Stay ConnectedThis is a multiple award-winning podcast about early American history. It’s a show for people who love history and who want to know more about the historical people and events that have impacted and shaped our present-day world.
Each episode features conversations with professional historians who help shed light on important people and events in early American history.
Copyright: © Liz Covart 2024
History is about people, but what do we know about the people behind history’s scenes?
Who are the people who tell us what we know about our past?
How do they come to know what they know?
Today, we begin our year-long “Doing History” series with a special bonus episode about historians and why they do the work that they do.
Doing History Series
This episode is part of the "Doing History: How Historians Work" series.
“Doing History” episodes will introduce you to historians who will tell you what they know about the past and reveal how they came to their knowledge.
Each episode will air on the last Tuesday of each month in 2016.
This series is part of a partnership between Ben Franklin’s World and the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/historians
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Today, we explore espionage during the American Revolution and the origins and operations of the Culper Spy Ring with Alexander Rose, author of Washington’s Spies: The Story of America’s First Spy Ring and a historian, writer, and producer for AMC’s television drama TURN.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/065
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Most early Americans practiced chattel slavery: the practice of treating slaves as property that people could buy, sell, trade, and use as they would draught animals or real estate.
But, did you know that some early Americans practiced a different type of slavery?
Today, we investigate the practice of Native American or indigenous slavery, a little-known aspect of early American history, with Brett Rushforth, author of Bonds of Alliance: Indigenous and Atlantic Slaveries in New France.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/064
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The American Civil War claimed more than 620,000 American lives.
Did you know that it also cost American forests, landscapes, cities, and institutions?
Today, we explore the different types of ruination wrought by the American Civil War with Megan Kate Nelson, author of Ruin Nation: Destruction and the American Civil War.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/063
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Did you know that when James Madison originally proposed the Bill of Rights, it consisted of 36 amendments and that the House of Representatives did not want to consider or debate Madison’s proposed amendments to the Constitution?
Today, we explore the Bill of Rights and its ratification with Carol Berkin, author of The Bill of Rights: The Fight to Secure America’s Liberties.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/062
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If you had only six years to enjoy retirement what would you do?
Would you improve your plantation? Build canals? Or work behind-the-scenes to unite your country by framing a new central government?
These were just some of the activities undertaken by George Washington during his brief retirement from public service between 1783 and 1789.
Today, we explore the brief retirement of George Washington with Edward Larson, winner of the Pulitzer Prize in history and author of The Return of George Washington, 1783-1789.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/061
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Did Washington really start the French and Indian War?
Why should we remember a battle that took place over 260 years ago?
In this episode, we investigate the answers to those questions as we explore the Battle of the Monongahela with David Preston, author of Braddock’s Defeat: The Battle of the Monongahela and the Road to Revolution.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/060
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Between the 1830s and 1860s, a clandestine communications and transportation network called the “Underground Railroad” helped thousands of slaves escape to freedom.
Today, we will investigate and explore this secret network with Eric Foner, a Pulitzer Prize winning historian and author of Gateway to Freedom: The Hidden History of the Underground Railroad.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/059
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Why do we refer to the men who founded the United States as the “founding fathers?”
Why do we choose to remember the American Revolution as a glorious event that had almost universal, colonial support when in fact, the Revolution’s events were bloody, violent, and divisive?
Today, we explore our memory of the American Revolution and how our memory of the event and its participants evolved with Andrew Schocket, author of Fighting over the Founders: How We Remember the American Revolution.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/058
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Do you know what we have in common with our early American forebears?
Taxes.
As Benjamin Franklin stated in 1789, “nothing is certain but death and taxes.” Given the certainty of taxes it seems important that we understand how the United States’ fiscal system developed.
Today, we explore the development of the early American fiscal system with Max Edling, Professor of History at King’s College, London and author of A Hercules in the Cradle: War, Money, and the American State, 1783-1867.
Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/057
Helpful Show Links
Help Support Ben Franklin's World Crowdfunding Campaign
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*Books purchased through this link will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.
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