Ben and William Frank became part of the Second Rhode Island Regiment in 1777.  AFter figinting in the Battle of Rhode Island, Ben switched sides, joined with the British, and wound up in Nova Scotia after the war.  His descendant Shirley Green, a Toledo police officer and now director of the Toledo Police Museum, wrote about the Frank Brothers in her terrific book,  Revolutionary Blacks: Discovering the Frank Brothers, Freeborn Men of Color, Soldiers of Independence.  We talk with her about the Frank brothers and their story. 

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As we approach our 200th episode we talk with Gordon Wood on his first book, The Creation of the American Republic, 1776 - 1787 which ranks among the most important books ever written about the American Revolutionary period and the formation of the American Republic.  Join us as to hear about what the founders got right, what they got wrong, and how it continues to influence and evolve in America today.

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June 2024 marks the 250th Anniversary of General & Governor Thomas Gage's attempt to move the Massachusetts government to Salem. Join us as we learn how this important seaport town reacted to 2 regiments of Redcoats moving into town.  Join us as we speak with Emily Murphy of the Salem Maritime National Historic Site on the impact of Gage's plan to run Massachusetts from Salem and how Salem Maritime is planning to mark the occasion on June 15 & 16, 2024 in Salem, Massachusetts.

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The Revolution 250 tag line is that these Revolutionary moments in America are "Moments that Changed the World."  Within two generations of the end of the French and Indian wars, social and political hierarchies lay in ruins across the Americas and Europe and new republics rose up to take their place. Join us as we converse with award-winning author Nathan Perl-Rosenthal, Professor of History at the University of Southern California, about these new republics, the people they raised up and the new political dispensation they left behind. which is the subject of his new book, The Age of Revolutions and the Generations who Made It. 

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How well do we know George Washington, the man—and why have we created so many myths about him? We talk with Edward G. Lengel, award-winning author and teacher, and long-time editor-in-chief of the Washington Papers Project, about this well-known but enigmatic character. Ed Lengel has written about Washington the General,
General George Washington:  A Military Life,  and about Washington the First Entrepreneur:  How George Washington Built his--and the Nation's--Prosperity , and about our continued invention of new Washington’s to suit our times and tempers (Inventing George Washington: America’s Founder in Myth and Memory). We will explore the many facets of Washington and his long career—during his life and after—in American culture.

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Matthew Skic from the Museum of the American Revolution and I talk about their exhibit Black Founders:  The Forten Family of Philadelphia .  9-year old James Forten heard the Declaration of Independence read in July of 1776, and never forgot its promise of liberty and equality.  At the age of 14 he signed aboard a privateer, was captured, taken to New York where a British officer offered to release him and send him to England.  He refused rather than betray his country.  Back in Philadelphia after the war he became a successful businessman--a sail maker--one of the wealthiest Black men in the country, and the chief benefactor of William Lloyd Garrison's newspaper The Liberator.  Join us to hear more about James Forten and his family's story--and for more on Forten, read Julie Winch's great book Gentleman of Color.

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A successful military campaign requires the collection of information and the denial of like information to your enemy. George Washington at the head of a nascent army, without such skills, relied heavily upon many clever and entrepreneurial men. To help us shine a light on the murky world of secret communications, Damien Cregeau, scholar and frequent contributor to the Journal of the American Revolution talks with us about espionage in the American War for Independence.

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Do you think partisan intrigue and accusations of foreign meddling are new things? We talk with Tyson Reeder, author of Serpent in Eden: Foreign Meddling and Partisan Politics in James Madison's America,  about how threat of foreign influence propelled Madison's thoughts on forming a stronger union, and how Federalists and Republicans tried to secure their own advantage by accusing  each other of foreign entanglements. What was the destructive symbiosis between the two political sides, and did Madison—or do we—see a way to overcome the chasm of distrust?

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A story from the 19th century told that British soldiers marched off the surrender ground  at Yorktown  to the tune of "The World Turned Upside Down."  Whether true or not is beside the point.  The world may indeed have seemed upside down.  To help us come to grips with the myriad of ways in which life in the British Atlantic world changed, we talk with historian  James Patrick Ambuske, producer and narrator for the "Worlds Turned Upside Down" podcast, a production of R2 Studios at the Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media at George Mason University.  Jim Ambuske is also the co-director of the  Scottish Court of Sessions Digital Archives, and other projects to inspire historians. 

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Birthplace of American Independence--Ipswich, Massachusetts?  In 1687, when King James II tried to take away the power of people in Massachusetts towns to govern themselves, Reverend John Wise of Ipswich lead the town into resistance--leading to his arrest, and the arrest of town leaders.  But they stood together--and in an unrelated development, Parliament sent King James packing off to France.  When Parliament in the 1760s again tried to assert control, Ipswich stood together, and reminded other Massachusetts patriots of the writings of John Wise.  We talk with Gordon Harris, town historian and organizer of the Historic Ipswich website, about the town of Ipswich, the Ipswich Resolves of 1774, and why this small town had such a big impact on the Revolution. 

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