Ben Franklin's World

Ben Franklin's World

A Podcast About Early American History

Announcement: Ben Franklin’s World Is Taking A Break

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After 5 years and more than 270 episodes, Ben Franklin’s World is taking a break between January 7 and April 21, 2020. This break will provide Liz and her teammates on the Omohundro Institute’s Digital Projects Team time to think about some exciting new ideas they’d like to bring to the podcast and time to develop some of those ideas for you. Ben Franklin’s World will be back will all-new episodes on April 21, 2020. In the meantime, Liz and … [Read more...]

Episode 271: BFW Team Favorites: Paul Revere’s Ride Through History

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On April 18, 1775, Paul Revere rode to Lexington, Massachusetts to spread the alarm that the Regulars were marching. Revere made several important rides between 1774 and 1775, including one in September 1774 that brought the Suffolk Resolves to the First Continental Congress in Philadelphia. So why is it that we remember Paul Revere’s ride to Lexington and not any of his other rides? Why is it that we remember Paul Revere on the night of … [Read more...]

Episode 270: BFW Team Favorites: Slavery & Freedom in Early Maryland

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How do you uncover the life of an enslaved person who left no paper trail? What can the everyday life of an enslaved person tell us about slavery, how it was practiced, and how some enslaved people made the transition from slavery to freedom? We explore the life of Charity Folks, an enslaved woman from Maryland who gained her freedom in the late-18th century. Our guide through Charity’s life is Jessica Millward, an Associate Professor of … [Read more...]

Episode 269: BFW Team Favorites: One Colonial Woman’s World

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What was everyday life like for average men and women in early America? Listeners ask this question more than any other question and today we continue to try to answer it. Michelle Marchetti Coughlin, author of One Colonial Woman's World: The Life and Writings of Mehetabel Chandler Coit, joins us to explore the life of an average woman who lived in early New England. This episode originally posted as Episode 032.   Listen … [Read more...]

Episode 268: BFW Team Favorites: Young Benjamin Franklin

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What in the first 40 years of his life made Benjamin Franklin the genius he became? Benjamin Franklin serves as a great window on to the early American past because as a man of “variety” he pursued many interests: literature, poetry, science, business, philosophy, philanthropy, and politics. But one aspect of Franklin’s life has gone largely unstudied: his childhood and early life. Nick Bunker, author of Young Benjamin Franklin: The … [Read more...]

Episode 267: Thomas Wickman, Snowshoe Country

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How did the people of early America experience and feel about winter? Thomas Wickman, an Associate Professor of History and American Studies at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut and author of Snowshoe Country: An Environmental and Cultural Winter in the Early American Northeast, joins us to investigate how Native Americans and early Americans experienced and felt about winter during the 17th and early 18th centuries. Listen Now … [Read more...]

Episode 266: Johann Neem, Education in Early America

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How did early Americans educate their children? How and when did Americans create a formal system of public education? You sent me these questions for Episode 200: Everyday Life in Early America. You also said you wanted to know more about how early American boys and girls learned the trades they would practice later in life. Johann Neem, a Professor of History at Western Washington University and author of Democracy’s Schools: The Rise of … [Read more...]

Episode 265: Lindsay Chervinsky, An Early History of the White House

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On July 1, 1790, Congress passed “An Act for Establishing the temporary and permanent Seat of the Government of the United States.” This act formalized a plan to move the capital of the United States from New York City to Philadelphia, for a period of 10 years, and then from Philadelphia to Washington D.C., where the United States government would make its permanent home. What buildings did Congress have erected to house the … [Read more...]

Episode 264: Michael Oberg, Treaty of Canandaigua

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The Treaty of Paris 1783 ended the American War for Independence, but it did not bring peace to North America. After 1783, warfare and violence continued between Americans and Native Americans. So how did the early United States attempt to create peace for its new nation? Michael Oberg, a Distinguished Professor of History at the State University of New York-Geneseo and the author of Peacemakers: The Iroquois, the United States, and the … [Read more...]

Episode 263: Sari Altschuler, The Medical Imagination

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Did you know that imagination once played a key role in the way Americans understood and practiced medicine? Sari Altschuler, an Associate Professor of English at Northeastern University and author of The Medical Imagination: Literature and Health in the Early United States, joins us to investigate the ways early American doctors used imagination in their practice and learning of medicine. Listen Now About the Show Ben Franklin’s … [Read more...]

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