Ben Franklin's World

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 investigate how early Americans thought about citizenship and how they defined who could and couldn’t belong to the United States.

Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/255 Sponsor Links

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Complementary Episodes

• Episode 076: Nathan Perl-Rosenthal, Becoming American in the Age of Revolution  
• Episode 096: Nichoals Guyatt, The Origins of Racial Segregation in the United States
• Episode 142: Manisha Sinha, A History of Abolition
• Episode 143: Michael Klarman, The Making of the United States Constitution
• Episode 157: The Revolution’s African American Soldiers
• Episode 166: Freedom and the American Revolution

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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 University of Illinois at Chicago and the author of Sovereign of the Market: The Money Question in Early America. Jeff is an expert in the intellectual and social history of capitalism in early America and he’s agreed to lead us on an investigation of the world of money in early America.

Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/254 Sponsor Links

• Omohundro Institute
• The Ben Franklin's World Shop

Complementary Episodes

• Episode 099: Mark Hana, Pirates & Pirate Nests 
• Episode 109: John Dixon, The American Enlightenment & Cadwallader Colden 
• Episode 127: Caroline Winterer, American Enlightenments
• Episode 139: Andrés Reséndez, The Other Slavery
• Episode 213: Rebecca Fraser, The Pilgrims of Plimoth
• Episode 235: Jenny Hale Pulsipher, A 17th-Century Native American Life

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• Ben Franklin's World iOS App
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Helpful Links

*Books purchased through the links on this post will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.

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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. 


Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/253 Sponsor Links

• Omohundro Institute
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• Episode 110: Joshua Taylor, How Genealogists Research
• Episode 114: Karin Wulf, The History of Genealogy
• Episode 145: Rosemarie Zagarri, Mercy Otis Warren
• Episode 150: Woody Holton, Abigail Adams
• Episode 228: Eric Hinderaker, The Boston Massacre
• Episode 231: Sara Georgini, The Religious Lives of the Adams Family

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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. Dziennick, an Assistant Professor of History at the United States Naval Academy and author The Fatal Land: War, Empire, and the Highland Soldier, presents us with one of these imperial stories. Specifically, we’re going to investigate the world of the eighteenth-century Scottish Highlands and how the 12,000 soldiers the Highlands sent to North America shaped the course of the British Empire during Seven Years’ War and the American Revolution.

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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.

Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/048 Sponsor Links

• Omohundro Institute
• The Ben Franklin's World Shop

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• Episode 037: Kathleen DuVal, Independence Lost
• Episode 109: John Dixon, The American Enlightenment & Cadwallader Colden
• Episode 140: Tamara Thornton, Nathaniel Bowditch
• Episode 174: Thomas Apel, Yellow Fever in the Early American Republic
• Episode 186: Max Edelson, The New Map of the British Empire
• Episode 204: James Lewis Jr., The Burr Conspiracy

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Helpful Links

*Books purchased through the links on this post will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.

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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 Norfolk State University, helps us find answers.

Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/250 Sponsor Links

• Omohundro Institute
• The Ben Franklin's World Shop
• The Roller-Bottimore Foundation
• Bibliography: 1619 and Virginia

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• Episode 079: Jim Horn, What is a Historical Source? 
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• Episode 224: Kevin Dawson, Aquatic Culture in Early America
• Episode 226: Ryan Quintana, Making the State of South Carolina

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Helpful Links

*Books purchased through the links on this post will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.

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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.

In this bonus episode, Cassandra Newby-Alexander helps us determine whether the English or Dutch brought the first African people to English North America and explore more about the lives of those first African people in early Virginia.

Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/250

Sponsor Links

• Omohundro Institute
• Ben Franklin’s World Shop
• The Roller-Bottimore Foundation
• Virginia 1619: Slavery and Freedom in the Making of English America (Save 40 percent with promo code 01BFW)

Complementary Episodes

• Episode 079: Jim Horn, What is a Historical Source? 
• Episode 206: Katherine Gerbner, Christian Slavery
• Episode 212: Erica Dunbar, Researching Biography
• Episode 220: Margaret Ellen Newell, New England Indians, Colonists, and Origins of Slavery
• Episode 224: Kevin Dawson, Aquatic Culture in Early America
• Episode 226: Ryan Quintana, Making the State of South Carolina

Listen!

• Apple Podcasts
• Spotify
• Google Podcasts
• Ben Franklin's World iOS App
• Ben Franklin's World Android App

Helpful Links

• Join the Ben Franklin's World Facebook Group
• Ben Franklin’s World Twitter: @BFWorldPodcast
• Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page
• Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter

*Books purchased through the links on this post will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.

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 episode originally posted as Episode103.

Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/249

Sponsor Links

• Omohundro Institute
• The Ben Franklin's World Shop

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• Join the Ben Franklin's World Facebook Group
• Ben Franklin’s WorldTwitter: @BFWorldPodcast
• Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page
• Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter

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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 and Culture.

This episode originally posted as a Bonus Episode in 2016.

Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/248

 Sponsor Links

• Omohundro Institute
• The Ben Franklin's World Shop

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• Episode 212: Researching Biography

Listen!

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• Spotify
• Google Podcasts
• Ben Franklin's World iOS App
• Ben Franklin's World Android App

Helpful Links

• Join the Ben Franklin's World Facebook Group
• Ben Franklin’s WorldTwitter: @BFWorldPodcast
• Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page
• Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter

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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 Historic Site in Fort Hunter, New York, joins us to discuss the Erie Canal, its construction, and the impact that this waterway made on New York and the United States.

This episode originally posted as Episode 028.

Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/247

Sponsor Links

• Omohundro Institute
• The Ben Franklin's World Shop

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• Episode 239: Joseph Adelman, Post & Travel in Early America

Listen!

• Apple Podcasts
• Spotify
• Google Podcasts
• Ben Franklin's World iOS App
• Ben Franklin's World Android App

Helpful Links

• Join the Ben Franklin's World Facebook Group
• Ben Franklin’s WorldTwitter: @BFWorldPodcast
• Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page
• Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter

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