Ben Franklin's World

Over the course of his long life, Benjamin Franklin traveled to and lived in London on two different occasions. The first time he went as a teenager. The second, as a man and colonial agent. All told he spent nearly 18 years living in the heart of the British Empire.

How did Franklin’s experiences in London shape his opportunities and view of the world?

George Goodwin, author of Benjamin Franklin in London: The British Life of America’s Founding Father, leads us on an exploration of Franklin’s life in London.

Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/149

Sponsor Links

• Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture
• The OI Reader App
• Doing History: To the Revolution! Series
• Episode 130: Paul Revere’s Ride Through History
• Episode 141: A Declaration in Draft

Complementary Episodes

• Episode 001: James Green, The Library Company of Philadelphia
• Episode 022: Vivian Bruce Conger, Deborah Read Franklin & Sally Franklin Bache
• Episode 031: Benjamin Franklin and the Papers of Benjamin Franklin Editorial Project
• Episode 122: Andrew O’Shaughnessy, The Men Who Lost America

Helpful Show Links

• Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page
• Join the Ben Franklin's World Community
• Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter
• Ben Franklin's World iOS App
• Ben Franklin's World Android App

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

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How did everyday men and women experience life in the colonial America?

How did the American Revolution transform their work and personal lives?

Marla Miller, a professor of history at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst and the author of Betsy Ross and the Making of America, guides us through the life of Betsy Ross with an aim to help us answer these questions.

Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/148

Sponsor Links

• Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture
• The Octo
• Doing History: To the Revolution! Series
• Episode 130: Paul Revere’s Ride Through History

Complementary Episodes

• Episode 013:Rachel Hope Cleves, Charity & Sylvia: A Same-Sex Marriage in Early America
• Episode 027: Lisa Wilson, A History of Stepfamilies in Early America
• Episode 032: Michelle Coughlin, One Colonial Woman’s World
• Episode 089: Jessica Millward, Slavery & Freedom in Early America
• 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
• Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter
• Ben Franklin's World iOS App
• Ben Franklin's World Android App

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

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What about the British Redcoats?

When we discuss the military history of the American War for Independence, we tend to focus on specific battles or details about the men who served in George Washington’s Continental Army. Rarely do we take the opportunity to ask questions about the approximately 50,000 men who served in the British Army that opposed them.

Don N. Hagist, independent scholar and author of British Soldiers, American War: Voices of the American Revolution, leads us on exploration of the “other” men who fought in the American War for Independence, the soldiers in the British Army.

Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/147

Sponsor Links

• Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture
• The Octo
• Doing History: To the Revolution! Series
• Episode 130: Paul Revere’s Ride Through History
• Episode 141: A Declaration in Draft
• “The Adverts 250 Project” 
• “George Washington’s Bodies,” Nursing Clio

Complementary Episodes

• Episode 081: Don Glickstein, After Yorktown: The Final Struggle for American Independence
• Episode 085: Bonnie Huskins, American Loyalists in Canada
• Episode 122: Andrew O’Shaughnessy, The Men Who Lost America
• Episode 126: Rebecca Brannon, The Reintegration of American Loyalists

Helpful Show Links

• Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page
• Join the Ben Franklin's World Community
• Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter
• Ben Franklin's World iOS App
• Ben Franklin's World Android App

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

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What drove George Washington to become a Patriot during the American Revolution?

How did he overcome the ill-trained and inexperienced troops, inadequate pay, and supply problems that plagued the Continental Army to win the War for American Independence?

Robert Middlekauff, professor emeritus of colonial and early United States history at the University of California, Berkeley, reveals the answers to these questions as we explore details from his book Washington’s Revolution: The Making of America’s First Leader.

This episode originally posted as Episode 026.

Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/146

Sponsor Links

• Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture
• The Octo
• Doing History: To the Revolution! Series
• Episode 130: Paul Revere's Ride Through History
• Episode 141: A Declaration in Draft
• "Dartmouth College and Canada: The Problem of National Historiographies," Borealia: A Group Blog on Early Canadian History

Complementary Episodes

• Episode 033: Douglas Bradburn, George Washington & His Library
• Episode 061: Edward Larson, George Washington in Retirement
• Episode 065: Alexander Rose, Washington’s Spies
• Episode 074: Mary Wigge, Martha Washington
• Episode 137: Erica Dunbar, The Washingtons’ Runaway Slave, Ona Judge

Helpful Show Links

• Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page
• Join the Ben Franklin's World Community
• Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter
• Ben Franklin's World iOS App
• Ben Franklin's World Android App

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

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Mercy Otis Warren wasn’t your typical early American woman. She was a woman with strong political viewpoints, which she wrote about and published for the world to see and consider.

Did anyone take her views seriously?

Did her writings sway public opinion in the direction of her political views?

In this episode, Rosemarie Zagarri, a professor of history at George Mason University and author of A Woman’s Dilemma: Mercy Otis Warren and the American Revolution, helps us kick off a new, six-episode series about the people of the American Revolution by taking us through the life of Mercy Otis Warren.

Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/145

Sponsor Links

• Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture
• The Octo

Complementary Episodes

• Episode 032: Michelle Marchetti Coughlin, One Colonial Woman’s World
• Episode 050: Marla Miller, Betsy Ross
• Episode 123: Revolutionary Allegiances (Doing History)
• Episode 129: J.L. Bell, The Road to Concord
• Episode 143: Michael Klarman, The Making of the United States Constitution

Helpful Show Links

• Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page
• Join the Ben Franklin's World Community
• Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter
• Ben Franklin's World iOS App
• Ben Franklin's World Android App

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

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How do you get people living in thirteen different colonies to come together and fight for independence?

