683. Washington: Hero of the Revolution (Part 1)

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Intro & Sponsor Reads

At 0:12 · chapter starts 0:00

The episode opens with a dramatic clip of Ronald Reagan's second inaugural address from January 1985, in which the president conjures Valley Forge, the Alamo, and westward settlers in a vision of American exceptionalism. Tom Holland immediately punctures the mood by calling it 'absolute mush,' before conceding that Reagan's Hollywood patriotism makes a perfect launchpad for the podcast's new series marking the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution. Dominic Sandbrook agrees that no president has 'drunk so deeply of the Kool-Aid' as Reagan. The series will cover four Founding Fathers: Benjamin Franklin, the Hamilton-Burr duel, Thomas Jefferson, and, for this opening episode, George Washington. Sponsor segments for Lloyds Business Accounts (Making Tax Digital), Ancestry (First World War records), and the London Review of Books follow before the main content begins.