Dichotomy of Russians traditions toward the United States started from the beginning - in the American Revolution. While Russia did not fear 13 rebellious colonies that would eventually form a fledging nation, the Russian government feared the ideas of liberty and republicanism that came from America, including the popularity of Benjamin Franklin in Russia.

An interesting point about this dichotomy is that it happened at the time of Catherine the Great - who called herself Republican and liked to be known as being an enlightened ruler. But this very enlightened ruler imprisoned Russians who disseminated the American Declaration of Independence and wrote of liberty and human rights, including the morality bankrupt practice of serfdom in Russia.

In addition to all the above, my guest scholar explains two ways in which the Russian Empire indirectly helped the American cause, and why it too Russia so long to formalize relations with the United States.

📄 ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠I⁠nterview Transcript

🚩About My 206th Guest: Dr. Ivan Kurilla

Dr. Ivan Kurilla is a historian of U.S.-Russian relations. In addition to many appointments at U.S. universities, he previously taught at Volgograd State University and the European University at St. Petersburg. However, in 2024 he left Russia after being dismissed for opposing the war in Ukraine and is now based in the United States as a visiting scholar in the Department of History at The Ohio State University. His scholarship also focuses on the history of U.S. and American foreign relations, the international dimensions of the American Civil War, issues of historical memory, the misuse of history, and the role of historians in contemporary Russia. Dr. Kurilla has published extensively on these subjects.

▶️Other Interviews: --Interview with Dr. Sophia Rosenfeld about the Age of Enlightenment

--Interview with Dr. Jonathan Singerton about the Habsburg Empire and the American Revolution: That interview will be linked here when it publishes.

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📑 Video Chapters:

00:00 Select Highlights

01:58 Guest Introduction

03:56 Russia During the American Revolution

10:51 Russia’s Enlightened, Republican Autocrat

14:54 American News in the Russian Empire

18:40 Franklin’s Fame in Russia

20:38 Two Russian Traditions Toward America

26:28 Empress Catherine Refuses King George III

32:51 Russia’s Declaration of Armed Neutrality

38:10 Francis Dana’s Militia Diplomacy in Russia

41:58 Dichotomy of Russia’s Revolutionaries

49:31 Just One Point

59:00 John Paul Jones in Russia

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Steuben after Valley Forge is a story we rarely hear—but it’s when his most significant contribution to the Continental Army takes place. Did you know that Continental soldiers actually liked Steuben, even though he was a tough disciplinarian? Or that the Continental Congress never fully paid him what he was owed?

This is the story of a bored, desperate, disgraced—but capable—Prussian officer who uses all his talents, tricks, and connections to volunteer for the American cause. He spoke the language of the Enlightenment about a Republic in America, and the Continental Congress eagerly anticipated his arrival. John Hancock himself went out to meet him.

📄 ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠I⁠nterview Transcript⁠

🚩About My Guest:

Dr. Paul Douglas Lockhart is a professor at Wright State University. He is a historian of war and society in the Western world from 1500-1945. His research focuses on Northern Europe, with a specialization on Denmark. In recognition of his contributions to the study of Danish history , he has been elected to membership in the Royal Society for Danish History, which is a rare accolade for a foreign scholar.

I have previously interviewed Dr. Lockhart about Denmark and its military history: "The Longest Continuous Monarchy - Denmark's History - How An Empire Can Decline in a "Flash".

Dr. Lockhart has also researched and written extensively on the military history of the American Revolution, including his book "The Drillmaster of Valley Forge: The Baron de Steuben and the Making of the American Army".

▶️Other Interviews:

--Interview with Dr. Rick Herrera, author of Feeding Washington's Army: Surviving the Valley Forge Winter of 1778. COMNIG SOON.

--Interview with Prof. Joel Richard Paul: Silas Deane, Benjamin Franklin & Arthur Lee in Paris. COMING SOON.

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📑 Video Chapters:

00:00:00 Select Highlights

00:02:25 Guest Introduction

00:04:13 Why Valley Forge?

