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.


188 Pieces

Order by: Newest First | Oldest First
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BackStory Producer Jess Engebretson brings us the story of the Effie Afton disaster – an 1856 steamboat crash that led to a legal showdown between ...

Bought by WOUB, KBRP Community Radio, KFAI Minneapolis, Radio Newark, Louisville Public Media and more


  • Added: Jun 17, 2013
  • Length: 06:34
  • Purchases: 6
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Jennifer Abraham-Cramer helps us understand the great Mississippi flood of 1927, using stories from survivors preserved by oral historians.

Bought by WOUB, KRZA, Radio Newark, and PRX Remix


  • Added: Jun 17, 2013
  • Length: 07:41
  • Purchases: 4
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Host Brian Balogh talks with sociologist Karen O’Neill about the federal government’s move into flood control in 1917 – as landowners along the Mis...

Bought by WOUB, Radio Newark, KHNS, and PRX Remix


  • Added: Jun 17, 2013
  • Length: 05:29
  • Purchases: 4
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Historian Aaron Sheehan-Dean explains to host Brian Balogh how the idea of “home” motivated Confederate soldiers, and strengthened their resolve to...

Bought by Radio Newark, Radio Newark, and PRX Remix


  • Added: Jul 01, 2013
  • Length: 11:50
  • Purchases: 3
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The American History Guys discuss the important moral and tactical contributions of African-American soldiers in the Union Army.

Bought by Radio Newark, PRX Remix, Louisville Public Media, and KFAI Minneapolis


  • Added: Jul 01, 2013
  • Length: 05:37
  • Purchases: 4
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Historian Catherine Clinton discusses gender dynamics on the home front, and the American History Guys consider ways in which the Civil War is dist...

Bought by Radio Newark, PRX Remix, and KFAI Minneapolis


  • Added: Jul 01, 2013
  • Length: 06:38
  • Purchases: 3
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Private investigator Ron Brown walks hosts Brian Balogh and Ed Ayers through the process of tracking people down, how technology has dramatically r...

Bought by Radio Newark, Louisville Public Media, PRX Remix, and KFAI Minneapolis


  • Added: Jul 22, 2013
  • Length: 06:48
  • Purchases: 4
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Host Brian Balogh talks with historian Beverly Gage about the breakthrough technological innovation J. Edgar Hoover brought to his work at the FBI:...

Bought by Radio Newark, KFAI Minneapolis, and PRX Remix


  • Added: Jul 22, 2013
  • Length: 07:35
  • Purchases: 3
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Host Peter Onuf talks with historian Katherina Vester about the rise of dieting in the 19th century and about how it was preferable for men to be s...

Bought by Radio Newark and KFAI Minneapolis


  • Added: Jul 29, 2013
  • Length: 10:05
  • Purchases: 2
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Host Brian Balogh and historian Rachel Moran discuss how the federal government began to claim a stake in the public’s physical fitness, and Moran ...

Bought by New Hampshire Public Radio, Radio Newark, and KFAI Minneapolis


  • Added: Jul 29, 2013
  • Length: 09:44
  • Purchases: 3
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Historian David Blight talks with host Ed Ayers about the continuing impact of the Civil War in shaping the context within which the march took pla...

Bought by Radio Newark and KFAI Minneapolis


  • Added: Sep 03, 2013
  • Length: 12:22
  • Purchases: 2
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Historian William P. Jones talks with host Brian Balogh about the origins of the march idea, first floated during a campaign against employment dis...

Bought by Radio Newark and KFAI Minneapolis


  • Added: Sep 03, 2013
  • Length: 09:17
  • Purchases: 2
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BackStory producer, Eric Mennel, profile Francis Lieber, the Prussian immigrant who authored General Orders No. 100.

Bought by WABE, Radio Newark, and KFAI Minneapolis


  • Added: Sep 03, 2013
  • Length: 07:57
  • Purchases: 3
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The American History Guys Peter Onuf, Ed Ayers, and Brian Balogh talk with historian Richard Price about why chemical weapons became taboo.

Bought by Radio Newark


  • Added: Sep 03, 2013
  • Length: 08:25
  • Purchases: 1
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Host Ed Ayers talks with historian Caitlin Rosenthal about an early wave of for-profit universities in the mid-19th Century, and a road not taken i...

Bought by Radio Newark


  • Added: Sep 09, 2013
  • Length: 06:16
  • Purchases: 1
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Historian Caroline Winterer tells host Peter Onuf about a debate over practicality and purpose in higher education after the Civil War, and how the...

Bought by WRST-FM Oshkosh and Radio Newark


  • Added: Sep 09, 2013
  • Length: 08:07
  • Purchases: 2
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Host Brian Balogh talks with former aid worker David Koren about his experiences during the Biafran airlift in the late 1960s, and explores whether...

Bought by Radio Newark


  • Added: Sep 16, 2013
  • Length: 09:09
  • Purchases: 1
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Historian Ann Marie Wilson talks with host Brian Balogh about the call for intervention in Armenia during the early 1890s, and how arguments about ...

Bought by KBCS 91.3 FM Community Radio, Radio Newark, and KFAI Minneapolis


  • Added: Sep 16, 2013
  • Length: 07:12
  • Purchases: 3
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Host Brian Balogh sits down with historian Daniel Feller, to talk about Jacksonian America and the so-called “humanitarian” claims made on both sid...

Bought by KBCS 91.3 FM Community Radio, KBCS 91.3 FM Community Radio, Radio Newark, and KSRQ


  • Added: Sep 16, 2013
  • Length: 07:27
  • Purchases: 4
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Host Brian Balogh talks with musicologist Katherine Meizel about the song “America the Beautiful” and its unsung verses.

Bought by WOUB, PRX Remix, and Radio Newark


  • Added: Sep 23, 2013
  • Length: 06:42
  • Purchases: 3