Ben Franklin's World

How did the colonists of Massachusetts go from public protests meant to shame government officials and destroy offending property, to armed conflict with British Regulars in Lexington and Concord?

John Bell, the prolific blogger behind Boston1775.net and the author of The Road to Concord: How Four Stolen Cannon Ignited the Revolutionary War, leads us on an investigation of what brought colonists and redcoats to the Battles of Lexington and Concord.

Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/129

Sponsor Links

• Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture
• Doing History series

Complementary Episodes

• Episode 039: Eric Nelson, The Royalist Revolution
• Episode 046: John Ferling, Whirlwind: The American Revolution & the War that Won It
• Episode 112: Mary Beth Norton, The Tea Crisis of 1773
• Bonus: Stamp Act of 1765

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Historians often portray the American Revolution as an orderly, if violent, event that moved from British colonists’ high-minded ideas about freedom to American independence from Great Britain and the ratification of the Constitution of 1787.

But was the American Revolution an orderly event that took place only between Great Britain and her North American colonists? Was it really about high-minded ideas?

Two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Alan Taylor joins us to explore the American Revolution as a Continental event with details from his book, American Revolutions: A Continental History. 1750-1804.

Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/128

Sponsor Links

• DelanceyPlace.com
• "The U.S. Helps the Rebels in Panama"

Complementary Episodes

• Episode 014: Claudio Saunt, West of the Revolution
• Episode 016: Alan Taylor, The Internal Enemy
• Episode 029: Colin Calloway, The Victory with No Name
• Episode 037: Kathleen DuVal: Independence Lost
• Episode 123: Revolutionary Allegiances
• Bonus: Why Historians Study History

Helpful Show Links

• Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page
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In many ways, the Enlightenment gave birth to the United States. Enlightened ideas informed protests over imperial governance and taxation and over whether there should be an American bishop.

If we want to understand early America, we need to understand the Enlightenment.

Caroline Winterer, a Professor of History at Stanford University and author of American Enlightenments: Pursuing Happiness in the Age of Reason, takes us through her ideas about the Enlightenment and how it influenced early America.

Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/127

Sponsor Links

• DelanceyPlace.com
• “The Hostility Between Christians and Deists”

Complementary Episodes

• Bonus: Why Historians Study History
• Episode 085: George Goodwin, Benjamin Franklin in London
• Episode 088: Michael McDonnell: The History of History Writing
• Episode 096: Nicholas Guyatt, The Origins of Racial Segregation in the United States
• Episode 109: John Dixon, The American Enlightenment & Cadwallader Colden
• Episode 117: Annette Gordon-Reed, The Life & Ideas of Thomas Jefferson

Helpful Show Links

• Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page
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What happened to the loyalists who stayed in the United States after the War for Independence?

After the war, 60,000 loyalists and 15,000 slaves evacuated the United States. But thousands more opted to remain in the new nation.

Rebecca Brannon, an Associate Professor of History at James Madison University and author of From Revolution to Reunion: The Reintegration of South Carolina Loyalists, joins us to explore what happened to the loyalists who stayed.

Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/126

Sponsor Links

• Delanceyplace.com
• "Not One, But Ninety Declarations of Independence"

Complementary Episodes

• Episode 037: Kathleen DuVal, Independence Lost
• Episode 046: John Ferling: Whirlwind: The American Revolution & the War That Won It
• Episode 085: Bonnie Huskins, American Loyalists in Canada
• Episode 118: Christy Clark-Pujara, The Business of Slavery in Rhode Island
• Episode 123: Revolutionary Allegiances

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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Early America was a diverse place. It contained many different people who had many different traditions that informed how they lived…and died.

How did early Americans understand death? What did they think about suicide?

Terri Snyder, a Professor of American Studies at California State University, Fullerton and author of The Power to Die: Slavery and Suicide in British North America, helps us answer these questions, and more, as she takes us on an exploration of slavery and suicide in British North America.

Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/125

Sponsor Links

• Delanceyplace.com
• Excerpt from Slavery's Capitalism

Complementary Episodes

• Episode 008: Greg O’Malley, Final Passages the Intercolonial Slave Trade
• Episode 064: Brett Rushforth, Native American Slavery in New France
• Episode 070: Jennifer Morgan, How Historians Research
• Episode 079: Jim Horn, What is a Historic Source? (Colonial Jamestown)
• Episode 089: Jessica Millward, Slavery & Freedom in Early Maryland

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What did the American Revolution mean and achieve? What sort of liberty and freedom did independence grant Americans and which Americans should receive them?

Americans grappled with these questions soon after the American Revolution. They debated these issues during the Constitutional Convention of 1787, in the first congresses, and as they followed events in revolutionary France and Haiti during the 1790s and early 1800s.

James Alexander Dun, an Assistant Professor of History at Princeton University and author of Dangerous Neighbors: Making the Haitian Revolution in Early America, joins us to explore the ways the Haitian Revolution shaped how Americans viewed their own revolution.

Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/124

Sponsor Links

• Delanceyplace.com
• Excerpt from 10 Feb 2017: "How New Amsterdam Became New York"

Complementary Episodes

• Episode 007: Sara Georgini, John Adams & the Adams Papers Documentary Project
• Episode 016: Alan Taylor, The Internal Enemy
• Episode 017: François Furstenberg, When the United States Spoke French
• Episode 052: Ronald A. Johnson, Early United States-Haitian Relations
• Episode 123: Revolutionary Allegiances

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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In December 1773, the Cape Cod Tea Crisis revealed that the people of “radical” Massachusetts were far from united in their support for the American Revolution. An observation that leads us to wonder: How many Americans supported the Patriot cause?

In this episode we speak with four scholars to explore the complexities of political allegiance during the American Revolution.

Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/123

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 Fall 2017.

The Doing History series is part of a partnership between Ben Franklin’s World and the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture.

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

Bonus Content

• Episode Bibliography
• OI Reader

Complementary Episodes

• Episode 007: Sara Georgini, John Adams and the Adams Papers Editorial Project
• Episode 014: Claudio Saunt, West of the American Revolution
• Episode 016: Alan Taylor, The Internal Enemy
• Episode 018: Danielle Allen, Our Declaration
• Episode 025: Jessica Parr, The Invention of George Whitefield
• Episode 037: Kathleen DuVal, Independence Lost
• Episode 085: Bonnie Huskins, American Loyalists in Canada
• Episode 088: Michael McDonnell, The History of History Writing
• Episode 112: Mary Beth Norton, The Tea Crisis of 1773

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

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Did the Americans win the War for Independence? Or did the British simply lose the war?

The history of the American War for Independence is complicated. And history books tell many different versions of the event, which is why we need an expert to guide us through the intricacies of whether we should look at the war as an American victory, a British defeat, or in some other light.

Andrew O’Shaughnessy, author of The Men Who Lost America: British Leadership, the American Revolution, and the Fate of the Empire, joins us to explore British viewpoints of the American War for Independence.

Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/122

Georgian Papers Programme

• Georgian Papers Programme
• Draft of a message of abdication from George III to the Parliament

Sponsor Links

• Cornell University Press
• Critical Edition of Cadwallader Colden’s The History of Five Indian Nations
• Episode 109: John Dixon, The Enlightenment of Cadwallader Colden

Complementary Episodes

• Episode 026: Robert Middlekauff, George Washington’s Revolution
• Episode 046: John Ferling, Whirlwind: The American Revolution & the War That Won It
• Episode 112: Mary Beth Norton, The Tea Crisis of 1773
• Episode 119: Steve Pincus, The Heart of the Declaration
• Bonus: Stamp Act

Helpful Show Links

• Help Support Ben Franklin's World Crowdfunding Campaign
• 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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The Spanish, French, and English played large roles in the origins of colonial America. But so too did the Dutch. During the 17th century, they had a “moment" in which they influenced European colonization and development of the Atlantic World.

Wim Klooster, a Professor of History at Clark University and author of The Dutch Moment: War, Trade, and Settlement in the Seventeenth Century Atlantic World, guides us through Dutch contributions to the Atlantic World.

Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/121

Sponsor Links

• Cornell University Press
• Joyce D. Goodfriend, Who Should Rule at Home?

Complementary Episodes

• Episode 008: Greg O'Malley, Final Passages: The Intercolonial Slave Trade of British America
• Episode 021: Eugene Tesdahl, Smuggling in Colonial America & Living History
• Episode 049: Malcolm Gaskill, How the English Became American
• Episode 051: Catherine Cangany, Frontier Seaport: A History of Early Detroit
• Episode 064: Brett Rushforth, Native American Slavery in New France
• Episode 079: James Horn, What is a Historical Source? (Colonial Jamestown)

Helpful Show Links

• Help Support Ben Franklin's World Crowdfunding Campaign
• 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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How do you build colonies without women?

Most of the colonial adventurers from England and France who set out for Jamestown, New France, and colonial Louisiana were men. But how do you build and sustain societies and spread European culture—in essence, fulfill the promises of a colonial program—without women?

You can’t. Which is why Marcia Zug, a Professor of Law at the University of South Carolina Law School and author of Buying a Bride: An Engaging History of Mail Order Matches, joins us to explore one of the solutions that England and France used to build their North American colonies: mail order bride programs.

Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/120

Sponsor Links

• Cornell University Press
• Brian Rouleau, With Sails Whitening Every Sea

Complementary Episodes

• Episode 036: Abby Swingen, Competing Visions of Empire
• Episode 049: Malcolm Gaskill, How the English Became American
• Episode 064: Brett Rushforth, Native American Slavery in New France
• Episode 079: James Horn, What is a Historical Source? (Colonial Jamestown)
• Episode 108: Ann Little, The Many Captivities of Esther Wheelwright

Helpful Show Links

• Help Support Ben Franklin's World Crowdfunding Campaign
• 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
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*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