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
Gym Teacher
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: BackStory with the American History Guys: Favorites
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An audio postcard from the University of Virginia’s Memorial Gym resurrects a famous speech given there by FDR.

Bought by Troy Public Radio, Radio Newark, and KFAI Minneapolis


  • Added: Mar 25, 2014
  • Length: 04:10
  • Purchases: 3
Prisoners at War
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: BackStory with the American History Guys: Favorites
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Host Ed Ayers talks with historian Karin Shapiro about the convict leasing arrangements of the 1890s that led to labor disputes with free workers, ...

Bought by WDBM, KFAI Minneapolis, and Radio Newark


  • Added: Mar 31, 2014
  • Length: 09:31
  • Purchases: 3
Slaves for Hire
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: BackStory with the American History Guys: Favorites
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Historian Gregg Kimball tells host Ed Ayers about the phenomenon of “hiring out” enslaved persons prior to the Civil War, and how this introduced s...

Bought by Radio Newark


  • Added: Mar 31, 2014
  • Length: 08:09
  • Purchases: 1
The Birth of the Minimum Wage
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: BackStory with the American History Guys: Favorites
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Host Brian Balogh talks with legal historian Risa Goluboff about the legal background to the federal minimum wage, established by the Fair Labor St...

Bought by KBCS 91.3 FM Community Radio, Louisville Public Media, WRST-FM Oshkosh, and Radio Newark


  • Added: Mar 31, 2014
  • Length: 08:48
  • Purchases: 4
Blurring the Blurry Lines
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: BackStory with the American History Guys: Favorites
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Producer Eric Mennel tells the story of how a turn-of-the-century American writer grappled with his own ambivalence about the meanings and purposes...

Bought by PRX Remix


  • Added: Apr 15, 2014
  • Length: 08:06
  • Purchases: 1
Darter vs. Dam
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: BackStory with the American History Guys: Favorites
Piece image
Lawyer Zygmunt Plater tells host Brian Balogh about arguing the “snail darter” case before the Supreme Court, the Endangered Species Act, and the i...

Bought by PRX Remix


  • Added: Apr 21, 2014
  • Length: 10:38
  • Purchases: 1
Dinosaurs and Us
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: BackStory with the American History Guys: Favorites
Piece image
Host Brian Balogh sits down with science writer Brian Switek to discuss American “dinomania,” and the way ideas about dinosaur extinction have para...

Bought by WRST-FM Oshkosh


  • Added: Apr 21, 2014
  • Length: 08:40
  • Purchases: 1
A Win for Women
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: BackStory with the American History Guys: Favorites
Piece image
Host Brian Balogh talks with historian Julia Mickenberg about the establishment of women’s suffrage in Revolutionary Russia, and how American suffr...

Bought by WGBH Radio Boston, KUAF Public Radio, Bandon Community Radio, KSFR, KICI Iowa City and more


  • Added: Apr 29, 2014
  • Length: 09:07
  • Purchases: 6
The Destinies of Half the World
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: BackStory with the American History Guys: Favorites
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The American History Guys discuss Alexis de Tocqueville’s 1830s prediction that the US and Russia would become dominant world powers, and probe why...

  • Added: Apr 29, 2014
  • Length: 07:57
A (Red) Star is Born
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: BackStory with the American History Guys: Favorites
Piece image
Sergei Khrushchev and writer Peter Carlson tell us about a moment of levity during Russian Premier Nikita Khrushchev’s visit to the United States i...

Bought by KFAI Minneapolis and PRX Remix


  • Added: Apr 29, 2014
  • Length: 06:19
  • Purchases: 2
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...

Bought by WABE, KFAI Minneapolis, and PRX Remix


  • Added: May 06, 2014
  • Length: 06:23
  • Purchases: 3
Liberty in Liberia?
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: BackStory with the American History Guys: Favorites
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The American History Guys discuss the Liberian experiment – a project to build a perfect community for free blacks, outside the United States. The ...

Bought by KFAI Minneapolis and PRX Remix


  • Added: May 06, 2014
  • Length: 07:24
  • Purchases: 2
The Mother behind Mothers’ Day
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: BackStory with the American History Guys: Favorites
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Producer Nate DiMeo tells the story of Anna Jarvis and the history of Mother’s Day.

Bought by RadioStPete Florida, RadioStPete Florida, WSGE, Cove Mountain Educational Broadcasting, WUTC and more


  • Added: May 13, 2014
  • Length: 06:04
  • Purchases: 12
A Political Diet Plan
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: BackStory with the American History Guys: Favorites
Piece image
Host Brian Balogh talks with food journalist Marian Burros about the US Senate’s attempt to encourage healthy eating in the 1970s, and the pushback...

Bought by WOUB and KFAI Minneapolis


  • Added: May 20, 2014
  • Length: 07:41
  • Purchases: 2
Calming the System
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: BackStory with the American History Guys: Favorites
Piece image
Host Ed Ayers talks with English professor Kyla Wazana Tompkins about the austere diet created by Sylvester Graham, designed to ward off a new kind...

  • Added: May 20, 2014
  • Length: 10:09
Meatless Moralism
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: BackStory with the American History Guys: Favorites
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Ed sits down with historian Adam Shprintzen to discuss the 19th-century Americans who saw a vegetarian diet as a powerful tool of moral reform, one...

Bought by WOUB and KFAI Minneapolis


  • Added: May 20, 2014
  • Length: 08:45
  • Purchases: 2
1973 – The Year That Changed Everything
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: BackStory with the American History Guys: Favorites
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BackStory producer Nina Earnest tells the story of the oil shocks of 1973 and how they continue to shape the world we live in today, with help from...

Bought by KUFM - Montana Public Radio, WABE, Louisville Public Media, KFAI Minneapolis, and PRX Remix


  • Added: Jun 02, 2014
  • Length: 10:11
  • Purchases: 5
Rockefeller’s Rose
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: BackStory with the American History Guys: Favorites
Piece image
Historian H.W. Brands talks with host Ed Ayers about John D. Rockefeller, the Standard Oil trust, and the contradictory capitalism of the Gilded Age.

Bought by WOUB, KFAI Minneapolis, and PRX Remix


  • Added: Jun 02, 2014
  • Length: 09:32
  • Purchases: 3
Voices from the Oilfields
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: BackStory with the American History Guys: Favorites
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Using oral histories of early East Texas oil workers, recorded in the 1950s, we hear about the chaos and excess that accompanied the discovery of oil.

Bought by KFAI Minneapolis and PRX Remix


  • Added: Jun 02, 2014
  • Length: 05:12
  • Purchases: 2
International Pressures, Domestic Pain
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: BackStory with the American History Guys: Favorites
Piece image
Producer Kelly Jones and archivist Jane Tuttle bring us the story of trailblazer Lucile Godbold’s participation in international athletics in the 1...

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


  • Added: Jul 14, 2014
  • Length: 06:11
  • Purchases: 3