Most of us think of The Golden State as far removed from the Civil War, but according to Drum Barracks Civil War Museum Director Susan Ogle, California gold financed up to 25% of the Union war effort. American History TV visited the museum near the port of Los Angeles where Susan Ogle gave us a tour of the only remaining Civil War era military facility in the area.

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Two history professors talk about aspects of the war in the West - from the Mississippi River to Arizona - including the roles played by Hispanics, and Confederate attempts at westward expansion. The National Park Service and the Arkansas Civil War Sesquicentennial Commission co-hosted this event.

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A panel of professors looks at the history of immigration in the American West. They examine the immigration stories of Asians, Hispanics, Europeans and others, and discuss the reasons why those groups came to America. This event was part of the Western History Association’s 2012 annual conference in Denver.

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Craig Symonds of the U.S. Naval Academy talks about the war’s Western Theater river operations in 1862. Symonds details the strategies employed by the Union to win several key battles, and credits those victories to the cooperation and combined tactics of General Ulysses S. Grant and Naval Flag Officer Andrew H. Foote. The Civil War Institute at Gettysburg College hosted this event.

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Saul Cornell discusses his book "A Well-Regulated Militia: The Founding Fathers and the Origins of Gun Control in America."  He explores the opposing sides of the gun control debate, arguing that both base their opinions on a flawed understanding of the second amendment.

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“Operation Gold” was a 1950s project conducted by the CIA and the British Intelligence Service to tap into Soviet communications by tunneling from West Berlin into East Berlin, Germany. Known as “Operation Stopwatch” by the British, the 1,500 foot tunnel was active for eleven months, and netted about 40,000 hours of East German telephone conversations - even though the KGB knew about the tunnel before it was built. Retired CIA officer Lou Mehrer tells the story of the Berlin Tunnel at the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library & Museum in West Branch, Iowa.

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Harvard Law School history professor Annette Gordon-Reed is the author of two books exploring the story of Sally Hemings and her family’s ties to Thomas Jefferson. Her 2009 book, “The Hemingses of Monticello,” won a Pulitzer Prize. At the National Council for History Education National Conference in Richmond, Virginia, professor Gordon-Reed discusses teaching about slavery, as well as the research that led to her books.

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These are unedited excerpts from a 1992 conversation with former President Gerald Ford. He remembers Dwight D. Eisenhower from the perspective of the Michigan congressman that he was in the 1950s. Topics include the 1952 election and the GOP’s domestic agenda, McCarthyism, civil rights, and Ike’s legacy for the Republican party. He also discusses the day he took his young sons to visit Eisenhower at his Gettysburg farm, and the impromptu lesson the former World War II general gave the Ford boys on one of this nation’s most storied battles.   

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In this program from our 1999 "American Presidents: Life Portraits" series we focused on Rutherford B. Hayes' life and career. Author Ari Hoogenboom and the director of the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center, Roger Bridges, talked about President Hayes as a lawyer, soldier, and politician during the contested election of 1876 in which Congress appointed Hayes president despite his loss to Samuel Tilden in the national election. The guests also explored the grounds of the Hayes Presidential Center, highlighting the various landmarks there. 

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