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The Netflix mini-series "Death By Lightning" brings to life a largely overlooked — and troubled — period in American history and one of its admirable figures, a minor president named James Garfield. The Republican Garfield was assassinated by a delusional patronage-seeker named Charles Guiteau only months into his term. The series makes for entertaining television with a terrific cast, but is it sound history? Historian Jeremi Suri is our guest.

Excerpts are courtesy Netflix. Music in this episode is from the soundtrack for "Death by Lightning," composed by Ramin Djawadi.

Recommended reading:

Civil War By Other Means by Jeremi Suri

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Since the nation's founding, American leaders, journalists, and ordinary citizens have used words to describe enemies designed not only to dehumanize them, but also to delegitimize. Whether bandits, savages, guerrillas, or terrorists, if our foes are beyond the pale, then the U.S. government doesn't have to follow the law either, a pattern that has been repeated in every failed intervention up to and including the global war on terrorism. This pattern is important to recognize as the Trump administration blows up alleged drug traffickers in the Caribbean while threatening regime change in Venezuela. Historian Michael Neagle says we can see how we got to this point by looking to the past, in the Philippines, Mexico, and Nicaragua, to name three examples. Through a historical lens, we can question the necessity and costs of the GWOT.

Recommended reading:

Chasing Bandits: America's Long War on Terror by Michael Neagle

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Robert McNamara may have been the most consequential secretary of defense in U.S. history. The managerial genius who helped sink the country in the Vietnam quagmire is the subject of a new biography (see below), a political-psychological portrait that takes us inside the mind of the man tabbed by JFK in 1960 to run the Pentagon. Robert McNamara escalated the war and misled the American people about imaginary progress on the battlefield, despite serious personal doubts the war could be won. He never formally apologized, but admitted "we were wrong, terribly wrong" in the hope future policy-makers would avoid his intractable mistakes. Historian Fredrik Logevall is our guest.

Recommended reading:

McNamara at War: A New History by William Taubman and Philip Taubman (2025)

Choosing War: The Lost Chance for Peace and the Escalation of War in Vietnam by Fredrik Logevall (1999)

Embers of War: The Fall of an Empire and the Making of America's Vietnam by Fredrik Logevall (2012)

Further listening:

Defeat in Vietnam: Origins (podcast)

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Note: All audio excerpts and music in this episode are courtesy PBS. See below for details.

'The American Revolution' on PBS is a riveting documentary about the events that created a country. Released in advance of next year's America250 celebrations, the latest Ken Burns documentary shows the unity and divisions within and without the revolutionary cause. Americans today seem to be divided on everything; can they unite around their national origin stories? David Schmidt and Geoffrey Ward are the guests in this episode.

David Schmidt co-directed and co-produced 'The American Revolution' with Ken Burns and Sarah Botstein. Historian Geoffrey Ward was the writer.

Excerpts of the score, in order (courtesy: PBS)

Battle Percussion by Johnny Gandelsman

Pompey Ran Away by Rhiannon Giddens

O'Neill's Cavalry March Piccolo by Mathias Kunzli and Alex Sopp

Ahead We Move by Johnny Gandelsman

Further reading:

The American Revolution (companion volume) by Geoffrey Ward and Ken Burns

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The latest negotiations to end the Russian invasion of Ukraine produced no breakthroughs, after U.S. envoys held a 5-hour session in the Kremlin. Alas, almost another full year has come and gone, and the war grinds on, despite President Trump's boast that he would end the conflict in 24 hours. In this episode, The Wall Street Journal's chief foreign affairs correspondent Yaroslav Trofimov tells us why negotiations are failing to end Putin's war of aggression.

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His name was Metacom, a son of the Wampanoag chief Massasoit who had greeted the Pilgrims at Plymouth. Metacom would become known as King Philip, and the war that would carry his name was one of the bloodiest in American history. In 1675-76, Native peoples across southern New England battled English colonists and their Indian allies in genocidal violence. Massacres, torture, and enslavement were commonplace, yet King Philip's War is little known to most Americans today. Historian David Silverman is here to bring this American origin story to light.

Further reading:

The Chosen and the Damned: Native Americans and the Making of Race in the United States

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https://historyasithappens.supercast.com/

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Is the rise of Donald Trump a result or a rejection of Reaganism? As the conservative movement is convulsed by the crazies inside and outside its ranks, some may feel nostalgic for a bygone age when a Republican president seemed committed to the principles of smaller government, free trade, and America's global leadership. But what was Reaganism, really? Our guest in this episode is historian Max Boot.

Recommended reading:

Reagan: His Life and Legend by Max Boot

The Age of Reagan by Sean Wilentz

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Iraqi leaders now face the difficult task of building a governing coalition, after parliamentary elections gave no single bloc an adequate victory to form a government independently. The Associated Press reports the Reconstruction and Change coalition, led by Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, won the highest number of seats in 8 of 18 provinces. In this episode, Adam Weinstein of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft says Iraq still finds itself caught between Washington and Tehran, as pro-Iran militias exert influence in Baghdad.