# What Made America? The Professional Military

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/american-history-hit-5648990/what-made-america-the-professional-military
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/american-history-hit-5648990/what-made-america-the-professional-military.md
Podcast: [American History Hit](https://stenobird.com/podcast/american-history-hit-5648990)
Published: 2026-06-15T08:00:00+00:00
Episode link: https://shows.acast.com/american-history-hit/episodes/what-made-america-the-professional-military
Audio file: https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/62c7fb2a7acf3900129dffa7/e/6a2c1e62cd02369494dad4af/media.mp3?tk=eyJ0ayI6ImRlZmF1bHQiLCJhZHMiOnRydWUsInNwb25zIjp0cnVlLCJzdGF0dXMiOiJwdWJsaWMifQ==&sig=CIGvmThnTsSWLpdR48lGf0ZdjHxcJf9HjIBEZQ2A-5Y
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JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/american-history-hit-5648990/episodes/what-made-america-the-professional-military
Duration seconds: 2331

## Resource

Today's United States of America boasts one of the largest and most expensive militaries in the world. But this wasn't always a guarantee. In this episode, we're hearing how the professional military was created despite it's existence being at odds with the Republican ideals the nation was founded on. Don is joined by friend of the podcast, Cecily Zander. Cecily is Assistant Professor of History at the University of Wyoming and author of “The Army under Fire: Antimilitarism in the Civil War Era” and “Abraham Lincoln and the American West". Edited by Tim Arstall. Produced by Sophie Gee. Senior Producer was Freddy Chick. Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe .   All music from Epidemic Sounds. American History Hit is a History Hit podcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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## Transcript

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