Ben Franklin's World

How much merit do the economic factors behind the cry “No Taxation Without Representation” have when we consider the origins of the American Revolution?

In this episode of the Doing History: To the Revolution series we begin a 3-episode exploration of different aspects of the early American economy and what roles these economic aspects played in causing the American Revolution.

Serena Zabin, a Professor of History at Carleton College and author of Dangerous Economies: Status and Commerce in Imperial New York, helps us survey the economic scene by guiding us through the British North American economy on the eve of the American Revolution.

Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/159

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• Omohundro Institute
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Complementary Episodes

• Episode 109: John Dixon, The American Enlightenment and Cadwallader Colden
• Episode 111: Jonathan Eacott, India and the Making of Britain and America, 1700-1830
• Episode 112: Mary Beth Norton, The Tea Crisis of 1773
• Episode 127: Caroline Winterer, American Enlightenments
• Episode 150: Abigail Adams, Revolutionary Speculator
• Bonus: The Stamp Act of 1765

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Between 1775 and 1783, an estimated 230,000 men served in the Continental Army with another approximately 145,000 men serving in state militia units.

Who were the men who served in these military ranks? What motivated them to take up arms and join the army? And what was their military experience like?

In this episode of the Doing History: To the Revolution series, we explore the development of the Continental Army, partisan militia groups, and Native American scouting parties. Our guides for this exploration are Fred Anderson, Randy Flood, and Brooke Bauer.

Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/158

Sponsor Links

• Omohundro Institute
• William and Mary Quarterly
• OI Reader
• Episode 128: Alan Taylor, American Revolutions
• William and Mary Quarterly-Journal of the Early Republic joint issue on the American Revolution special discount

Complementary Blog Post

• Holly Mayer, "Following the Army"

Complementary Episodes

• Episode 010: Don Hagist, British Soldiers, American War
• Episode 048: Ken Miller, Enemy Captives During the War for Independence
• Episode 056: Daniel J. Totora, The Anglo-Cherokee War, 1759-1761
• Episode 060: David Preston, Braddock’s Defeat
• Episode 102: William Nester, George Rogers Clark
• Episode 122: Andrew O’Shaughnessy, The Men Who Lost America
• Episode 123: Revolutionary Allegiances
• Episode 129: J.L. Bell, The Road to Concord
• Episode 130: Paul Revere’s Ride Through History
• Episode 132: Coll Thrush, Indigenous London
• Episode 153: Committees and Congress: Governments of the American Revolution
• Episode 157: The Revolution’s African-American Soldiers

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Between 1775 and 1783, an estimated 230,000 men served in the Continental Army with another approximately 145,000 men serving in state militia units.

But who were the men who served in these military ranks? What motivated them to take up arms and join the army? And what was their military experience like?

In this episode of the Doing History: To the Revolution series we begin a 2-episode exploration of some of the military aspects of the American Revolution by exploring the experiences of the approximately 6,000-7,000 African American men who served in the Continental Army. Our guide for this exploration is Judith Van Buskirk, a professor of history at the State University of New York, Cortland and the author of Standing in Their Own Light: African American Patriots in the American Revolution.

Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/157

Sponsor Links

• Omohundro Institute
• William and Mary Quarterly
• OI Reader App
• William and Mary Quarterly-Journal of the Early Republic joint issue on the American Revolution special discount

Complementary Episodes

• Episode 016: Alan Taylor, The Internal Enemy  
• Episode 118: Christy Clark-Pujara, The Business of Slavery in Rhode Island
• Episode 123: Revolutionary Allegiances
• Episode 126: Rebecca Brannon, The Reintegration of American Loyalists
• Episode 137: Erica Dunbar, The Washington’s Runaway Slave, Ona Judge
• Episode 153: Committees and Congress: Governments of the American Revolution

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• Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page
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How did Americans find out about the Revolution?

