Abraham Lincoln called the United States “the last best hope of Earth.” In this podcast, we ask whether that claim still holds — and whether it ever did. Each episode takes a figure, idea, or moment in American political history and asks what it tells us about the country’s understanding of itself, always with an eye to how America looks from the outside in. The Last Best Hope? takes ideas seriously: America as a creed, the arguments of the people who built and remade it, and what America has meant to the rest of the world. We take our subjects from hist...
Latest episodes
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46 min
Why Presidents Lose Midterms
Since the Civil War the president's party has lost ground in Congress in every single midterm election bar four. What's going on? Are voters punishing the administration they put i…
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52 min
American Political Parties Explained
What is an American political party? Unlike in parliamentary systems, they're not private organisations but quasi-public bodies, with no membership dues and with their candidate se…
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1 min
New Series
As the United States gears up to mid-term elections, which may once again shift the political trajectory of the country, the Last Best Hope? returns for a brand-new season on the 8…
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56 min
The Battle over the 250th Anniversary
In the bicentennial summer of 1976, the United States staged what was, by some measures, the largest single celebration in the country’s history. Tall ships in New York harbor. Fir…
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37 min
Why America Doesn't Love Soccer (Except When It Does)
Is there anything more distinctively American than its sports culture?In a previous episode of this podcast, we discussed the tragic decline and partial revival of American cricket…
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39 min
1776 and the break up of the United States
The rebels who tried to break up the United States in the 1860s thought of themselves as the rightful heirs to the spirit of 1776. The South Carolina Declaration of the Causes of S…
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50 min
The idea of America in British politics
For 250 years, the idea of America and the fact of American power have unsettled British politics. Is America of us, or apart from us? Rival or special friend? In the British polit…
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2 min
New Series Trailer
As the US gears up for the 250th anniversary celebrations of the Declaration of Independence on 4 July, the RAI’s podcast, The Last Best Hope?, returns for our 16th series on 13 Ma…
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42 min
Why the Declaration of Independence said what it did, Episode 2
To its principal author, Thomas Jefferson, it was “an expression of the American mind”; to the English philosopher Jeremy Bentham, it was "absurd and visionary". The Declaration of…
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46 min
Why the Declaration of Independence said what it did, Episode 1
To its principal author, Thomas Jefferson, it was “an expression of the American mind”; to the English philosopher Jeremy Bentham, it was "absurd and visionary". The Declaration of…
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40 min
Can federalism save American liberalism?
For much of the twentieth century, progressives in America wanted to expand the Federal Government. They created regulation, bureaucracy, and agencies capable of managing a complex…
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33 min
Hillary Rodham Clinton on how America can save itself
Hillary Rodham Clinton has been at the centre of American public life for thirty years. She has exercised more power from more senior positions than any other woman in American his…
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1 min
New Series Trailer: What’s Coming Next
In the new series beginning on the 11th of February 2026, Adam speaks to Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton about her vision of America and its place in the world and consid…
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42 min
Why the Gettysburg Address Matters, Part 2
It is one of the most famous speeches in the English language and one of the most consequential. In this special two-part documentary, we explore Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Addre…
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44 min
Why the Gettysburg Address Matters, Part 1
It is one of the most famous speeches in the English language and one of the most consequential. In this special two-part documentary, we explore Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Addre…
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50 min
How Will History Judge Joe Biden?
A year on, what does Trump’s comeback say about Biden’s understanding of the country he led? Was his vision of America already obsolete — a relic of the bipartisan consensus forged…
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39 min
The Myth of the Frontier
If America is the last, best hope of earth, one reason is the frontier. The frontier has been imagined as the place—or perhaps the process—through which the American character is f…
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41 min
Trump’s Second Term Foreign Policy in Historical Context
Beneath the chaos of Donald Trump’s second term foreign policy—the bluster, bravado, back-handers and backdowns—is there something else going on? Has the United States reached a tu…
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40 min
Journalism and Democracy: Lessons from Walter Lippmann
A hundred years ago, Walter Lippmann, one of the great analysts of democratic life, wrote that the present crisis of western democracy is a crisis in journalism. Press barons, Lipp…
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2 min
The Last Best Hope: Series 14
It's been almost a year since The Last Best Hope aired, and in that time, America has changed dramatically. So in the new series, we’ll be attempting to put Trump’s foreign policy…