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
Who Owns Comedy?
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: BackStory with the American History Guys: Favorites
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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
Freedom of Expression™
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: BackStory with the American History Guys: Favorites
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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
Copyright and Creativity
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: BackStory with the American History Guys: Favorites
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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
To Pledge Allegiance
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: BackStory with the American History Guys: Favorites
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The American History Guys riff on citizenship. Does being born on American soil guarantee American citizenship?

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  • Added: May 13, 2013
  • Length: 07:07
  • Purchases: 1
Devil Babies
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: BackStory with the American History Guys: Favorites
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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...

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  • Added: May 13, 2013
  • Length: 07:13
  • Purchases: 1
Before the Ward
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: BackStory with the American History Guys: Favorites
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Laurel Thatcher Ulrich talks to Host Ed Ayers about the movement away from midwifery and towards hospital births.

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  • Added: May 13, 2013
  • Length: 09:03
  • Purchases: 1
A Negotiable End Date
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: BackStory with the American History Guys: Favorites
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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...

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  • Added: May 06, 2013
  • Length: 10:50
  • Purchases: 1
Bounding Manifest Destiny
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: BackStory with the American History Guys: Favorites
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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 ...

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  • Added: May 06, 2013
  • Length: 11:01
  • Purchases: 1
Seen and Believed
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: BackStory with the American History Guys: Favorites
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Ed Ayers talks with historian Amy Wood about how lynching photographs were used first by white supremacists to spread terror.

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  • Added: Apr 29, 2013
  • Length: 11:26
  • Purchases: 1
Blurring the Blurry Lines
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: BackStory with the American History Guys: Favorites
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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...

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  • Added: Apr 29, 2013
  • Length: 08:04
  • Purchases: 1
Little America
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: BackStory with the American History Guys: Favorites
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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
Brave New World
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: BackStory with the American History Guys: Favorites
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Host Brian Balogh talks with Yelena Khanga, whose grandparents moved to the Soviet Union in the 1930s.

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  • Added: Apr 22, 2013
  • Length: 07:49
  • Purchases: 1
For Love or Money
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: BackStory with the American History Guys: Favorites
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Why do people leave the United States?

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  • Added: Apr 22, 2013
  • Length: 05:14
  • Purchases: 1
Harlem in Montmartre
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: BackStory with the American History Guys: Favorites
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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...

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  • Added: Apr 22, 2013
  • Length: 06:22
  • Purchases: 1
Tariff Values = Family Values
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: BackStory with the American History Guys: Favorites
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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.

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  • Added: Apr 15, 2013
  • Length: 06:49
  • Purchases: 1
Patrick Henry
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: BackStory with the American History Guys: Favorites
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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.

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  • Added: Apr 15, 2013
  • Length: 09:49
  • Purchases: 1
The Great Compromisers?
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: BackStory with the American History Guys: Favorites
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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?

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  • Added: Apr 08, 2013
  • Length: 08:19
  • Purchases: 1
Circus Comes to Town
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: BackStory with the American History Guys: Favorites
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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...

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  • Added: Apr 08, 2013
  • Length: 07:07
  • Purchases: 1
A Cloture's Worth a Thousand Words
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: BackStory with the American History Guys: Favorites
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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.

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  • Added: Apr 08, 2013
  • Length: 11:18
  • Purchases: 1
Sweet Little Lies
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: BackStory with the American History Guys: Favorites
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Dr. Geoff Bunn helps tell the story of the lie detector, and its roots in pulp fiction.

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