Talking Politics

We talk to historian Jill Lepore about the idea of nationalism in America, from the birth of the Republic through to Trump. What defines the nation? Why does the illiberal version keep getting the upper hand?  Are there any politicians in America who can rescue the idea of liberal nationalism? Plus we ask Jill what she thinks of Johnson, Brexit and nationalism in the UK.The Union won the American Civil War, but the South won the peace.The South won the peace by persuading the North both to undo the terms of Reconstruction and to remember the war as being about something different than it actually was.The Confederacy was founded on the premise of racial hierarchy.Reconstruction began as essentially a military occupation of the South to reinforce the new amendments to the Constitution guaranteeing equality for all peopleBut it was ended prematurely and the federal government wound up conceding the constitutionality of the Jim Crow laws that reenforced