The Road to Now

Few American Christians in the 21st Century question the compatibility of their faith with a capitalist economic system. Two hundred years ago, however, the social and economic changes that came with the rise of a capitalism posed fundamental challenges to Christian practices and beliefs. In this episode, Joseph Slaughter joins us to discuss his book Faith in Markets: Christian Capitalism in the Early American Republic and how Christian responses to the rise of capitalism in the 19th Century laid the foundation for how we understand our modern economy.

Dr. Joseph P. Slaughter is Assistant Professor of History and Associate Director of the Center for the Study of Guns and Society at Wesleyan College.

This episode originally aired as RTN 337 on June 2, 2025. This rebroadcast was edited by Ben Sawyer.

Bob speaks with UNC-Chapel Hill historian Molly Worthen about her new book Spellbound: How Charisma Shaped American History from the Puritans to Trump.

This episode originally aired as episode 340 on June 16, 2025. This rebroadcast was edited by Ben Sawyer.

In 1994, the Republican Party took both houses of Congress for the first time in more than four decades, defeating a Democratic Party that, just two years earlier, had pulled off a "trifecta" (winning both houses of Congress and the Presidency in a single election), and ushering in an era of GOP congressional control that would persist into the 21stcentury. How did the party that had spent most of the post-WWII era on the sidelines reemerge as a political force in the 1990s? Why did the majority of southern voters support Republicans for the first time since Reconstruction? And why did the man of the moment – Newt Gingrich – fall from grace even as his party's star continued to rise?

In this episode, Nicole Hemmer join us to dig into the political revolution that remade the Republican Party and forever changed politics.

Nicole Hemmer is the director of the Carolyn T. and Robert M. Rogers Center for the American Presidency and associate professor of history at Vanderbilt University. She is also the author of multiple books, including Partisans: The Conservative Revolutionaries Who Remade American Politics in the 1990s. If you enjoy this episode, make sure to check out her podcast, This Day.

If you'd like to help Ben's fundraising effort to help The Store fight food insecurity in Tennessee, just go to RTNpod.me/thestore.

This is part 3 of our midterm election series, in which we look at some of the most consequential congressional elections in American history. With the midterms of 2026 just around the corner, we hope these episodes will put things in context and convince you that midterm elections are just as, and sometimes more important, than the Presidential elections that only roll around every 4 years. If you enjoy this conversation, make sure to listen to our other episodes in the series on 1858 (Episode 378), 1874 w/ Jefferson Cowie (episode 379) and 1946 (episode 380).

This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher.

In 1946, the Democrats had held the majority in both houses of Congress and the Presidency for fourteen years, in which time they had led the country through both the Great Depression and World War II. So why, in the first election after the end of the war, did American voters go to the polls in a midterm election and hand both the House and the Senate to the Republicans?

In this episode, Bob takes the lead as we break down the reasons that American voters soured so quickly on the Democrats in 1946, the impact that the election had on American politics, and why voters returned to the polls just two years later and handed Congress back to the Democrats. (For those looking for parallels with 2026, it turns out that a wildly unpopular President can be detrimental to his entire party, even when he isn't up for reelection.)

If you'd like to help Ben's fundraising effort to help The Store fight food insecurity in Tennessee, just go to RTNpod.me/thestore.

This is part 3 of our midterm election series, in which we look at some of the most consequential congressional elections in American history. With the midterms of 2026 just around the corner, we hope these episodes will put things in context and convince you that midterm elections are just as, and sometimes more important, than the Presidential elections that only roll around every 4 years. If you enjoy this conversation, make sure to listen to our other episodes in the series on 1858 (Episode 378) and 1874 w/ Jefferson Cowie (episode 379).

This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher.

Most histories mark the 1876 Presidential election as the end of post-Civil War reconstruction, but the end of that era might have already been signaled when Democrats took control of the House of Representatives in the 1874 midterms.

Why was the party of secession able to regain so much power in the federal government less than a decade after the end of the Civil War? And how did the outcome of these elections lay the groundwork for the Compromise of 1877 and the restoration of white supremacy in the south? Jefferson Cowie returns to the show to help Ben and Bob answer these questions and more in a deep dive into the 1874 elections and the crucial role they played in shaping post-Civil War America. (Click here for the side-by-side comparison of the 1872 and 1874 election results discussed in the episode).

