The USA: It'll Never Work

The United States of America is an invention. Before it existed, it needed to be created. Where would its borders be? Who was going to live there? How would it be run? As America's new president approaches his first hundred day, Misha Glenny follows up acclaimed programmes on Germany, Brazil, and France with a timely investigation of the USA. To build a country you need a system of power, but independence from Britain immediately set up a clash - the politicians of the north against the slave owning south. When the Founding Fathers gathered in the capital Philadelphia, which sat half way between the two, they knew that there was going to be a fight. Donald Trump loves to quote the Founding Fathers but what did they actually say? Misha Glenny travels from New York to Philly and on to Washington in pursuit of the origins of the constitution, and discovers few people imagined it would last more than ten years. Featuring contributions from double Pulitzer winner Alan Taylor; novelist Zoe Heller; Kathleen Burk, author of Old World, New World; Philly native Joe Queenan; and Carol Berkin, author of A Brilliant Solution.Future programmes focus on the history of the Mexican border; plus the peoples of America - who do you let in, who do you keep out? Misha Glenny is the BBC's former Central Europe correspondent. The producer in Bristol is Miles Warde.