Why Is This Happening? The Chris Hayes Podcast

Politics and Violence with Joanne B. Freeman

Imagine what would happen if your Senator was beaten bloody on the Senate floor. Or if your Congressperson pulled a gun on a member of the opposition party. Our current political climate is ugly but that kind of violence would be unfathomable today. In the early and mid-1800s however, it was a whole different story. Joanne Freeman spent 17 years wrenching out the hidden history of just how endemic violence was within the political class in the decades leading up to the Civil War. Freeman shares riveting accounts of Capitol Hill beatings, brawls, and duels, and details how that period of violence led to a war that shaped what our country would become.Email us at WITHpod@gmail.comTweet using #WITHpodRead more at <a href="http://nbcnews.com/whyisthishappening" target="_blank">nbcnews.com/whyisthishappening</a> RELATED READING:<a href="https://www.indiebound.org/book/9780374154776" target="_blank">The Field of Blood: Violence in Congress and the Road to Civil War</a> by Joanne B. Freeman<a href="https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300097559/affairs-honor" target="_blank">Affairs of Honor</a> by Joanne B. Freeman

Every week Chris Hayes asks the big questions that keep him up at night. How do we make sense of this unprecedented moment in world history? Why is this (all) happening?

This podcast starts to answer these questions. Writers, experts, and thinkers who are also trying to get to the bottom of them join Chris to break it all down and help him get a better night’s rest. “Why is this Happening?” is presented by MSNBC and NBCNews Think.