A Teacher’s History of the United States Podcast

A Teacher's History

Class Is In Session

Every week, Chris and other history nerds provide listeners with in-depth and entertaining lessons on the history of the United States from a teacher’s perspective.

Have you ever wished you knew more about the history of the United States? Are you kicking yourself for not paying more attention in school? Do you ever wish you could go back to class and learn about the most interesting, important and impactful events in U.S. history all over again, but without the homework?

Join host Chris Caldwell, a former high school AP US History teacher, along with his fellow history nerds as they retell the fun and fascinating tale of the United States of America, one lesson at a time.

About

A Teacher’s History of the United States is an informative and fun podcast taking you through the highlights and lowlights of US history.

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About

Chris hails from Salisbury, MD and currently lives in Baltimore, MD with his wife and daughter. Chris taught both AP US History and AP US Government and Politics in the Baltimore area before moving onto other career opportunities.

Chris met his primary contributors, Bill Gorman and Zak Woods, while earning his bachelor’s degree at Xavier University in Cincinnati, OH. Chris has since earned a graduate degree from Loyola University.

Chris’ favorite part of US History is the Revolutionary War and the beginnings of the American Republic.

Bill

Bill Gorman is originally from Cincinnati, OH and currently lives in St. Louis, MO. Bill works as a Client Manager serving medium and large law firms in St. Louis and Oklahoma. Bill met the Chris Caldwell while they were both attending Xavier University. They shared a love for American History. That interest in American History has lead Bill to contributing to A Teacher’s History of the United States. Bill’s favorite part of American History is the FDR era (Great Depression, New Deal, World War II). It is Bill’s favorite period in American History because it fundamentally altered the country in terms of Executive Power, the creation of a social safety net, and the defeat of Nazism and totalitarianism.

Zak

Zachary Woods is a Program Manager with an independent power producer in Houston, TX. Originally from Columbus, OH he obtained a Master’s degree in Industrial Engineering from Ohio State. Zachary became interested in history while touring Civil War battlefields such as Gettysburg and Antietam.

