Ben Franklin's World

If you had only six years to enjoy retirement what would you do?

Would you improve your plantation? Build canals? Or work behind-the-scenes to unite your country by framing a new central government?

These were just some of the activities undertaken by George Washington during his brief retirement from public service between 1783 and 1789.

Today, we explore the brief retirement of George Washington with Edward Larson, winner of the Pulitzer Prize in history and author of The Return of George Washington, 1783-1789.

Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/061

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Did Washington really start the French and Indian War?

Why should we remember a battle that took place over 260 years ago?

In this episode, we investigate the answers to those questions as we explore the Battle of the Monongahela with David Preston, author of Braddock’s Defeat: The Battle of the Monongahela and the Road to Revolution.

Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/060

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Between the 1830s and 1860s, a clandestine communications and transportation network called the “Underground Railroad” helped thousands of slaves escape to freedom.

Today, we will investigate and explore this secret network with Eric Foner, a Pulitzer Prize winning historian and author of Gateway to Freedom: The Hidden History of the Underground Railroad.

Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/059

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Why do we refer to the men who founded the United States as the “founding fathers?”

Why do we choose to remember the American Revolution as a glorious event that had almost universal, colonial support when in fact, the Revolution’s events were bloody, violent, and divisive?

Today, we explore our memory of the American Revolution and how our memory of the event and its participants evolved with Andrew Schocket, author of Fighting over the Founders: How We Remember the American Revolution.

Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/058

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Do you know what we have in common with our early American forebears?

Taxes.

As Benjamin Franklin stated in 1789, “nothing is certain but death and taxes.” Given the certainty of taxes it seems important that we understand how the United States’ fiscal system developed.

Today, we explore the development of the early American fiscal system with Max Edling, Professor of History at King’s College, London and author of A Hercules in the Cradle: War, Money, and the American State, 1783-1867.

Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/057

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Between 1754 and 1763, North Americans participated in the French and Indian War; a world war Europeans call the Seven Years’ War.

As this world war raged, many South Carolinians, Virginians, Britons, and Cherokee people also fought a war for land, trade, and respect.

Today, we explore the Anglo-Cherokee War with Daniel Tortora, author of Carolina in Crisis: Cherokees, Colonists, and Slaves in the American Southeast.

Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/056

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Who was John Jay?

Jay played important and prominent roles during the founding of the United States and yet, his name isn’t one that many would list if asked to name founding fathers.

Today, we explore John Jay and his contributions to the founding of the United States with Robb Haberman, associate editor of The Selected Papers of John Jay documentary editing project.

Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/055

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The United States is a diverse nation of immigrants and their ancestors. With such diversity, and no one origination point for its people, how do we describe what the United States is and what its people stand for?

What is the underlying ideological current that links Americans together regardless of their ancestral or regional diversity?

We explore “American Exceptionalism” and the ideas it embodies with John D. Wilsey, author of American Exceptionalism and Civil Religion: Reassessing the History of an Idea.

Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/054

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Do you believe in the supernatural? In ghosts, zombies, or perhaps witches?

Today we celebrate All Hallows Eve with an exploration of the specters and witches that haunted 17th-century Massachusetts.

Our guide for this exploration is Emerson W. Baker, author of A Storm of Witchcraft: The Salem Trials and the American Experience.

Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/053

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Much like the United States, the colonists of Saint Domingue (present-day Haiti) sought their independence from France by fighting a war and waging a revolution. However, unlike the Americans, the San Dominguans who fought the war and waged the revolution were predominantly African and Caribbean-born slaves.

We explore the Haitian Revolution and the quest of both the United States and Saint Domingue to establish diplomatic and trade relations with each other. Our guide for this exploration is Ronald A. Johnson, a history professor at Texas State University and author of Diplomacy in Black and White: John Adams, Toussaint L’Ouverture, and Their Atlantic World Alliance.

Show Notes: http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/052

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• Ben Franklin's World Facebook Page
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