Ben Franklin's World

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

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What can the collections of the Harvard University Libraries teach us about our early American past?

It turns out, quite a lot.

Taylor Stoermer, a Visiting Fellow at the Harvard Graduate School of Arts & Sciences, takes us through the Harvard Libraries’ new digital and free-to-use history archive: the Colonial North American Project.

Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/093

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How do historians conduct research online? This is your second-most asked question after how did everyday people live their day-to-day lives in early America.

As the “Doing History” series explores how historians work, it offers the perfect opportunity to answer your question.

Sharon Block, a Professor of History at the University of California-Irvine, has made use of computers and digital resources to do history for years, which is why she serves as our guide for how to research history online.

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/092

Helpful Show Links

Molly Warsh's Barking Chesapeake Oysters

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Did you know that George Washington’s favorite drink was whiskey?

Actually, it wasn’t.

Washington preferred Madeira, a fortified Portuguese wine from the island of Madeira. Why the false start to today’s exploration of history?

Gregory Dowd, a Professor of History and American Culture at the University of Michigan, leads us on an exploration of rumors, legends, and hoaxes that circulated throughout early America.

Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/091

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Help Support Ben Franklin's World Crowdfunding Campaign

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

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