Episodios

  • BFW Revisited: Origins of American Manufacturing

    BFW Revisited: Origins of American Manufacturing
    Sep 30 2025
    When we picture the early United States, we often imagine a young nation fighting for political independence. But what about economic independence—and what did it take to achieve it? Historian Lindsay Schakenbach Regele of Miami University in Ohio joins us to explore how manufacturing became central to the nation's post-Revolution identity. Drawing from her book Manufacturing Advantage: War, the State, and the Origins of American Industry, 1776–1848, Lindsay reveals how the federal government championed industries like firearms and textiles as tools of sovereignty, security, and self-reliance. Tune in to discover: Why early leaders saw manufacturing as essential to independence. 2. How state-sponsored factories shaped key sectors like arms and textiles. 3. How these efforts laid the foundation for America’s industrial and social transformation This episode sheds light on the surprising role of government in jumpstarting the U.S. economy. Lindsay’s Website | Book |Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/298 RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES🎧 Episode 098: Birth of the American Tax Man🎧 Episode 113: Building the Empire State🎧 Episode 140: Nathaniel Bowditch🎧 Episode 281: The Business of Slavery🎧 Episode 292: Craft SUPPORT OUR WORK🎁 Make a Donation to Ben Franklin’s WorldREQUEST A TOPIC📨 Topic Request Form📫 liz@benfranklinsworld.comWHEN YOU'RE READY🗞️ BFW Gazette Newsletter 👩‍💻 Join the BFW Listener CommunityLISTEN 🎧🍎 Apple Podcasts 💚 Spotify 🎶 Amazon Music🛜 PandoraCONNECT🦋 Liz on Bluesky👩‍💻 Liz on LinkedIn🛜 Liz’s WebsiteSAY THANKS💜 Leave a review on Apple Podcasts💚 Leave a rating on Spotify*Book links are affiliate links. Every purchase supports the podcast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    1 h y 3 m
  • 421 Loyalism and Revolution in Georgia

    421 Loyalism and Revolution in Georgia
    Sep 23 2025
    What if loyalty, not rebellion, was the default position in revolutionary British North America? It’s easy to forget that before 1776, most colonists identified as proud Britons. They didn’t see themselves as future Americans or revolutionaries; they saw themselves as subjects of a global empire. And in the colony of Georgia, many clung to that identity longer than we might expect. Greg Brooking, a historian of the American Revolution in the South and a high school history and social studies teacher, joins us to explore the American Revolution in Georgia with details from his book From Empire to Revolution: Sir James Wright and the Price of Loyalty in Georgia. Greg’s Website | Book |Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/421 RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES🎧 Episode 126: The Reintegration of American Loyalists🎧 Episode 171: Native Americans, British Colonists, and Trade in North America🎧 Episode 280: The British Are Coming🎧 Episode 409: The Battles of Lexington & Concord, 1775🎧 Episode 413: Dr. Joseph Warren & the Battle of Bunker HillSUPPORT OUR WORK🎁 Make a Donation to Ben Franklin’s WorldREQUEST A TOPIC📨 Topic Request Form📫 liz@benfranklinsworld.comWHEN YOU'RE READY🗞️ BFW Gazette Newsletter 👩‍💻 Join the BFW Listener CommunityLISTEN 🎧🍎 Apple Podcasts 💚 Spotify 🎶 Amazon Music🛜 PandoraCONNECT🦋 Liz on Bluesky👩‍💻 Liz on LinkedIn🛜 Liz’s WebsiteSAY THANKS💜 Leave a review on Apple Podcasts💚 Leave a rating on Spotify*Book links are affiliate links. Every purchase supports the podcast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    1 h y 1 m
  • BFW Revisited: Loyalism in the British Atlantic World

    BFW Revisited: Loyalism in the British Atlantic World
    Sep 16 2025
    When we think of the American Revolution, we often focus on the patriots who fought for independence. But what about the Loyalists—those who chose to remain faithful to the British crown? In this episode, we revisit a thought-provoking conversation with historian Brad Jones of Fresno State University, author of Resisting Independence: Popular Loyalism in the Revolutionary British Atlantic. Brad challenges the long-held view of Loyalists as passive or fearful, instead revealing Loyalism as a vibrant political identity shaped by faith, governance, and a broader sense of British belonging. Listen as we explore: Why the Revolution was also a civil war among neighbors. How Protestantism influenced Loyalist thought. What loyalty meant across the diverse communities of the British Atlantic. This episode offers a deeper, more nuanced view of the Revolution—and the people who resisted it.Brad’s Website | Book |Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/330RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES🎧 Episode 119: The Heart of the Declaration🎧 Episode 122: The Men Who Lost America🎧 Episode 151: Defining the American Revolution🎧 Episode 232: The Acadian Diaspora🎧 Episode 238: Benedict Arnold🎧 Episode 306: The Horse's Tail SUPPORT OUR WORK🎁 Make a Donation to Ben Franklin’s WorldREQUEST A TOPIC📨 Topic Request Form📫 liz@benfranklinsworld.comWHEN YOU'RE READY🗞️ BFW Gazette Newsletter 👩‍💻 Join the BFW Listener CommunityLISTEN 🎧🍎 Apple Podcasts 💚 Spotify 🎶 Amazon Music🛜 PandoraCONNECT🦋 Liz on Bluesky👩‍💻 Liz on LinkedIn🛜 Liz’s WebsiteSAY THANKS💜 Leave a review on Apple Podcasts💚 Leave a rating on Spotify*Book links are affiliate links. Every purchase supports the podcast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    1 h y 10 m
  • 420: Creating the U.S. Federal Government

