Breaking Nation: A Civil War Podcast
When the political system of compromise that had served the United States for decades utterly and epically fails to deal with slavery at a national level, the mid-nineteenth century leaders of the nation and states must choose where their loyalties lie.
Will they save their way of life and solve the sins of cruel bondage before the land and its people are torn apart and shredded by violence and prejudice?
When Abraham Lincoln takes the oath of office as the sixteenth President on March 4, 1861, he faces a crisis unlike any other faced by his predecessors.
The country is on the brink of breaking as a nation…
Breaking Nation: A Civil War Podcast will take you on a revelatory and surprising journey through the years of the American Civil War, as if you had no idea how the events surrounding you would play out.
Recent Episodes
S2E1 – Little Napoleons
Interview with Chris Mowery
Interview with Robert Tracy McKenzie
S1E6 – The Island in the Harbor
S1E5 – Stars and Banners
S1E4 – A Political Free-For-All
Listen On
Recent Blog Posts
Jefferson Davis vs. States’ Rights: The Draft Controversy
On April 16, 1862, Jefferson Davis approved one of the most consequential—and controversial—laws of the Civil War: the Confederate Conscription Act. Passed by the Confederate Congress, the measure required all white males between the age…
The Emancipation Plan You’ve Probably Never Heard Of
On April 10, 1862, Abraham Lincoln approved Congress’s Joint Resolution offering federal financial aid to any state that chose to adopt gradual emancipation of enslaved people. Though often overshadowed by more dramatic wartime measures, this …
“Not War as We Knew It”: The Bloody Lesson of Shiloh
The Battle of Shiloh, fought on April 6–7, 1862, along the Tennessee River near Pittsburg Landing, marked a pivotal moment in the early Western Theater of the American Civil War. At the time, it was the bloodiest battle in American history, sh…