00:06:24 Options Other Than Valley Forge

00:08:49 Washington's Army Compared to European Armies

00:10:43 Ethnicities and Languages in Valley Forge

00:12:32 Main Issue at Valley Forge

00:15:30 British Paid in Gold

00:17:26 Why Valley Forge Lasted So Long

00:20:24 Washington's Strategy of Winning the War

00:23:34 Steuben – His Real Name

00:27:03 Steuben Courting Americans

00:34:06 Steuben's Charm Offensive

00:41:14 Steuben's Demands

00:43:54 What Steuben Wanted from Washington

00:48:16 Steuben's Most Important Contribution

00:52:17 Steuben's Swearing – "The Force of Goddamns"

00:57:51 Steuben's Impact on Valley Forge

01:06:37 Was Steuben Ever Paid by the Continental Congress?

01:08:51 An American Standing Army

01:12:43 American vs. Prussian Army

01:14:35 Just One Point about Steuben

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"An abject disaster"! Native Americans were not a side note in the American Revolution — they were central to it. In fact, much of the war was fought in Native lands. Yet, their story is rarely told.

Most Native nations tried to stay neutral at first, calling the conflict a “war between brothers.” But expanding colonial settlements and pressure from both sides forced difficult choices. Most ultimately sided with Britain — and the outcome of the Revolution was disastrous for them.

📄 ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠I⁠nterview Transcript

🚩About My Guest:

Dr. David Silverman is a professor of in the Columbian College of Arts and Sciences at George Washington University. His research and teaching focus on Native American, Colonial American, and American racial history. He has published extensively on these subjects, including many books and book chapters. His latest book, published in 2026, is "The Chosen and The Damned: Native Americans and the Making of Race in the United States".

Dr. Silverman is a repeat guest on this program. In our previous interview, he explained the real history of Thanksgiving.

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📑 Video Chapters:

00:00 Select Highlights

01:57 Guest Introduction

03:30 Native Americans or Indians?

12:55 The Longest List

18:04 Indians' Major Grievance

23:19 Natives' Dilemma: Dividing Nations

26:51 Why Indians sided with the British

34:19 Extinguishing Council Fire

39:24 Cherokees' Crisis

44:05 George Washington's Indian Attack

47:37 Double Standard: Indians vs. Loyalists

51:21 An abject disaster: outcome of the War

59:16 5/6: Federal Government's Indian Budget

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Were American Loyalists simply “traitors” to the American cause — or were they defending what they believed was constitutional government? Did most American colonists support breaking from Britain, or was the American Revolution really a "minority project," as my guest argues in this interview?

📄 ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Interview Transcript ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

🚩About My 205th Guest:

Dr. Rebecca Brannon is a professor of early American history at James Madison University. Her research focuses on 18th century American history and is concerned with broad questions about the American Revolution and its consequences, including the American Loyalists and what happened to them, which is the subject of this interview.

She is the author of the award-winning book "From Revolution to Reunion: The Reintegration of the South Carolina Loyalists".

Dr. Brannon's academic homepage and personal website.

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📑 Video Chapters:

00:00 Select Highlights

02:04 Guest Introduction

04:35 Defining Loyalists

08:30 Loyalists — No Taxes

11:07 British Miscalculations

14:22 % of Loyalists in America

20:42 Predicting loyalties

27:39 Franklin & his son

31:19 Fluidity of Loyalty

38:01 A civil war?

43:28 Loyalists & modern students

47:20 Why Dr. Brannon studies this subject

50:52 A Loyalist living next door!

59:23 "Just One Point" about Loyalists

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What we often miss about the American Revolution is that it was in reaction to Britain’s empire-wide push for modernization—from India to Ireland, the Caribbean, and the colonies. The French and Indian War elevated Britain to unrivaled world power, but it also compelled Britain to overhaul its political, economic, and administrative systems—all of which met stiff resistance across its imperial possessions. Yet it was resistance from the 13 colonies in North America—which were not even its most valuable holdings—that sparked a global conflict and tested, humbled, and reshaped Britain’s power.

