This Day

Our conversation about the Continental Army's winter at Valley Forge, PA continues with a look at how the troops were trained, and what the winter of 1777-1778 tells us about the truth and legend of George Washington, humble leader...

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This week on "50 Weeks That Shaped America," we're headed to the winter of 1777-1778 and the strategic retreat by the Continental Army to Valley Forge, PA. Over the course of that winter, George Washington worked to turn the army from a group of ragtag militias into a unified force -- all with the help of a mysterious Prussian general. Jody, Niki, and Kellie discuss how Valley Forge was effectively a pop-up city, and how i...

For our "Sunday Context" series, we advance the story from Iwo Jima by a few months to August 1945, when the United States drops nuclear weapons on Japan in order to bring an end to WWII. We're joined by Garrett Graff to discuss the brutal calculus that went into that decision.

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It's part two of our look at Joe Rosenthal's iconic photo "Raising The Flag On Iwo Jima." Jody, Niki, and Kellie discuss the mystery over who is actually in the photograph, how the photo shaped American's perception of the war -- and why war images continue to have such an impact, from Vietnam through Abu Ghraib.

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This week on "50 Weeks That Shaped America," we're headed to February 1945, when attention in WWII has shifted to the Pacific. American forces are "island hopping" towards Japan, and in February a fierce battle broke out on the island of Iwo Jima. After an initial victory, a group of six men clambored to the top of the islands tallest point and hoisted a flag -- twice, as it happens. The photo of the second flag raising wo...

For our "Sunday Context" series, we look at Alex Haley's book "Roots" -- how it became a sensation, accusations of plagiarism, and how it led to the TV series.

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It's part two of our "50 Weeks That Shaped America" look at the premiere of Alex Haley’s “Roots.”Jody, Niki, and Kellie discuss some of the key scenes and characters in the eight-part epic, and why so many Americans were drawn to the series.

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This week on "50 Weeks That Shaped America," we're headed to the winter of 1977, when everyone was tuned into a major TV phenomenon -- Alex Haley’s “Roots.” It aired over eight parts and was the most watch TV show of all time. It also led many Americans to confront the horrors of slavery for the first time, and set off a genealogy craze that lasts until today.

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For our "Sunday Context" series, we discuss the political pressures that the arrival of California as a new state put on the country as a whole -- and the various attempts to avoid a conflict over the question of slavery and its expansion.

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We continue our look at the effects of the gold rush with an examination of how various communities were affected, and found agency, in a rapidly transforming California -- women, Chinese immigrants, Native Americans, criminals, and more. Plus: how California "speed ran" modern capitalism, and set the stage for what America would become in the 150 years to come.

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This week on "50 Weeks That Shaped America," we're headed to the winter of 1948 in San Francisco, where word starts to get around that "there's gold in them there hills." Jody, Niki, and Kellie discuss how gold was first discovered, and the various people who tried -- and failed -- to keep it under wraps. Within months, people were flooding into California and transforming the local economy, and the country.

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For our "Sunday Context" series, we offer a follow up to our conversation about "Axis of Evil" and the start of the War in Iraq by looking at an incident from after the war was over -- when an Iraqi journalist threw his shoes at George W Bush.

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Our look at the response to 9-11 continues with a discussion of the neo-conversative movement that influenced the Bush White House, and how the idea of an "axis of evil" quickly morphed into a long war in Iraq.

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This week on "50 Weeks That Shaped America," we're headed to January 2002 and the first State of the Union speech after the 9-11 attacks. In it, George W Bush referred to Iran, Iraq, and North Korea as an "axis of evil," signalling that the response to 9-11 would be a much larger campaign, and a moral fight. Jody, Niki, and Kellie discuss how Bush landed on that phrase, what it was meant to evoke, and how it set the stage ...

For our "Sunday Context" series, we build on this past week's coversation about the Battle of New Orleans with a look at the largest slave rebellion in US history, led by Charles Deslondes, which took place just outside of New Orleans in 1811. Like the story of the War of 1812, this involved the mix of ethnic, political, and cultural forces that only New Orleans has -- and highlights the way in which the future of slavery ...

If part two of our "50 Weeks" look at the Battle Of New Orleans. Jody, Niki, and Kellie look at the pirates, generals, and others who fought that day in January of 1815 -- and how the events burnished the reputation of future President Andrew Jackson. In the end, the battle itself may not have had much of a military impact, but the story of the battle helped define a new American century.

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This week on "50 Weeks That Shaped America," we're headed to January 1815 and the Battle Of New Orleans -- which actually took place after the War of 1812 had formally concluded. Jody, Niki, and Kellie discuss how the US, Britain, France and others were still squabbling over their empires as the US turned its sights to a new frontier.

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For our "Sunday Context" series, we build on this past week's coversation about Prohibition with perhaps the most colorful story of bootlegging and liquor gangsters we've ever heard. In 1926, members of the Shelton gang in southern Illinois commandeered a biplane to drop homemade bombs on the hideout of their main rivals, the Birgers.

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Part two of our look at the rise of prohibition looks at the many ways in which Americans tried to evade the law, and how a burgeoning police state went after them. Plus: How did Prohibition shape America, in the end?

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