We are celebrating our 200th episode with Kate Carpenter, the host of the podcast, "Drafting the Past," which focuses on the art of writing history. Make sure you check out her show!

On this celebration episode, we chat about how our podcasts got started, what we have learned about writing and reading great history, and what successes and challenges we have each faced in building our bases of listeners.

And certainly, I want to thank the hundreds of thousands of listeners who have downloaded this show over the last 5+ years. Here's to the next 200 episodes!

Kate Carpenter's website can be found at https://draftingthepast.com/

Her show can be found at https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/drafting-the-past/id1606008941

AxelbankHistory.com is designed by https://www.ellieclairedesigns.com/

Axelbank Reports History and Today" can be found on social media at

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From the publisher: "From award-winning historian Megan Kate Nelson, an epic account of the creation of the American West in the 19th century, shattering the traditional frontier myth that has dominated popular American culture.

The Westerners tells two richly detailed and interwoven stories. The first reveals the captivating lives of women and men moving through the American West—Indigenous peoples, Black Americans, Mexican Americans, and Canadian and Asian immigrants—in the 19th century. The second tracks the attempts of many Americans to erase these westerners from history, through a frontier myth that lionized individualism and conquest and celebrated white settlers traveling west in search of prosperity.

Nelson’s vivid, eye-opening account centers on seven extraordinary individuals whose lives capture the true history of the frontier: Sacajawea, not just Lewis and Clark’s guide but an explorer who forged her own path; Jim Beckwourth, a biracial fur trader whose sharp cultural insight made him indispensable; María Gertrudis Barceló, a Hispana gambling saloon owner who broke every stereotype to become the wealthiest woman in Santa Fe; Ovando Hollister, a gold miner, soldier, and newspaper man who championed Western expansion; Little Wolf, a Northern Cheyenne chief whose courageous leadership secured his people’s future; Canadian immigrant Ella Watson, who strove to become a ranch woman in a male-dominated world; and the defiant Polly Bemis, a Chinese immigrant who carved out a life in Idaho despite federal expulsion efforts."

Megan Kate Nelson's website can be found at https://megankatenelson.com/

Information on her book from Simon & Schuster can be found at https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Westerners/Megan-Kate-Nelson/9781668004340

AxelbankHistory.com is designed by https://www.ellieclairedesigns.com/

Axelbank Reports History and Today" can be found on social media at

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https://facebook.com/axelbankhistory

From the publisher: "A scion of the Protestant elite, Theodore Roosevelt was an unlikely ally of the waves of impoverished Jewish newcomers who crowded the docks at Ellis Island. Yet from his earliest years he forged ties with Jews never before witnessed in a president. American Maccabee traces Roosevelt’s deep connection with the Jewish people at every step of his dazzling ascent. But it also reveals a man of contradictions whose checkered approach to Jewish issues was no less conflicted than the nation he led.

As a rising political figure in New York, Roosevelt barnstormed the Lower East Side, giving speeches to packed halls of Jewish immigrants. He rallied for reform of the sweatshops where Jewish laborers toiled for pitiful wages in perilous conditions. And Roosevelt repeatedly venerated the heroism of the Maccabee warriors, upholding those storied rebels as a model for the American Jewish community. Yet little could have prepared him for the blood-soaked persecution of Eastern European Jews that brought a deluge of refugees to American shores during his presidency. Andrew Porwancher uncovers the vexing challenges for Roosevelt as he confronted Jewish suffering abroad and antisemitic xenophobia at home.

Drawing on new archival research to paint a richly nuanced portrait of an iconic figure, American Maccabee chronicles the complicated relationship between the leader of a youthful nation and the people of an ancient faith."

Andrew Porwancher's website can be found at https://www.andrewporwancher.com/

Information on his book can be found at https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691203669/american-maccabee

AxelbankHistory.com is designed by https://www.ellieclairedesigns.com/

Axelbank Reports History and Today" can be found on social media at

https://twitter.com/axelbankhistory

https://instagram.com/axelbankhistory

https://facebook.com/axelbankhistory