📄 ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Interview Transcript ⁠⁠⁠⁠

🚩About My 204th Guest:

Dr. Steven Pincus is a professor of British history at the University of Chicago. He is a historian of Britain and its Empire, comparative revolutions and comparative empires, political economy, European ideas and Europe's cultural history of 17th & 18th centuries.

Dr. Pincus has published extensively on these subjects, including the following books:

• "The Heart of the Declaration: The Founders’ Case for Activist Government",
• "The Politics of the Public Sphere in Early Modern England: Public Persons and Popular Spirits",
• "1688:The First Modern Revolution",
• "England’s Glorious Revolution 1688–1689: A Brief History with Documents", and
• "A Nation Transformed: England after the Restoration"

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📑 Video Chapters:

00:00 Select Highlights

01:46 Guest Introduction

03:51 What is a Revolution?

09:29 Commonality of Revolutions

14:27 A Revolution or War of Independence?

21:35 Britain’s National Debt

33:47 British Patriotism

40:03 India & Hyder Ali

50:41 Revolution in Ireland

55:01 Confederal Empire

56:58 Elite Split in Revolutions

1:07:51 Just One Point

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"Yankee Doodle" in our videos:

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Independence alone wasn’t enough. For Thomas Paine, the Revolutionary War was worth the fight only if independence led to a new kind of government and polity—one in which, as he famously wrote, “the LAW IS KING.”

In January 1776—just six months before the Declaration of Independence—General George Washington and his officers were still toasting King George III. Paine’s Common Sense shattered any lingering attachment to the King, to Parliament, and to the idea of the British constitution itself. His arguments were so persuasive that Washington ordered Paine’s writing to distributed among his troops before major engagements, including the famous Delaware crossing that led to victory at the Battle of Trenton.

And yet, despite Paine’s service to the cause, he would later feel betrayed by Washington as he languished in a French prison, awaiting execution.

In Part II of my conversation with Prof. Harvey Kaye, we trace Paine’s influence from Washington, Adams, and Jefferson to Lincoln, FDR, Barry Goldwater, Reagan, and Obama. This is the story of how Paine’s passion and persuasive vision helped galvanize a people into founding a new nation—and the darker story of why generations of America’s elite came to loathe him and diminish his contributions to the American cause.

📄 ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Interview Transcript ⁠⁠⁠

🚩About My 203rd Guest:

⁠Dr. Harvey Kaye⁠ is Professor Emeritus of Democracy and Justice Studies at the University of Wisconsin—Green Bay. His area of interest and expertise is American Democracy: History, Memory, Politics, Radicals, and Ideas.

Prof. Kaye is a nationally recognized historian and an award-winning author of many books, including the following:

• "The Powers of the Past: Reflections on the Crisis and the Promise of History",
• "Why Do Ruling Classes Fear History?",
• "Are We Good Citizens? Affairs Political, Literary, and Academic",
• "The Fight for the Four Freedoms: What Made FDR and the Greatest Generation Truly Great",
• "Thomas Paine: Firebrand of the Revolution", and
• "Thomas Paine and the Promise of America".

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Before "Common Sense" shook the Atlantic world, Thomas Paine lived a tumultuous life of struggle, failure, and radical discovery. He arrived in America unknown, ill, and nearly broken. Within a year, Paine would transform a rebellion for right to a revolution for independence.

►In this conversation, Professor Harvey J. Kaye traces Paine’s journey from working-class England to revolutionary America — and the ideas that transformed him into the most influential political writer of the age.

📄 ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Interview Transcript ⁠⁠

🚩About My 203rd Guest:

Dr. Harvey Kaye is Professor Emeritus of Democracy and Justice Studies at the University of Wisconsin—Green Bay. His area of interest and expertise is American Democracy: History, Memory, Politics, Radicals, and Ideas.

Prof. Kaye is a nationally recognized historian and an award-winning author of many books, including the following:

• "The Powers of the Past: Reflections on the Crisis and the Promise of History",
• "Why Do Ruling Classes Fear History?",
• "Are We Good Citizens? Affairs Political, Literary, and Academic",
• "The Fight for the Four Freedoms: What Made FDR and the Greatest Generation Truly Great",
• "Thomas Paine: Firebrand of the Revolution", and
• "Thomas Paine and the Promise of America".

