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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The Guys share a little-known story about that time Stalin coined the term “American Exceptionalism"

Bought by WOUB, Radio Newark, and KFAI Minneapolis


  • Added: Sep 23, 2013
  • Length: 06:32
  • Purchases: 3
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BackStory producer Andrew Parsons talks with Sergei Khrushchev and Liz Garst on the unlikely friendship between their father and grandfather – Sovi...

Bought by New Hampshire Public Radio, WABE, XRAY.fm, and Radio Newark


  • Added: Sep 30, 2013
  • Length: 08:20
  • Purchases: 4
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Host Brian Balogh sits down with political scientist Adam Sheingate, to discuss how the struggling American farmer turned into the farm lobby—one o...

Bought by Radio Newark and KFAI Minneapolis


  • Added: Sep 30, 2013
  • Length: 08:38
  • Purchases: 2
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Historian Kathleen Mapes talks with Ed Ayers and Brian Balogh about the anti-imperialist stance of America’s sugar beet farmers at the turn of the ...

Bought by KBRP Community Radio and KFAI Minneapolis


  • Added: Sep 30, 2013
  • Length: 06:55
  • Purchases: 2
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Kristen Egan walks us through a creepy utopian novel from 1915, and explains why environmentalism and eugenics went hand in hand in the early 20th ...

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


  • Added: Oct 07, 2013
  • Length: 06:50
  • Purchases: 4
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Host Peter Onuf speaks with Harvard historian Anne Braude about the intersection of Spiritualism with 19th century social reform movements.

Bought by Radio Newark and KFAI Minneapolis


  • Added: Oct 21, 2013
  • Length: 08:33
  • Purchases: 2
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Reporter Nate DiMeo tells the story of the Kate and Margaret Fox, the small-town girls who triggered the 19th century movement known as Spiritualism.

Bought by WABE, Troy Public Radio, Radio Newark, PRX Remix, and KFAI Minneapolis


  • Added: Oct 21, 2013
  • Length: 06:23
  • Purchases: 5
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Host Brian Balogh sits down with historian Joseph Crespino, who explains the Democratic conflict that led to the Dixiecrat Bolt of 1948.

Bought by Radio Newark


  • Added: Oct 28, 2013
  • Length: 09:27
  • Purchases: 1
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Host Ed Ayers talks with historian Annette Gordon-Reed about the Republican Party’s own civil war in the late 1860s, over the nature of Reconstruct...

Bought by Radio Newark


  • Added: Oct 28, 2013
  • Length: 07:09
  • Purchases: 1
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Producer Eric Mennel tells the story of a 24-second experiment that saved one of America’s most beloved sports.

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


  • Added: Nov 04, 2013
  • Length: 06:59
  • Purchases: 5
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Contributor Meg Cramer tells the story of the first electrically lit town in America -- Wabash, Indiana.

Bought by WOUB, Radio Newark, and KFAI Minneapolis


  • Added: Nov 04, 2013
  • Length: 06:21
  • Purchases: 3
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Host Brian Balogh interviews historian Rebecca Plant about war veterans and “mom-ism.”

Bought by Radio Newark and PRX Remix


  • Added: Nov 12, 2013
  • Length: 07:24
  • Purchases: 2
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Host Ed Ayers talks with psychotherapist Edward Tick about the history of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD.

Bought by KVNF and Radio Newark


  • Added: Nov 12, 2013
  • Length: 11:00
  • Purchases: 2
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Brian Balogh talks with historian Lisa Tetrault about the rise of women orators in the Lyceum movement of the late 19th Century.

Bought by WOUB, Radio Newark, PRX Remix, and KFAI Minneapolis


  • Added: Nov 18, 2013
  • Length: 10:03
  • Purchases: 4
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Peter Onuf sits down with historian Carolyn Eastman, who explains the emphasis placed upon Native American speeches in the early Republic, and the ...

Bought by WOUB, Radio Newark, PRX Remix, and KFAI Minneapolis


  • Added: Nov 18, 2013
  • Length: 09:23
  • Purchases: 4
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Gordon Stewart, former speechwriter to President Jimmy Carter, helps Brian Balogh tell the story of the “crisis of confidence” speech Carter delive...

Bought by WABE, XRAY.fm, Radio Newark, PRX Remix, and KFAI Minneapolis


  • Added: Nov 18, 2013
  • Length: 10:06
  • Purchases: 5
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Host Brian Balogh talks with historian Andrew Case about the supposed Communist conspiracy that lay behind the fluoridation of water in the mid-20t...

Bought by Radio Newark, PRX Remix, KFAI Minneapolis, and WRST-FM Oshkosh


  • Added: Dec 02, 2013
  • Length: 10:21
  • Purchases: 4
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BackStory Producer Andrew Parsons brings us the story of alleged murder of an illegitimate baby, which scandalized Virginia high society in the ear...

Bought by Radio Newark, PRX Remix, and KFAI Minneapolis


  • Added: Dec 10, 2013
  • Length: 09:05
  • Purchases: 3
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Historian Julian Zelizer talks with host Brian Balogh about the sex scandal that brought down Wilbur Mills – one of the most powerful congressman o...

Bought by Radio Newark, PRX Remix, WEZU, and KFAI Minneapolis


  • Added: Dec 10, 2013
  • Length: 09:40
  • Purchases: 4
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Host Ed Ayers talks with historian Brian DeLay about the two-front war Mexico faced in its 1840s conflict with the United States – fighting both th...

Bought by Radio Newark and KFAI Minneapolis


  • Added: Jan 21, 2014
  • Length: 11:30
  • Purchases: 2