BackStory with the American History Guys: Favorites

Series produced by BackStory with the American History Guys

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A collection of the best stories and features from BackStory, meant for excerpt by programs or stations.

BackStory is a weekly one-hour public radio show that provides a national broadcast audience with an enjoyable and accessible way of engaging challenging themes in American history and how they connect with today.

The pieces in this series are available for individual excerpt. If you are interested in full episodes of BackStory, check out our main series page.


53 Pieces

Order by: Newest First | Oldest First
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Host Brian Balough chats with Law professor Chris Sprigman about the intellectual property debates surrounding standup comedy – no joke!

  • Added: May 20, 2013
  • Length: 10:32
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BackStory hears from Kembrew McLeod – journalist, professor, and intellectual property “prankster” – on how a system meant to encourage innovation ...

  • Added: May 20, 2013
  • Length: 02:39
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Media and legal scholar Siva Vaidhyanathan talks with Host Brian Balough about the expansion of copyright protections.

  • Added: May 20, 2013
  • Length: 08:30
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The American History Guys riff on citizenship. Does being born on American soil guarantee American citizenship?

Bought by Public Radio Remix


  • Added: May 13, 2013
  • Length: 07:07
  • Purchases: 1
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Host Peter Onuf talks to religion scholar Peggy Bendroth about “Day of Doom” by Michael Wigglesworth, a poem in which dead babies talk to us from b...

Bought by Public Radio Remix


  • Added: May 13, 2013
  • Length: 07:13
  • Purchases: 1
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Laurel Thatcher Ulrich talks to Host Ed Ayers about the movement away from midwifery and towards hospital births.

Bought by Public Radio Remix


  • Added: May 13, 2013
  • Length: 09:03
  • Purchases: 1
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Host Brian Balough explores the meaning of "wartime" with Mary Dudziak, an historian at Emory University's School of Law. Well after V-J Day, Dudz...

Bought by Public Radio Remix


  • Added: May 06, 2013
  • Length: 10:50
  • Purchases: 1
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Host Peter Onuf talks with Amy Greenberg, an historian at Pennsylvania State University, on the rogue diplomat that ended the Mexican-American War ...

Bought by Public Radio Remix


  • Added: May 06, 2013
  • Length: 11:01
  • Purchases: 1
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Ed Ayers talks with historian Amy Wood about how lynching photographs were used first by white supremacists to spread terror.

Bought by Public Radio Remix


  • Added: Apr 29, 2013
  • Length: 11:26
  • Purchases: 1
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BackStory Producer Eric Mennel tells the story of how a turn-of-the-century American writer grappled with his own ambivalence about the meanings an...

Bought by Public Radio Remix


  • Added: Apr 29, 2013
  • Length: 08:04
  • Purchases: 1
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Hosts Brian Balogh and Peter Onuf tell the story of the founding of Liberia.

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  • Added: Apr 22, 2013
  • Length: 06:43
  • Purchases: 1
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Host Brian Balogh talks with Yelena Khanga, whose grandparents moved to the Soviet Union in the 1930s.

Bought by Public Radio Remix


  • Added: Apr 22, 2013
  • Length: 07:49
  • Purchases: 1

  • Added: Apr 22, 2013
  • Length: 05:14
  • Purchases: 1
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BackStory producer Chioke I’Anson tells the story of Eugene Bullard, the first African-American fighter pilot in World War I – only he flew for Fra...

Bought by Public Radio Remix


  • Added: Apr 22, 2013
  • Length: 06:22
  • Purchases: 1
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Host Ed Ayers speaks with historian Rebecca Edwards about how both Republicans and Democrats argued about the tariff in the terms of domesticity.

Bought by Public Radio Remix


  • Added: Apr 15, 2013
  • Length: 06:49
  • Purchases: 1
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Host Peter Onuf travels to Colonial Williamsburg to interview "Patrick Henry" about his role in the Stamp Act rebellion of 1765.

Bought by Public Radio Remix


  • Added: Apr 15, 2013
  • Length: 09:49
  • Purchases: 1
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Brian poses a question to the guys: was the great era of compromise before the civil war really just a series of pacts with the devil?

Bought by Public Radio Remix


  • Added: Apr 08, 2013
  • Length: 08:19
  • Purchases: 1
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The Guys talk to Kevin Murphy about the 1924 Democratic convention, which was a bit of a circus for reasons other than the fact that the place smel...

Bought by Public Radio Remix


  • Added: Apr 08, 2013
  • Length: 07:07
  • Purchases: 1
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The guys consult former senator Fred Harris and political historian Greg Koger for an explanation of how things got so obstructionist in the Senate.

Bought by Public Radio Remix


  • Added: Apr 08, 2013
  • Length: 11:18
  • Purchases: 1
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Dr. Geoff Bunn helps tell the story of the lie detector, and its roots in pulp fiction.

Bought by Public Radio Remix


  • Added: Apr 01, 2013
  • Length: 11:17
  • Purchases: 1