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In 1775, Concord was not a quiet rural town waiting for history to arrive. It was an important Massachusetts community already under strain—shaped by class divisions, religious tensions, and an eighteenth-century “affordability crisis” that had been building for years before "the shot heard 'round the world".

📄 ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Interview Transcript ⁠

►In this interview, Dr. Robert Gross examines Concord, Massachusetts, in the lead-up to the Battles of Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775. As you will see in these discussions, the town was an important colonial town teetering between radical and conservative values until the British Imperial government effectively propelled Concord toward Revolution.

🚩About My 202nd Guest:

Dr. Robert A. Gross is Professor Emeritus of American History at the University of Connecticut (UConn). His scholarship focuses on U.S. social and cultural history from 1750 to 1850, with particular attention to the American Revolution, Transcendentalism, and New England history.

Dr. Gross is the recipient of various national awards, including fellowships from the Guggenheim, Howard, and Rockefeller Foundations, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the American Antiquarian Society. Dr. Gross is the author of several influential works, including:

• The Minutemen and Their World
• Transcendentalists and Their World

He joins us from Concord, Massachusetts—the central setting of this interview—which examines the town’s social and political tensions before the Revolution, as well as events in Lexington and western Massachusetts on the eve of April 19, 1775.

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📑 Video Chapters:

00:00 Select Highlights

01:57 Guest Introduction

03:25 Who were the Minutemen?

08:01 A Remarkable Tension

11:45 Concord not volunteering

15:13 Minutemen, Militia or Both?

17:10 Concord Before the Revolution

23:37 Road to April 19, 1775

27:25 Questioning Concord's Centrality

37:13 “No concord in Concord”

40:02 18th Century Affordability Crisis

45:13 Rebellion In Concord

52:58 Concord— an important town

58:39 Popular Radicalism

1:02:43 Radical vs. Conservative

1:04:44 A Rude Awakening!

1:08:40 Concord Uniting Against the British

1:13:58 Rebellion or Revolution

1:15:29 Intellectual Capital of the New Nation

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"Yankee Doodle" in our videos:

►⁠⁠⁠ Choral, U.S. Army Band (Public Domain) ⁠⁠⁠

We incorporate parts of this fabulous performance in the beginning and end of our videos.

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The East India Company’s trade monopoly angered American colonists by undercutting their smuggling of Chinese goods and keeping prices high. This helped push Americans toward revolution — and it wasn’t just the Boston Tea Party. Patriots held Tea Parties up and down the colonies to challenge British tariffs and control. And it wasn’t only about tea: the consumer revolution had colonists hungry for porcelain, silk, nankeens, fine furniture, and countless other goods from China.

📄 ⁠⁠⁠⁠Interview Transcript

►In this interview, Dr. Dael Norwood explains how America’s demand for Chinese products shaped commerce, politics, and the young nation’s identity — and how global trade fueled the path to revolution.

🚩About My 200th Guest:

⁠Dr. Dael Norwood is a professor in the History Department of the University of Delaware, a historian of nineteenth-century America specializing on the global dimensions of U.S. politics and economics. He is particularly interested in the political economy of commerce: how the ideas and practices of international exchange have affected Americans’ relations with other powers, as well as their dealings with each other.

He has published extensively on these subjects, including the following book, which we discuss in this interview: "Trading in Freedom: How Trade with China Defined Early America"

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📑 Video Chapters:

3:51 Thinking About China in Colonial America

06:52 Consumer Revolution in American Colonies

09:12 High-Level Consumer Goods

11:44 "Colonists are inveterate smugglers."

13:50 Top American Imports

14:25 “The really nice stuff never really gets to North America.”

