A weekly podcast about history, higher education, and public memory
This week Hilary and Geoff start a new series of episodes devoted to the Bill of Rights. We’re starting at the beginning and doing a deep dive into the First Amendment. Along the way we’ll discuss Prince John and the Magna Carta, the English Civil War, John Locke, the Glorious Revolution, and even the Virginia Declaration of Rights issued a month before the Declaration of Independence!
Join us this week as we discuss how prevalent alcohol consumption was in the British Colonial period and the Early Republic. Hint: it was a lot! Rum, beer, whiskey, Madeira wine, each served important economic, social, and political roles in the early US history. How did early Americans function when alcohol was so widely available? Were there early critics of alcohol? How did early drinking patterns influence social reform movements? Find out on this week’s episode.
So after some technical issues our latest episode is up! It may be the most important year in American history! Labor unrest, mail bombs, Anarchist plots, industrial accidents, mass deportations, rising racial tensions, and a government spying on its own citizens. The headlines from 1919 bear a striking resemblance to the present. Prohibition began, women’s suffrage came one step closer to being a reality, and the nation was wracked with some of the worst racial violence since the Civil War. Join Hilary and Geoff for a discussion of the year that marked the end of the Progressive Era.
Haha…We had a sleight technical glitch and we found one-half of our newest episode was basically trashed, audio-wise. We’re rerecording as soon as two-day shipping can save us. Watch for the 1919 episode to drop Monday evening or Tuesday morning. We’ll still be releasing our Alcohol in American History episode this coming Friday. Thanks for your patience.
Bombs, race riots, massive strikes were all prominent in 1919, but so was the ratification of one amendment, prohibition, and the conveyance of another, women’s suffrage to the states for ratification. This was a pivotal year for the nation; one marking the end of one era and the beginning of another. It serves as a litmus test for what a truly fractured society looks like. Join us for a deep dive into the year 1919!
Join us as we discuss conspiracy theories throughout American history. Have we always been obsessed with alternative explanations of events? Was historian Richard Hofstadter correct when he pointed to an American form of governing characterized by paranoia? Hilary and Geoff move from the Early Republic to the Civil War to the Cold War and even the War on Terror as they discuss conspiracy theories and how historians address them.
What do Abraham Lincoln, JFK, Apollo 11, the Atlanta Child Murders, and 9/11 have in common? Each has one or more conspiracy theories surrounding it. Why have Americans seemingly always been drawn to conspiracy theories? Join Hilary and Geoff as they discuss both the broader cultural obsession with conspiracies and several historical examples. We’ll be discussing the previously referenced theories as well as some from the 18th and 19th centuries you may never have heard of but which captured the public imagination just as much as our modern conspiracy obsessions. We’ll also talk about how to deal with conspiracy theories in the classroom.
Shays’s Rebellion and the Whiskey Rebellion are two conflicts during the Early Republic that you may have only heard of in passing. Today Hilary and Geoff discuss why they are events everyone should have some knowledge of. They were formative for the US Constitution, for subsequently reorganized state governments, relations between cities and rural spaces, class tensions, the memory of George Washington, and even the nature and meaning of the American Revolution itself.
Wow, when we began planning this podcast I don’t think we ever thought we’d reach more than hundred or so people. As of this morning we’re at 1007 unique listeners. If you’re enjoying our podcast please rate and review us on Apple Podcast. Also, please leave a comment on this site. We’d love to hear from you. We’ll be launching a monthly Q/A Podcast that will be in addition to our regular schedule.
We’ve got a great schedule planned through the end of 2019 including several interviews and at least 1 live stream – we’ll have details on how that will work later. Upcoming topics include Historical Memory, the Palmer Raids, the aftermath of the Red Summer of 1919, as well as several segments on history outside the US. We’ll also continue our conversation about the future of history in higher education.
Stay tuned and thank you once again for listening! If you haven’t had a chance please check out the Patreon Link to the right. There are costs associated with creating and maintaining a podcast and that link gives you an opportunity to help us. It also gives you exclusive access to features unavailable on the regular site.
Thanks again,
Hilary & Geoff
This week Geoff and Hilary will be discussing two lesser known but critically important events in the Early Republic – The Whiskey Rebellion and Shays’s Rebellion. Come and learn how these two revolts fundamentally transformed the relationship between thew federal government and citizens!
