How do empires come to be? How are empires made and who makes them? What role do maps play in making empires? Christian Koot is a Professor of History at Towson University and the author of A Biography of a Map in Motion: Augustine Herrman’s Chesapeake. Christian has researched and written two books about the seventeenth-century Anglo-Dutch World to better understand empires and how they are made. Today, he joins us to take us through his … [Read more...]
Episode 256: Christian Koot, Mapping Empire in the Chesapeake
Episode 255: Martha S. Jones, Birthright Citizens
Who gets to be a citizen of the United States? How does the United States define who belongs to the nation? Early Americans asked and grappled with these questions during the earliest days of the early republic. Martha S. Jones is a Professor of History at Johns Hopkins University and a former public interest litigator. Using details from her book, Birthright Citizens: A History of Race and Rights in Antebellum America, Martha joins us to … [Read more...]
Episode 254: Jeffrey Sklansky, The Money Question in Early America
We read and hear a lot about money. We read and hear about fluctuations in the value of the Dollar, Pound, and Euro, interest rates and who can and can’t get access to credit, and we also read and hear about new virtual currencies like Bitcoin and Facebook’s Libra. We talk a lot about money. But where did the idea of money come from? Did early Americans think about money a lot too? Jeffrey Sklansky is a Professor of History at the … [Read more...]
Episode 253: Susan Clair Imbarrato, Life & Revolution in Boston & Grenada
What can a family history tell us about revolutionary and early republic America? What can the letters of a wife and mother tell us about life in the Caribbean during the Age of Revolutions? These are questions Susan Clair Imbarrato, a Professor of English at Minnesota State University Moorhead, set out to answer as she explored an amazing trove of letters to and from a woman named Sarah Gray Cary. Listen Now About … [Read more...]
Episode 252: Matthew Dziennik, The Highland Soldier in North America
Much of early American history comprises stories of empire and how different Native, European, and Euro-American nations vied for control of North American territory, resources, and people. In this episode, Matthew P. Dziennik, an Assistant Professor of History at the United States Naval Academy and author of The Fatal Land: War, Empire, and the Highland Soldier in British America, presents us with one of these imperial stories. Specifically, … [Read more...]
Episode 251: Cameron Strang, Frontiers of Science
What did early Americans think about science? And how did they pursue and develop their knowledge of it? Cameron Strang, an Assistant Professor of History at the University of Nevada, Reno and author of Frontiers of Science: Imperialism and Natural Knowledge in the Gulf South Borderlands, 1500-1850, joins us to investigate the early American world of science and how early Americans developed their scientific knowledge. Listen … [Read more...]
Episode 250: Virginia, 1619
2019 marks the 400th anniversary of two important events in American history: The creation of the first representative assembly in English North America and the arrival of the first African people in English North America. Why were these Virginia-based events significant and how have they impacted American history? Cassandra Newby-Alexander, a scholar of African American and American History and the Dean of the College of Liberal Arts at … [Read more...]
Episode 249: BFW Road Trip: Charlottesville, VA, James Monroe’s Highland
Between 1789 and 1825, five men would serve as President of the United States. Four of them hailed from Virginia. Many of us know details about the lives and presidencies of Washington, Jefferson, and Madison. But what do we know about the life and presidency of the fourth Virginia president, James Monroe? Sara Bon-Harper, Executive Director of James Monroe’s Highland, joins us to explore the public and private life of James Monroe. This … [Read more...]
Episode 248: BFW Road Trip: Washington, D.C., NMAAHC
Not all historians publish their findings about history in books and articles. Some historians convey knowledge about history to the public in public spaces and in public ways. We conclude the “Doing History: How Historians Work” series with a look at how historians do history for the public with guest historian Lonnie Bunch, the Founding Director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History & Culture. This episode … [Read more...]
Episode 247: BFW Road Trip: New York, Schoharie Crossing
A “little short of madness.” That is how Thomas Jefferson responded when two delegates from New York approached him with the idea to build the Erie Canal in January 1809. Jefferson’s comment did not discourage New Yorkers. On January 4, 1817, New York State began building a 363-mile long canal to link the Hudson River and Atlantic Ocean with the Great Lakes and the Midwest. Janice Fontanella, site manager of Schoharie Crossing State … [Read more...]
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