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.

Music James Early. Hello, everyone.

It's James here with a special announcement.

I recently had another special announcement in which I let you know that my friend Steve Guera was launching or relaunching

his podcast, The History of the Papacy, as part of the Salem Web Network, which I'm part of as well.

Now, Steve has another podcast. He's done this one off and on over the past several years,

but he's also launching this one afresh on the Salem Web Network, and this one is called Beyond the Big Screen.

It's a great podcast. It's one of my favorites. In fact, it is the part of the inspiration behind the World War I film series that I did recently and the upcoming

World War II film series. Steve has a different guest on every week, or at least it's usually

different people. Some people have appeared more than once. And in each episode, he and his guest

look at one particular movie, and they talk about the reality behind the movie.

For example, if it's a history movie, they'll talk about what really happened and how

historically accurate the movie is and how well the movie depicts certain characters and certain

events. If it's a literature-based film, he'll talk about how well it sticks to the book and differences and similarities and things like that.

And I have appeared on this podcast no fewer than four times.

I've done with Steve a discussion of the movie Lincoln.

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