War has played a key role in the history of the United States, from the nation's

founding right down to the present. War made the U.S. independent, kept it together, increased

its size, and established it as a global superpower. Understanding America's wars is essential for understanding American history.

Welcome to Key Battles of American History,

a podcast in which we discuss American history through the lens of the most important battles of America's wars.

Here is your host, James Early.

Thank you. Your host, James Early. Greetings and welcome to the brand new podcast, Key Battles of American History.

I'm your host, James Early.

Now, many of you may have found this podcast as a result of the fact that you are a listener to the History Unplugged podcast, or perhaps you have heard one of my previous series that I did in conjunction with my partner Scott Rank.

Those include Presidential Fight Club, Key Battles of the Civil War, Key Battles of the Revolutionary War, and Key key battles of the Revolutionary War, and key battles of World War I.

Then again, some of you may have found this podcast without even hearing any of those series.

Regardless of how you've found me, I'm really glad that you're with me, and I hope that you will enjoy this brand new podcast,

which is going to have many series within it.

At least I hope.

That is the plan.

Now, you may have picked up on the fact from the names of the series that I've done so far,

is that I am very, very interested in military history.

For almost all my life, I've been fascinated with

wars and battles. I like history in general, but military history just for some reason is my favorite.

I like the tactics and the strategy. And I also like the politics behind it. I like the diplomacy.

I like the reasons why nations go to war. I like to study the reasons why. And I like to

study the results of wars. What happens afterwards? I like to study how war changes societies and

...