15:23 How Colonists Purchased Chinese Goods

21:28 Franklin’s Plans To Develop Chinese Products in America

23:20 Europeans & Americans Imitating China

25:08 China Trade and the American Revolution

28:05 The East India Company and Colonial Grievances

32:08 Corruption & Tyranny

33:21 A New Kind of Slavery

34:16 Beyond Boston: Other Colonial Tea Parties

37:04 The Intolerable Acts

40:22 Treaty of Paris

40:59 Out Competing Britain in China Trade

43:40 What American Shipped to China in the 1780s

44:19 Silver Dollars to China

48:15 Could the U.S. Afford Trade With China?

51:52 How Americans Financed Trade With China

53:29 Cabotage and Mechanics of American Trade China

57:21 Politicians vs. Merchants - American Vision of China Trade

58:26 Drugs & China Trade

59:18 Dr. Norwood's Story of Researching China Trade

1:02:17 "China is always there!"

1:03:21 A BIG DEAL

1:04:22 From China Trade to Constitution

1:05:28 Just One Point

1:07:46 "Yankee Doodle"

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"Yankee Doodle" in our videos:

►⁠⁠ Choral, U.S. Army Band (Public Domain) ⁠⁠

We incorporate parts of this fabulous performance in the beginning and end of our videos.

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Was the Boston Massacre inevitable? For its time, was it truly a “massacre”?

And how much do we really know about that night—and how much comes from the stories people chose to share?

📄 ⁠⁠Interview Transcript ⁠⁠

► In this interview, historian Dr. Serena Zabin reconsiders March 5, 1770—looking beyond propaganda to the people, choices, and social networks that shaped revolutionary action in the dark hours after the shooting and transformed how colonists understood their place within the British imperial family—setting the stage for revolution.

🚩About My 199th Guest:

Dr. Serena Zabin is a professor of history and the Liberal Arts at Carleton College. She is the Vice President of the Teaching Division of American Historical Association, a distinguished fellow in Early American History at the Huntington Library for 2024-25, and a former president of Society for Historians of the Early American Republic.

Her research focuses on Early America and Public History, subjects about which he has published extensively, including the following books:

1. "Dangerous Economies: Status and Commerce in Imperial New York",

2. "The New York Conspiracy Trials of 1741: Daniel Horsmanden's "Journal of the Proceedings" with Related Documents", and

3. "The Boston Massacre: A Family History", which received the 2024 George Washington Book Prize and is the focus of this interview.

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📑 Video Chapters:

03:48 March 5, 1770: What Happened?

08:49 Was It Really a “Massacre”?

10:10 Did Soldiers and Bostonians Know Each Other?

11:27 Did Anyone Expect Violence?

16:44 Paul Revere’s Image of the Massacre

21:43 Boston Massacre Conspiracy Theories

22:53 What Revere Exaggerated—or Invented

24:33 What Can We Really Know?

27:38 Revere's Motivation

30:19 The Trial: Politics or Performance?

31:18 The Boston Massacre on Trial

32:23 John Adams: Ethics or Politics?

34:18 Soldiers’ Self-Defense Explained

35:15 Adams and the Soldiers’ Defense

38:31 The Massacre as Family History

40:34 British Living Among Bostonians

44:14 Daily Life Before the “Massacre”

46:53 A Broken Imperial Family?

48:56 A Bad Divorce

53:10 Dr. Zabin and Ken Burns’ "The American Revolution"

55:22 "Just One Point"

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This interview with Dr. Serena Zabin examines the Boston Massacre—the social developments and everyday challenges faced by Bostonians and British residents that led to March 5, 1770, what happened that night, and, equally important, what followed, including Paul Revere’s propaganda and John Adams’s defense of the British soldiers.

*****

📽️This video is made with Filmora.

☑️Image Attributions:

►all images are in the Public Domain

🎵Music Attributions:

"Yankee Doodle" in our videos:

►⁠ Choral, U.S. Army Band (Public Domain) ⁠

We incorporate parts of this fabulous performance in the beginning and end of our videos.

✅⁠ Subscribe to our YouTube channel ⁠

🫶⁠Support Us⁠:

We appreciate your⁠ financial support ⁠of our program.

*****