What effect did printed materials like newspapers, pamphlets, and books have on shaping the debate about independence? And just how big of a role did Thomas Paine’s Common Sense play in causing Americans to declare their independence from Great Britain?

In this episode of the Doing History: To the Revolution! series, we explore these question with four scholars of Revolutionary communication: Alyssa Zuercher Reichardt, Eric Slauter, Seth Cotlar, and Trish Loughran.

Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/156

Sponsor Links

• Omohundro Institute
• William and Mary Quarterly
• OI Reader App
• Episode 076: Nathan Perl-Rosenthal, Citizen Sailors: Becoming American in the Age of Revolution
• William and Mary Quarterly-Journal of the Early Republic special issue on the American Revolution discount

Complementary Episodes

• Episode 001: James Green, The Library Company of Philadelphia
• Episode 141: A Declaration in Draft
• Episode 144: Robert Parkinson, The Cause of the American Revolution
• Episode 152: Origins of the American Revolution
• Episode 153: Committees and Congress: Governments of the American Revolution

Helpful Show Links

• Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page
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How much can the work of one historian impact how we view and study the American Revolution?

We investigate the answer to this question by exploring the life and work of Pauline Maier, a historian who spent her life researching and investigating the American Revolution. Over the course of her lifetime, Maier wrote four important books about the American Revolution: From Resistance to Revolution, The Old Revolutionaries, American Scripture, and Ratification.

Mary Beth Norton, Joanne Freeman, Todd Estes, and Lindsay Chervinsky join us as we journey through Maier’s body of work to better understand the American Revolution and how one historian can impact how we view and study history.

Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/155

Sponsor Links

• Omohundro Institute
• William and Mary Quarterly
• OI Reader App

Complementary Episodes

• Episode 007: Sara Georgini, John Adams and the Adams Papers Editorial Project
• Episode 031: Benjamin Franklin and the Papers of Benjamin Franklin Editorial Project
• Episode 074: Mary Wigge, Martha Washington
• Episode 098: Gautham Rao, Birth of the American Tax Man
• Episode 112: Mary Beth North, The Tea Crisis of 1773
• Episode 123: Revolutionary Allegiances
• Episode 141: A Declaration in Draft
• Episode 143: Michael Klarman, The making of the United States Constitution
• Episode 152: Bernard Bailyn, Origins of the American Revolution

Helpful Show Links

• Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page
• Join the Ben Franklin's World Community
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*Books purchased through this link will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.

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Declaring independence from Great Britain required the formation of new governments.

But why did Americans want and need new governments? And how did their interactions and experiences with their old, colonial governments inform their decisions to create new governments?

Barbara Clark Smith, a curator in the division of political history at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History and the author of The Freedoms We Lost: Consent and Resistance in Revolutionary America, leads us on an exploration of how Americans interacted with their government before the American Revolution and how the Revolution changed their interaction and ideas about government.

Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/154

Sponsor Links

• Omohundro Institute 
• William and Mary Quarterly
• OI Reader App
• William and Mary Quarterly-Journal of the Early Republic joint issue on the American Revolution special discount

Complementary Episodes

• Episode 036: Abigail Swingen, Competing Visions of Empire
• Episode 049: Malcolm Gaskill, How the English Became American
• Episode 141: A Declaration in Draft
• Episode 150: Abigail Adams, Revolutionary Speculator
• Episode 152: Origins of the American Revolution
• Episode 153: Governments of the American Revolution
• Bonus: J.L. Bell, The Boston Stamp Act Riots

Helpful Show Links

• Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page
• Join the Ben Franklin's World Community
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*Books purchased through this link will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.

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How did the American revolutionaries organize and coordinate local, provincial, and intercolonial action?

How did the revolutionaries form governments?

In this episode of the Doing History: To the Revolution series we explore governance and governments of the American Revolution with three scholars: Mark Boonshoft, Benjamin Irvin, and Jane Calvert.

Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/153

Sponsor Links

• Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture
• Doing History: To the Revolution! series
• OI Reader App
• Care.com Senior Services 

Complementary Blog Post

• William Huntting Howell, "The Committee of Correspondence and the War at Home"

Complementary Episodes

• Episode 112: Mary Beth Norton, The Tea Crisis of 1773
• Episode 123: Revolutionary Allegiances
• Episode 129: J.L. Bell, The Road to Concord
• Episode 130: Paul Revere’s Ride Through History
• Episode 134: Spencer McBride, Pulpit and Nation
• Episode 141: A Declaration in Draft
• Episode 143: Michael Klarman, The Making of the United States Constitution
• Episode 144: Robert Parkinson, The Common Cause of the American Revolution
• Episode 152: Bernard Bailyn, Origins of the American Revolution

Helpful Show Links

• Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page
• Join the Ben Franklin's World Community
• Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter
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*Books purchased through this link will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.

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What caused the American Revolution?

Was it the issue of ‘No Taxation without Representation?’ Was it conflict and change in the social order of colonial and British society? Or, was the Revolution about differences in ideas about governance and the roles government should play in society?

In this episode of the Doing History: To the Revolution series, we explore one set of ideas about the origins of the American Revolution with Bernard Bailyn, a Professor Emeritus at Harvard University and author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning book, The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution.

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

Sponsor Links

• Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture
• Doing History: To the Revolution!
• OI Reader app
• Hello Fresh (Promo Code: BFWorld30)

Complementary Episodes

• Episode 107: Mary Sarah Bilder, Madison’s Hand
• Episode 119: Steve Pincus, The Heart of the Declaration
• Episode 127: Caroline Winterer, American Enlightenments
• Episode 141: A Declaration in Draft
• Episode 151: Defining the American Revolution

Helpful Show Links

• Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page
• Join the Ben Franklin's World Community
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What do we mean by the American Revolution?

How do we define it? Was it a war? Was it a movement? Was it a series of movements?

The Doing History: To the Revolution! Series seeks to explore not just the history of the American Revolution, but the histories of the American Revolution. In this episode, we undertake the difficult task of trying to define the American Revolution by going behind-the-scenes of the Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia

Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/151

Sponsor Links

• Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture
• Doing History: To the Revolution!
• OI Reader app

Complementary Episodes

• Episode 112: Mary Beth Norton, The Tea Crisis of 1773
• Episode 123: Revolutionary Allegiances
• Episode 130: Paul Revere’s Ride Through History
• Episode 141: A Declaration in Draft
• Bonus: Why Historians Study History
• Bonus: History and Historians in the Public

Helpful Show Links

• Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page
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*Books purchased through this link will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.

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Abigail Adams lived through and participated in the American Revolution. As the wife of John Adams, she used her position to famously remind Adams and his colleagues to "remember the ladies" when they created laws for the new, independent United States.

In this episode, Woody Holton, a Professor of History at the University of South Carolina and author of Abigail Adams: A Life, helps us explore a different, largely unknown aspect of Adams' life: Her financial investments.

Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/150

Sponsor Links

• Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture
• Doing History: To the Revolution! series
• The William and Mary Quarterly
• OI Reader App

Complementary Episodes

• Episode 007: Sara Georgini, John Adams & the Adams Papers Documentary Editing Project
• Episode 022: Vivian Bruce Conger, Deborah Read Franklin & Sally Franklin Bache
• Bonus: Why Historian’s Study History
• Episode 103: Sara Bon Harper, James Monroe & His Highland Estate
• Episode 131: Frank Cogliano, Thomas Jefferson’s Empire of Liberty
• Episode 145: Rosemarie Zagarri, Mercy Otis Warren and the American Revolution

Helpful Show Links

• Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page
• Join the Ben Franklin's World Community
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*Books purchased through this link will help support the production of Ben Franklin's World.

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