Lessons from American Reconstruction for a New Founding, Pt. 1

For this episode, I spoke with Prof. Manisha Sinha of the University of Connecticut, historian and author of the recent book The Rise and Fall of the Second American Republic: Reconstruction, 1860-1920 . We spoke about what a "new founding" of American democracy has looked like in the past, and what we might learn from that. Because we spoke for a good long while, I'm splitting it into two parts. Today is part 1. In the coming weeks, I will share two interviews with author Osita Nwanevu, in which we separately discuss the two halves of the argument of his new book, "The Right of the People: Democracy and the Case for a New American Founding." Before we discuss his argument that we need a new American founding, I prepared for that by speaking about the first time we had a "new founding," during the Reconstruction era following the Civil War. Music is by Evan Schaeffer.

You can listen to Lessons from American Reconstruction for a New Founding, Pt. 1 online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Lessons from American Reconstruction for a New Founding, Pt. 1 is an episode from DIY Democracy by Steven Nelson.

This episode is 44:47 long.

This episode was published on Jan 1, 2026.

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