    420: Creating the U.S. Federal Government
    Sep 9 2025
    When we think about the founding of the United States, we often focus on the Constitution, the Founding Fathers, and those first landmark elections. But how did the United States actually build its federal government, the entire apparatus of state that could collect revenue, manage international diplomacy, provide law and order, and extend its reach across a rapidly expanding nation? Who were the people who made that government work? And how did their service to the nation shape what it meant to be an American citizen? Peter Kastor, a Professor of History and American Cultural Studies at Washington University in St. Louis, and the Founder of the Creating a Federal Government, 1789-1829 digital project, joins us to explore the remarkable and often overlooked story of how the United States built its federal government between 1789 and 1829. Peter’s Website | Digital Project |Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/420 RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES🎧 Episode 098: Birth of the American Tax Man🎧 Episode 202: The Early History of the United States Senate🎧 Episode 279: The Cabinet: Creation of an American Institution🎧 Episode 259: American Legal History🎧 Episode 315: History and American Democracy🎧 Episode 338: The Early History of the United States Senate 🎧 Episode 393: Politics and Political Culture in the Early American Republic SUPPORT OUR WORK🎁 Make a Donation to Ben Franklin’s WorldREQUEST A TOPIC📨 Topic Request Form📫 liz@benfranklinsworld.comWHEN YOU'RE READY🗞️ BFW Gazette Newsletter 👩‍💻 Join the BFW Listener CommunityLISTEN 🎧🍎 Apple Podcasts 💚 Spotify 🎶 Amazon Music🛜 PandoraCONNECT🦋 Liz on Bluesky👩‍💻 Liz on LinkedIn🛜 Liz’s WebsiteSAY THANKS💜 Leave a review on Apple Podcasts💚 Leave a rating on Spotify*Book links are affiliate links. Every purchase supports the podcast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    1 h y 20 m
  • BFW Revisited: Women & the Constitutional Moment of 1787

    BFW Revisited: Women & the Constitutional Moment of 1787
    Sep 2 2025
    Each September, Constitution Day marks the signing of the U.S. Constitution on September 17, 1787. But beyond celebration, this commemoration invites deeper reflection: Whose voices helped shape this foundational document? And who was imagined as part of the political community it created? In honor of Constitution Day and Constitution Month, we’re revisiting a pivotal conversation from Episode 339 with constitutional historian Mary Sarah Bilder. Drawing from her book, Female Genius: Eliza Harriot and George Washington at the Dawn of the Constitution, Mary challenges us to reconsider who influenced the Constitution and how women publicly engaged with its political possibilities. Join us as we explore: Eliza Harriot’s advocacy for “female genius” and intellectual equality. Why the Constitution’s gender-neutral language mattered. And, the debates over representation, education, and citizenship in 1787Mary’s Website | Book |Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/339 RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES🎧 Episode 107: Madison's Hand🎧 Episode 137: The Washingtons' Runaway Slave, Ona Judge🎧 Episode 255: Birthright Citizens🎧 Episode 259: American Legal History & the Bill of Rights🎧 Episode 285: Elections & Voting in Early AmericaSUPPORT OUR WORK🎁 Make a Donation to Ben Franklin’s WorldREQUEST A TOPIC📨 Topic Request Form📫 liz@benfranklinsworld.comWHEN YOU'RE READY🗞️ BFW Gazette Newsletter 👩‍💻 Join the BFW Listener CommunityLISTEN 🎧🍎 Apple Podcasts 💚 Spotify 🎶 Amazon Music🛜 PandoraCONNECT🦋 Liz on Bluesky👩‍💻 Liz on LinkedIn🛜 Liz’s WebsiteSAY THANKS💜 Leave a review on Apple Podcasts💚 Leave a rating on Spotify*Book links are affiliate links. Every purchase supports the podcast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    1 h y 16 m
  • 419 The North Carolina Regulator Movement