What ideas and experiences would even unite them behind the fight?

Patriot leaders asked themselves these very questions, especially as the American Revolution turned from a series of political protests against imperial policies to a bloody war for independence. What’s more, Patriot leaders also asked themselves once we find these ideas and experiences, how do we use them to unite the American people?

Robert Parkinson, an Assistant Professor of History at Binghamton University and author of the award-winning book, The Common Cause: Creating Race and Nation in the American Revolution, has some ideas for how patriot leaders answered these questions.

Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/144

Sponsor Links

• Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture
• The Octo: Eight Curated Blogs About Early American History
• "Historicizing Freedom & Black Abolitionism," Black Perspectives

Complementary Episodes

• Episode 016: Alan Taylor, The Internal Enemy
• Episode 086: George Goodwin, Benjamin Franklin in London
• Episode 122: Andrew O’Shaughnessy, The Men Who Lost America
• Episode 123: Revolutionary Allegiances
• Episode 141: A Declaration in Draft

Helpful Show Links

• Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page
• Join the Ben Franklin's World Community
• Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter
• Ben Franklin's World iOS App
• Ben Franklin's World Android App

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

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How did the framers draft the Constitution of 1787? What powers does the Constitution provide the federal government? Why do we elect the President of the United States by an electoral system rather than by popular vote?

These are some of the many questions you’ve asked since November 2016. And today we’re going to explore some answers.

Michael Klarman, the Kirkland & Ellis Professor of Law at Harvard Law School and author of The Founders’ Coup: The Making of the United States Constitution joins us to discuss the United States Constitution and how and why the framers drafted it.

Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/143

Sponsor Links

• Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture
• Georgian Papers Programme

Complementary Episodes

• Episode 057: Max Edling: War, Money, and the American State, 1783-1867
• Episode 061: Edward Larson, George Washington in Retirement
• Episode 087: Sean Condon, Shays’ Rebellion
• Episode 098: Gautham Rao, Birth of the American Tax Man
• Episode 107: Mary Sarah Bilder, Madison’s Hand: Revising the Constitutional Convention
• Episode 141: A Declaration in Draft

Helpful Show Links

• Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page
• Join the Ben Franklin's World Community
• Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter
• Ben Franklin's World iOS App
• Ben Franklin's World Android App

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

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Most histories of American abolitionism begin just before the Civil War, during the Antebellum period. But the movement to end chattel slavery in America began long before the United States was a nation.

Manisha Sinha, a professor of history at the University of Connecticut and author of the award-winning book The Slaves Cause: A History of Abolition, takes us through the early American origins of the the abolition movement.

Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/142

Sponsor Links

• Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture
• Georgian Papers Programme

Complementary Episodes

• Episode 055: Robb Haberman, John Jay: Forgotten Founder
• Episode 096: Nicholas Guyatt, The Origins of Racial Segregation in the United States
• Episode 124: James Alexander Dun, Making the Haitian Revolution in Early America
• Episode 127: Caroline Winterer, American Enlightenments
• Episode 135: Julie Holcomb, Moral Commerce
• Episode 137: Erica Dunbar, The Washingtons’ Runaway Slave Ona Judge

Helpful Show Links

• Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page
• Join the Ben Franklin's World Community
• Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter
• Ben Franklin's World iOS App
• Ben Franklin's World Android App

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

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Declaration of Independence stands first in a series of documents that founded the United States. It also stands as an early step in the long process of establishing a free, independent, and self-governing nation. Since 1776, more than 100 nation-states and freedom organizations have used the Declaration of Independence as a model for their own declarations and proclamations of independence.

Given the Declaration of Independence’s important place in the hearts and minds of peoples around the world, we need to go behind its parchment and explore just how the Declaration of Independence came to be.

In this preview episode of the Doing History: To the Revolution! Series, we explore how the Second Continental Congress drafted the Declaration of Independence.

Show Notes:https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/141

About the Series

The mission of episodes in the Doing History: To the Revolution series is to ask not just “what is the history of the American Revolution?” but “what are the histories of the American Revolution?”

Episodes in this series will air beginning in September 2017.

The Doing History series explores early American history and how historians work. It's produced by the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture.

Be sure to check out Doing History season 1, Doing History: How Historians Work.

Sponsor Links

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

Complementary Episodes

Helpful Show Links

• Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page
• Join the Ben Franklin's World Community
• Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter
• Ben Franklin's World iOS App
• Ben Franklin's World Android App

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nathaniel Bowditch worked as a navigator, mathematician, astronomer, and business innovator. Over the course of his lifetime, his fellow Americans hailed him as the “American Sir Isaac Newton.”

Tamara Thornton, a professor of history at the University of Buffalo and author of Nathaniel Bowditch and the Power of Numbers: How a Nineteenth-Century Man of Business, Science, and the Sea Changed America, leads us on a detailed exploration of the life of Nathaniel Bowditch.

Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/140

Sponsor Links

• Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture
• Georgian Papers Programme

Complementary Episodes

• Episode 057: Max Edling, War, Money, and the American State, 1783-1867
• Episode 098: Gautham Rao, Birth of the American Tax Man
• Episode 113: Brian Murphy, Building the Empire State
• Episode 109: John Dixon, The American Enlightenment & Cadwallader Colden
• Episode 127: Caroline Winterer, American Enlightenments

Helpful Show Links

• Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page
• Join the Ben Franklin's World Community
• Sign-up for the Franklin Gazette Newsletter
• Ben Franklin's World iOS App
• Ben Franklin's World Android App

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

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices