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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To stay updated: http://historythisweekpodcast.com