    419 The North Carolina Regulator Movement
    Aug 26 2025
    What happens when the very people meant to uphold justice become the ones exploiting it? In the 1760s, North Carolina farmers watched sheriffs pocket their tax payments, judges rule in favor of corrupt land speculators, and government officials literally steal their land, all while claiming to represent the Crown’s interests. Nathan Schultz, a public historian and the Site Manager at the Alamance Battleground State Historic Site in North Carolina, joins us to explore the North Carolina Regulator Movement. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/419 RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES🎧 Episode 330: Loyalism in the British Atlantic World🎧 Episode 356: The Moravian Church in North America🎧 Episode 373: The Gaspee Affair🎧 Episode 374: The American Revolutionary War in the West🎧 Episode 380: The Tory's Wife🎧 Episode 409: The Battles of Lexington & Concord, 1775 SUPPORT OUR WORK🎁 Make a Donation to Ben Franklin’s WorldREQUEST A TOPIC📨 Topic Request Form📫 liz@benfranklinsworld.comWHEN YOU'RE READY🗞️ BFW Gazette Newsletter 👩‍💻 Join the BFW Listener CommunityLISTEN 🎧🍎 Apple Podcasts 💚 Spotify 🎶 Amazon Music🛜 PandoraCONNECT🦋 Liz on Bluesky👩‍💻 Liz on LinkedIn🛜 Liz’s WebsiteSAY THANKS💜 Leave a review on Apple Podcasts💚 Leave a rating on Spotify*Book links are affiliate links. Every purchase supports the podcast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    1 h y 4 m
  • BFW Revisited: The Tory's Wife

    BFW Revisited: The Tory's Wife
    Aug 19 2025
    Revolutionary upheaval didn't just reshape governments—it transformed daily life for ordinary families across colonial America. In this revisited episode, historian Cynthia Kierner reveals the remarkable story of Jane Spurgin, a woman navigating loyalty, survival, and family obligations in Revolutionary-era North Carolina. Through Jane's experience as a Loyalist's wife, we discover how political conflicts reached into homes and communities, forcing women to make difficult choices between personal safety and family loyalty. As we prepare to explore the North Carolina Regulator Movement, Jane's story illuminates the human cost of colonial resistance and the often-overlooked voices of women caught in the crossfire of revolution. Guest: Cynthia Kierner, Professor of History at George Mason University and author of The Tory's Wife: A Woman and Her Family in Revolutionary America Cynthia’s Website | Book Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/380 RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES🎧 Episode 085: American Loyalists in Canada🎧 Episode 126: The Reintegration of American Loyalists🎧 Episode 237: Motherhood in Early America🎧 Episode 325: Everyday People of the American Revolution🎧 Episode 330: Loyalism in the British Atlantic WorldSUPPORT OUR WORK🎁 Make a Donation to Ben Franklin’s WorldREQUEST A TOPIC📨 Topic Request Form📫 liz@benfranklinsworld.comWHEN YOU'RE READY🗞️ BFW Gazette Newsletter 👩‍💻 Join the BFW Listener CommunityLISTEN 🎧🍎 Apple Podcasts 💚 Spotify 🎶 Amazon Music🛜 PandoraCONNECT🦋 Liz on Bluesky👩‍💻 Liz on LinkedIn🛜 Liz’s WebsiteSAY THANKS💜 Leave a review on Apple Podcasts💚 Leave a rating on Spotify*Book links are affiliate links. Every purchase supports the podcast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    1 h y 6 m
  • 418 The Driver's Story

    418 The Driver's Story
    Aug 12 2025
    We often learn about slavery in early America through broad economic or political terms—cotton, sugar, markets, revolutions. But what happens when we turn our focus to the lived experiences of enslaved people themselves? What did slavery feel and look like on the ground? What did survival look like day to day? And what do we make of the enslaved people who were forced into positions of authority over others, like the plantation drivers who were tasked with extracting labor from their fellow enslaved workers? Randy Browne, an award-winning historian and Professor of History at Xavier University, joins us to investigate plantation slavery and its driving system with details from his book The Driver’s Story: Labor and Power in the World of Atlantic Slavery. Randy’s Website | Book Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/418 RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES🎧 Episode 281: The Business of Slavery🎧 Episode 282: Tacky's Revolt🎧 Episode 289: Maroonage & the Great Dismal Swamp🎧 Episode 295: The Whitney Plantation & Museum🎧 Episode 312: The Domestic Slave Trade🎧 Episode 324: New Netherland & Slavery SUPPORT OUR WORK🎁 Make a Donation to Ben Franklin’s World REQUEST A TOPIC📨 Topic Request Form📫 liz@benfranklinsworld.com WHEN YOU'RE READY🗞️ BFW Gazette Newsletter 👩‍💻 Join the BFW Listener Community LISTEN 🎧🍎 Apple Podcasts 💚 Spotify 🎶 Amazon Music🛜 Pandora CONNECT🦋 Liz on Bluesky👩‍💻 Liz on LinkedIn🛜 Liz’s Website SAY THANKS💜 Leave a review on Apple Podcasts💚 Leave a rating on Spotify *Book links are affiliate links. Every purchase supports the podcast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    1 h y 2 m