’ Black Reconstruction
In 1935, famed Black sociologist and scholar W.E.B. Du Bois published Black Reconstruction, a revolutionary reassessment of the period of Reconstruction after the Civil War. The book was also a critique of the flawed way others had been telling the story—including leading scholar ... Show More
30m 56s
Nov 2019
The Confederacy Dominated the Early Civil War. So Why Did It Ultimately Lose?
The Confederacy won the early battles of the Civil War, led by brilliant generals Stonewall Jackson and Robert E. Lee (to name a few) against blundering Union commanders like the endlessly dithering George McClellan. The war only turned after Lincoln found the right generals such ... Show More
44m 43s
May 2022
Reconstruction II: The First Presidential Impeachment
May 16, 1868. The Capitol is filled with spectators, anxiously trying to predict how each Senator will vote. It’s the first presidential impeachment trial in American history, and its outcome will have profound effects on Reconstruction, the great project of rebuilding the nation ... Show More
42m 3s
Feb 2020
Episode #105- Is the Renaissance a Myth? (Part I)
The Renaissance has been touted as one of the most important moments in European history. 19th century historians like Jules Michelet and Jakob Burckhardt made the case that a "rebirth" starting in the 1300's laid the ground work for the modern world. This idea has been massively ... Show More
56m 11s
Oct 2023
What if the South Won the Civil War?
What if the Civil War had ended differently, with the South seceding from the Union? Would slavery have continued? Would the southern states have continued as a whole? Would any other states have followed suit? To explore this hypothetical history, Don spoke to Aaron Sheehan-Dean ... Show More
42m 24s
Jun 2024
أرض العراقة وامتداد التاريخ
حلقة جديدة من #بودكاست_١٩٤٩، تأخذنا إلى عُمق التاريخ لاستكشاف أصول الحضارات القديمة التي ازدهرت على أرض المملكة، لتُجيب على التساؤل الأبرز: بمَ تفيدنا معرفة التاريخ ودراسة الآثار؟ وما دورها في بناء المستقبل؟    
25m 17s
Feb 2024
What Does Bantu Mean: A Historiography of Bantu Linguistics and History (Part 2)
The Bantu Migration is one of the most important and seminal events in the history of the African continent. But what if this theory of Bantu origins, concocted by a European colonial administrator trying to understand the history of the continent he was colonizing, was entirely ... Show More
30m 49s
Feb 2022
Reconstructed: Birth of a Black Nation
One question has plagued our nation since its founding: will Black people in America ever experience full citizenship?  In searching for an answer, Into America is collaborating with the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture for a series on the leg ... Show More
54m 42s
Apr 2024
President Ulysses S. Grant: The Myth of the Butcher
How does a heroic general of the Civil War become one of the lowest rated Presidents (at least until recently)? To discuss Grant's commitment to reconstruction, civil rights, and the crushing of the Ku Klux Klan, Don is joined by Professor Anne Marshall. Anne is a historian of th ... Show More
50m 10s