Peter Thompson is Sydney L Mayer Associate Professor of American History at the University of Oxford. This interview is based on his new book, Heir through Hope: Thomas Jefferson’s Lifelong Investment in William Short (Oxford University Press, 2023). JF: What...
Here is Thomas Kidd at The Panorama: One of the most common news topics on American religion in recent years has been the rise of the “nones,” or the religiously unaffiliated. News stories from the Pew Research Center and similar outlets constantly...
Sarah Naramore is Assistant Professor of History at Northwest Missouri State University. This interview is based on her new book, Benjamin Rush, Civic Health, and Human Illness in the Early American Republic (University of Rochester Press, 2023). JF: What led...
Last week in my American Revolution course we debated how the revolution influenced the lives of women. In the course of our discussion I introduced the students to Linda Kerber‘s idea of “republican motherhood.” This didn’t take too much pedagogical...
Longtime listeners of the The Way of Improvement Leads Home Podcast will remember our interview with Bob Crawford, the bass player of the folk-rock band the Avett Brothers. Listen here. I have long appreciated Bob’s support for our work at...
Over at JSTOR Daily, Matthew Wills introduces us to the work of historian Gergerly Baics. In a 2016 piece in Urban History he argued that early republican New York was “characterized by centralized, municipal food provisioning.” Baics developed these thoughts...
Learn all about Ed and Abby Ayers‘s “Discovery of America Tour’ here. A taste: My wife and I are embarking on a journey. We are looking for traces of America’s past from the first six decades of the 19th century,...
Here is a taste of Allyson Schettino’s post at the blog of the New-York Historical Society: The jury was outraged that a religious leader had persuaded a woman to terminate her pregnancy to hide his misbehavior and escape responsibility for...
Historian Sean Griffin explores the legacy of Thomas Paine in early 19th-century New York. Here is a taste of his piece at the blog Gotham: New York City has long been considered a hotbed of radical political ideas, as well...
Early American historian Alan Taylor has won the New-York Historical Society’s 2022 Barbara and David Zalaznick Book Prize for American Republics: A Continental History of the United States, 1783-1850. Here is Jennifer Schuessler at The New York Times: The book,...
Gwen Fries of the Adams Papers at the Massachusetts Historical Society has a nice post on March 19, 1805 between John Quincy and Louisa Catherine Adams’s encounter with Aaron Burr a ship sailing from Baltimore to Philadelphia. Here is a...
Here is historian Alan Taylor at The Washington Post: In our polarized times, talk of secession blooms on the losing side of bitterly contested national elections. After the 2016 election, some liberal Californians proposed a referendum to seek independence. Last December in...
The opponents of Joe Biden’s new bill think “infrastructure” is just roads and bridges. Yes, infrastructure was focused largely on roads and bridges in the early 19th-century, but it also included new innovations like railroads and the telegraph. Today those...
Michelle Bachmann, the new dean of Regent University’s school of government, visited MAGA evangelical Jim Garlow’s “election integrity” prayer meeting this week. You can watch it here. (It was posted on Eric Metaxas’s Rumble page). Bachmann warns the pro-Trump evangelical...
Van Gosse is Professor of History and Chair of Africana Studies at Franklin and Marshall College. This interview is based on his new book, The First Reconstruction: Black Politics in America from the Revolution to the Civil War (The John...
In this episode we talk with Carolyn Eastman, author of The Strange Genius of Mr. O: The World of the United States’ First Forgotten Celebrity. Eastman chronicles the life of James Ogilvie, an itinerant orator who became one of the most...
I’ll bet you didn’t know that in 1809 Josiah Quincy (MA), the only Federalist in Congress, tried to impeach Thomas Jefferson. His attempt failed by a vote of 117 to 1. Andrew Fagal, associate editor of the Papers of Thomas...
Over at Boston Review, Michael Busch interviews Christian Parenti, author of Radical Hamilton: Economic Lessons from a Misunderstood Founder. Here is a taste: Michael Busch: You published Radical Hamilton in August with Verso Books. Let’s start at the beginning: Who was Alexander […]
If you read The Way of Improvement Leads Home regularly you know the work of Johann Neem. Listen to our conversation about the meaning of college in Episode 54 of the podcast. Read our posts featuring Neem’s work here. I...
Some of you have been following the Dan Feller controversy at SHEAR. Get up to speed with Episode 72 of The Way of Improvement Leads Home Podcast. You can also read my posts on this controversy here. After Feller delivered...