To learn more about the violence that took place in Barbour County in these years, pick up a copy of Jefferson Cowie's Pulitzer Prize winning book, Freedom's Dominion: A Saga of White Resistance to Federal Power.

If you'd like to help Ben's fundraising effort to help The Store fight food insecurity in Tennessee, or get tickets to Nashville's Got Talent on October 22, just go to RTNpod.me/thestore.

This is part 2 of our midterm election series, in which we look at some of the most consequential congressional elections in American history. With the midterms of 2026 just around the corner, we hope these episodes will put things in context and convince you that midterm elections are just as, and sometimes more important, than the Presidential elections that only roll around every 4 years. If you enjoy this conversation, make sure to listen to our first episode in the series on 1858 in episode 378.

This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher.

Would Kansas be admitted as a slave state? Would the US purchase Cuba from Spain (and perhaps admit it as another slave state)? And what could be done in the wake of the Supreme Court's ruling in Dredd Scott vs. Sanford, that Congress could not regulate slavery in the territories? These questions make 1858 one of the most consequential midterm elections in American history, as well as a great place to kick off RTN's midterm election series.

In this 4-part series, Ben and Bob, along with a few special guests, will be looking at what they consider to be the most important midterm elections in American history. With the midterms of 2026 just around the corner, we hope these episodes will put things in context and convince you that midterm elections are just as, and sometimes more important, than the Presidential elections that only roll around every 4 years.

Sources referenced in this conversation:

-Joanne Freeman, The Field of Blood: Violence in Congress and the Road to Civil War (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2018).

-James McPherson, Ordeal by Fire: The Civil War and Reconstruction (McGraw-Hill, 2009).

-Heather Cox Richardson, To Make Men Free: A History of the Republican Party (Basic Books, 2014).

This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher.

Hannah Arendt witnessed the rise of Nazism in Germany and her groundbreaking works, including The Origins of Totalitarianism, sought to understand how regular people could be seduced by horrendous ideologies such as antisemitism and fascism. In this episode, Ben speaks with documentarian Jeff Bieber, whose new film Hannah Arendt: Facing Tyranny, documents Adendt's life as an intellectual, refugee and, eventually, an American citizen whose concerns about power remain as relevant today as they were half a century ago.

Hannah Arendt: Facing Tyranny premiered on PBS on June 27 and is available to watch on pbs.org by clicking here.

For more on Jeff Bieber's work, check out his website: JeffBieberProductions.org.

This is a rebroadcast of episode 342, which originally aired on June 30, 2025. This episode was edited by Ben Sawyer.

Catherine Grace Katz joins us to talk about her new book, Shadow Before the Flame: The Hindenburg Disaster and the Prelude to War, and just how much the story of the ill-fated German Zepplin can tell us about the world in the years between World War I and World War II.

You can pre-order your copy of Shadow Before the Flame at Catherine's website, CatherineGraceKatz.com.

This episode was edited by Ben Sawyer.

George Carlin had a comedy career that spanned half a century, and his take on the US remains relevant more than a decade after his death in 2008. The HBO documentary George Carlin's American Dream tells Carlin's story as he evolved from a clean-cut comic in the 1950s into the edgy critic who remains one of the most influential comedians of all time. In this episode, Michael Bonfiglio, who directed the film (along with Judd Apatow) and Kliph Nesteroff, a historian of comedy who is featured in the film, join Bob & Ben for a conversation about the life and times of George Carlin.

If you enjoy this episode, check out our previous conversation w/ Michael in episode 174 Direction w/ Michael Bonfiglio.

This episode originally aired as RTN 237 on June 13, 2022. This rebroadcast was edited by Ben Sawyer.

North Carolina's Research Triangle has been a hub of innovation and economic growth for more than half a century, but the most remarkable invention in the area's history might be the park itself. In this episode, Mack Paul explains how residents of one of the poorest states in the union found a way to reimagine their future and transform the 'Old North State' into a global leader in scientific advancement.

Mack's new book, which he coauthored with his father, Allen, is Miracle Road: The Story of Research Park (Duke University Press, 2026. You can read excerpts from the book and order a copy at MiracleRoadBook.net.

If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to check out episode 136, in which we discuss Bob's MA thesis on the city of Apex, NC.

This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher.