On April 30, 1789, George Washington became the first President of the United States. Between 1789 and 1825, five men would serve as president. 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?

Today, we explore the public and private life of James Monroe with Sara Bon-Harper, Executive Director of James Monroe’s Highland, the 535-acre farm and home of James Monroe.

Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/103

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In the Treaty of Paris, 1783, Great Britain offered the new United States generous terms that included lands in between the Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi River.

Why did the biggest empire with the greatest army and navy concede so much to a new nation?

Because George Rogers Clark and his men seized the Illinois Country and held it during the American War for Independence.

Today, William Nester, a Professor of Government and Politics at St. John’s University and author of George Rogers Clark: ‘I Glory in War,’ leads us on an exploration of the life and deeds of George Rogers Clark.

Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/102

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Complementary Episodes

• Episode 037: Kathleen DuVal, Independence Lost: Lives on the Edge of the American Revolution
• Episode 081: Don Glickstein, After Yorktown: The Final Struggle for American Independence
• Episode 082: Alejandra Dubcovsky, Information & Communication in the Early American South
• Episode 091: Gregory Dowd, Rumors, Legends, & Hoaxes in Early America

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How do historians write about the people, places, and events they’ve studied in historical sources?

We continue our “Doing History: How Historians Work” series by investigating how historians write about history. Our guide for this investigation is John Demos, the Samuel Knight Professor of History Emeritus at Yale University and an award-winning historian.

Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/101

About the Series

“Doing History” episodes will introduce you to historians who will tell you what they know about the past and reveal how they came to their knowledge.

Each episode will air on the last Tuesday of each month in 2016.

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

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How Historians Write PDF

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Complementary Episodes

• Episode 008: Greg O'Malley, Final Passages: The Intercolonial Slave Trade of British America
• Episode 016: Alan Taylor, The Internal Enemy
• Episode 064: Brett Rushforth, Native American Slavery in New France
• Episode 099: Mark Hanna: Pirates & Pirates Nests in the British Atlantic World

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Wow! Ben Franklin’s World has made it to episode 100.

How do we celebrate and mark this special occasion?

By your request, host Liz Covart answers your questions about history, podcasting, and time travel.

Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/100

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Pirates are alive and well in our popular culture. Thanks to movies like Pirates of the Caribbean and television shows like Black Sails, we see pirates as peg-legged, eye-patch wearing, rum-drinking men.

But are these representations accurate?

What do we really know about pirates?

In this episode, Mark Hanna, an Associate Professor of History at the University of California, San Diego, and author of the award-winning book Pirate Nests and the Rise of the British Empire, 1570-1740, helps us fill in the gaps in our knowledge to better understand who pirates were and why they lived the pirate’s life.

Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/099

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Could customs collectors, the tax men of early America, be the unsung founders of the early United States?

Today, we explore the creation of the United States customs service and its contributions to the establishment of the federal government with Gautham Rao, an Assistant Professor of History at American University and author of National Duties: Custom Houses and the Making of the American State.

Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/098

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What do historians do with all of the information they collect when they research?

How do they access their research in a way that allows them to find the information they need to write the books and articles we enjoy reading?

Billy Smith, a Professor of History at Montana State University, joins us as part of our “Doing History: How Historians Work” series to lead us on an exploration of how historians organize and access their research.

About the Series

“Doing History” episodes will introduce you to historians who will tell you what they know about the past and reveal how they came to their knowledge.

Each episode will air on the last Tuesday of each month in 2016.

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

Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/097

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How to Organize Your Research Companion Resource

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Ever wonder how the United States’ problem with race developed and why early American reformers didn’t find a way to fix it during the earliest days of the republic?

Today, Nicholas Guyatt, author of Bind Us Apart: How Enlightened Americans Invented Racial Segregation, leads us on an exploration of how and why the idea of separate but equal developed in the early United States.

Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/096

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The City Upon a Hill. The Athens of America. The Cradle of Liberty.

Boston has many names because it has played important roles in the history of North America. But how did Boston, or “The Hub,” come to be?

Why did the Puritans who sailed from England in 1630, choose to settle in Massachusetts Bay on the Shawmut Peninsula?

What were their early days like?

Today, we explore answers to those questions by exploring the history of the two Bostons—Boston, England & Boston, New England— during the 17th century with Rose Doherty, President of the Partnership of Historic Bostons.

Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/095

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Who are you friends with?

Why are you friends with your friends?

In the early American republic, men and women formed and maintained friendships for many of the same reasons we make friends today: companionship, shared interests, and, in some cases, because they helped expand thinking and social circles.

Today, we explore friendship in the early American republic. Specifically, we investigate what it was like for men and women to form and maintain friendships with each other. Our guide for this exploration is Cassandra Good, author of Founding Friendships: Friendships Between Men & Women in the Early American Republic.

Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/094

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