View Our Book Recommendations

1. A Voyage Long and Strange: On the Trail of Vikings, Conquistadors, Lost Colonists, and Other Adventurers in Early America – Tony Horwitz
2. Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War – Nathaniel Philbrick
3. American Colonies: The Settling of North America – Alan Taylor
4. Sweet Land of Liberty: Old Times in the Colonies – Charles Carleton Coffin
5. Changes in the Land: Indians, Colonists, and the Ecology of New England – William Cronon
6. The Island at the Center of the World: The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Forgotten Colony That Shaped America – Russell Shorto
7. A Storm of Witchcraft: The Salem Trials and the American Experience – Emerson W. Baker
8. White Cargo: The Forgotten History of Britain’s White Slaves in America – Don Jordan
9. The War That Made America: A Short History of the French and Indian War – Fred Anderson
10. The French and Indian War: Deciding the Fate of North America – by Walter R. Borneman
11. Braddock’s Defeat: The Battle of the Monongahela and the Road to Revolution – David Preston
12. The First American: The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin – H. W. Brands
13. American Revolutions: A Continental History, 1750-1804 – Alan Taylor
14. The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution: 1763-1789 – Robert Middlekauff
15. Almost A Miracle: The American Victory in the War of Independence by John Ferling
16. The Men Who Lost America: British Leadership, the American Revolution, and the Fate of the Empire – Andrew Jackson O’Shaughnessy
17. 1776 – David McCullough
18. Revolutionary Summer: The Birth of American Independence – Joseph J. Ellis
19. Bunker Hill: A City, A Siege, A Revolution – by Nathaniel Philbrick
20. Washington’s Secret War: The Hidden History of Valley Forge – Thomas Fleming
21. George Washington’s Secret Six: The Spy Ring That Saved the American Revolution – Brian Kilmeade and Don Yaeger
22. Valiant Ambition: George Washington, Benedict Arnold, and the Fate of the American Revolution – Nathaniel Philbrick
23. Brothers at Arms: American Independence and the Men of France and Spain Who Saved It – Larrie D. Ferreiro
24. The Swamp Fox: How Francis Marion Saved the American Revolution – John Oller
25. A Devil of a Whipping: The Battle of Cowpens – Lawrence E. Babits
26. The Road to Guilford Courthouse: The American Revolution in the Carolinas – John Buchanan
27. In the Hurricane’s Eye: The Genius of George Washington and the Victory at Yorktown – Nathaniel Philbrick
28. American Creation: Triumphs and Tragedies in the Founding of the Republic – Joseph J. Ellis
29. His Excellency: George Washington – Joseph J. Ellis
30. Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation – Joseph J. Ellis
31. The Quartet: Orchestrating the Second American Revolution, 1783-1789 – Joseph J. Ellis
32. The Summer of 1787: The Men Who Invented the Constitution – David Stewart
33. Ratification: The People Debate the Constitution, 1787-1788 – Pauline Maier
34. The Indian World of George Washington: The First President, the First Americans, and the Birth of a Nation – Colin Galloway
35. Washington: A Life – Ron Chernow
36. His Excellency – Joseph Ellis
37. The Life of George Washington – John Marshall
38. Jefferson and Hamilton: The Rivalry That Forged a Nation – John Ferling
39. Washington’s Farewell:The Founding Father’s Warning to Future Generations – John Avalon
40. John Adams – David McCullough
41. Friends Divided: John Adams and Thomas Jefferson – Gordon S. Wood
42. A Sovereign People: The Crises of the 1790s and the Birth of Nationalism – Carol Berkin
43. Adams v Jefferson: The Tumultuous Election of 1800 – John Ferling
44. Alexander Hamilton – Ron Chernow
45. A Wilderness So Immense: The Louisiana Purchase and the Destiny of America (Paperback) – Jon Kukla
46. War of Two: Alexander Hamilton, Aaron Burr, and the Duel that Stunned the Nation – John Sedgwick
47. Undaunted Courage: Merriweather Lewis, Thomas Jefferson and the Opening of the American West – Stephen Ambrose
48. The Three Lives of James Madison: Genius, Partisan, President – Noah Feldman
49. Madison’s Gift: Five Partnerships That Built America – David O. Stewart
50. War of 1812: A Forgotten Conflict – Donald R Hickey
51. 1812: The War that Forged a Nation – Walter R. Bourneman
52. Flames Across the Border – Pierre Berton
53. The Last Founding Father: James Monroe and a Nation’s Call to Greatness – Harlow Giles Unger
54. The Era of Good Feelings – George Dangerfield
55. John Quincy Adams: Militant Spirit – James Traub
56. John Quincy Adams – Harlow Giles Unger
57. Andrew Jackson: His Life and Times – H.W. Brands
58. AMERICAN LION: Andrew Jackson in the White House – Jon Meach
59. The Birth of Modern Politics: Andrew Jackson, John Quincy and the election of 1828 – Lynn Hudson Parson
60. Mary Thousands Gone: The First Two Centuries of Slavery in North America – Ira Berlin
61. Soul by Soul: Life Inside the Antebellum Slave Market – Walter Johnson
62. Confessions of Nat Turner – Thomas Gray (pamphlet)
63. The Market Revolution: Jacksonian America, 1815-1846 – Charles Sellers
64. The Jacksonian Promise: America, 1815-1840 – Daniel Feller
65. Andrew Jackson, Southerner – Mark Cheathem
66. The Petticoat Affair: Manners, Mutiny, and Sex in Andrew Jackson’s White House – John Marszalek”
67. Prelude to Civil War: The Nullification Controversy in South Carolina 1816-1836 by William W. Freehling (Author)
68. The Gray Fox: George Crook and the Indian Wars – Paul Magid
69. Land Too Good for Indians: Northern Indian Removal – John P. Bowes