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
Ping-Pong Diplomacy
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: BackStory with the American History Guys: Favorites
Piece image
Producer Bruce Wallace explains how ping-pong helped to thaw U.S.- China relations during the 1970s, while remaining a potent field for propaganda ...

Bought by WOUB, KFAI Minneapolis, and PRX Remix


  • Added: Jul 14, 2014
  • Length: 11:14
  • Purchases: 3
The Black Power Salute?
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: BackStory with the American History Guys: Favorites
Piece image
Host Brian Balogh talks with sociologist Harry Edwards, founder of the Olympic Project for Human Rights, about the iconic moment at the 1968 Olympi...

Bought by WAMC Northeast Public Radio, WXDU, KFAI Minneapolis, and PRX Remix


  • Added: Jul 14, 2014
  • Length: 09:20
  • Purchases: 4
Evicted From the Wild
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: BackStory with the American History Guys: Favorites
Caption: The mountain pass, Sierra Nevada, Credit: Library of Congress
Producer Jesse Dukes has the story of some five hundred families who were made to leave their homes in an area supposedly “pristine and free of hum...

Bought by New Hampshire Public Radio and PRX Remix


  • Added: Sep 15, 2014
  • Length: 08:03
  • Purchases: 2
Can We Still Call It Wilderness?
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: BackStory with the American History Guys: Favorites
Caption: The mountain pass, Sierra Nevada, Credit: Library of Congress
Writer Emma Marris and historian Paul Sutter join the Guys as they discuss the Wilderness Act of 1964, and how American ideas of wilderness and how...

Bought by PRX Remix


  • Added: Sep 15, 2014
  • Length: 10:43
  • Purchases: 1
Above the Law
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: BackStory with the American History Guys: Favorites
Caption: The police in Gary, Ind., 1908, Credit: Library of Congress
Producer Nina Earnest explores how the professionalization of the Los Angeles Police Department -intended to free the police from municipal corrupt...

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


  • Added: Sep 24, 2014
  • Length: 10:46
  • Purchases: 3
Running the Riot
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: BackStory with the American History Guys: Favorites
Caption: The police in Gary, Ind., 1908, Credit: Library of Congress
Legal scholar Alasdair Roberts talks with Peter Onuf about the beginnings of municipal police departments in the U.S., which were organized not to ...

Bought by KFAI Minneapolis and PRX Remix


  • Added: Sep 24, 2014
  • Length: 07:40
  • Purchases: 2
The Reason in the Riot
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: BackStory with the American History Guys: Favorites
Caption: The police in Gary, Ind., 1908, Credit: Library of Congress
Brian Balogh speaks with former Senator Fred Harris about the commission convened by President Lyndon Johnson in the dark days of the 1967 Detroit ...

Bought by Radio Catskill, New Hampshire Public Radio, WABE, RadioFreePalmer, KVSC and more


  • Added: Sep 24, 2014
  • Length: 10:24
  • Purchases: 6
Never Never Land
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: BackStory with the American History Guys: Favorites
Caption: Pedro Pan girls, Florida City, Fla., 1962. , Credit: Courtesy of Ileana Ortega Menéndez.
BackStory editor Robert Armangol explores the legacy of Operation Pedro Pan, a plan to save Cuban children from communist indoctrination by leaving...

  • Added: Oct 08, 2014
  • Length: 12:09
Go West, Young Orphan
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: BackStory with the American History Guys: Favorites
Caption: Pedro Pan girls, Florida City, Fla., 1962. , Credit: Courtesy of Ileana Ortega Menéndez.
For nearly 75 years, children from the orphanages of New York and other cities were shipped west to families in the West who needed farm labor. Som...

Bought by WOUB and PRX Remix


  • Added: Oct 08, 2014
  • Length: 08:05
  • Purchases: 2
Kill the Indian
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: BackStory with the American History Guys: Favorites
Caption: Pedro Pan girls, Florida City, Fla., 1962. , Credit: Courtesy of Ileana Ortega Menéndez.
Historian Tsianina Lomawaima talks about the enduring legacy of Indian boarding schools, which sought to forcibly integrate tribal children into wh...

Bought by KBCS 91.3 FM Community Radio and PRX Remix


  • Added: Oct 08, 2014
  • Length: 09:31
  • Purchases: 2
Echoes of the Call
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: BackStory with the American History Guys: Favorites
Caption: Classroom in the Islamic School in Seattle, Washington, 1982., Credit: Library of Congress
Sylviane Diouf of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture talks with Ed Ayers about some of the overlooked legacies of enslaved Muslims ...

Bought by PRX Remix


  • Added: Oct 31, 2014
  • Length: 06:24
  • Purchases: 1
A Sea Change
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: BackStory with the American History Guys: Favorites
Caption: Classroom in the Islamic School in Seattle, Washington, 1982., Credit: Library of Congress
Frank Cogliano of the University of Edinburgh speaks with host Peter Onuf about the first Barbary War, which has often been cast as the first confl...

  • Added: Oct 31, 2014
  • Length: 09:05
So, A Man Breaks Into A Mosque...
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: BackStory with the American History Guys: Favorites
Caption: Classroom in the Islamic School in Seattle, Washington, 1982., Credit: Library of Congress
Anthropologist Nabeel Abraham tells host Brian Balogh about the fight between two Muslim communities over the future of a Dearborn, Michigan mosque...

  • Added: Oct 31, 2014
  • Length: 09:42
Muslims on the Mic
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: BackStory with the American History Guys: Favorites
Caption: Classroom in the Islamic School in Seattle, Washington, 1982., Credit: Library of Congress
Scholar Su’ad Abdul Khabeer tells BackStory producer Kelly Jones about Islam’s impact on hip-hop – and how hip-hop opened doors between different M...

Bought by KBCS 91.3 FM Community Radio, New Hampshire Public Radio, WABE, and PRX Remix


  • Added: Oct 31, 2014
  • Length: 08:35
  • Purchases: 4
Friday Night Lights
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: BackStory with the American History Guys: Favorites
Piece image
Contributor Meg Cramer tells the story of the first electrically lit town in America — Wabash, Indiana. This story is part of BackStory episode "On...

Bought by New Hampshire Public Radio and WABE


  • Added: Oct 31, 2014
  • Length: 06:21
  • Purchases: 2
Buzzer Beater
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: BackStory with the American History Guys: Favorites
Piece image
Producer Eric Mennel tells the story of a 24-second experiment that saved one of America’s most beloved sports. This story is part of the BackStory...

Bought by WABE


  • Added: Oct 31, 2014
  • Length: 07:00
  • Purchases: 1
Let's Make Up: Out of Body Experience
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: BackStory with the American History Guys: Favorites
Caption: John Adams presented to King George III, in 1785, as first American ambassador to the English court. Wood engraving, 19th century., Credit: The Granger Collection, New York.
From BackStory's episode on reconciliation in American history. Anthropologist Orin Starn tells us about the the battle between the Smithsonian and...

Bought by Radio Newark


  • Added: Nov 11, 2014
  • Length: 10:14
  • Purchases: 1
Let's Make Up: Friendship out of Fallout
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: BackStory with the American History Guys: Favorites
Caption: John Adams presented to King George III, in 1785, as first American ambassador to the English court. Wood engraving, 19th century., Credit: The Granger Collection, New York.
From BackStory's episode on reconciliation in American history. Brian Balogh speaks with Shigeko Sasamori, a survivor of the Hiroshima bombing, and...

Bought by KUAF Public Radio, KPIK-LP, and PRX Remix


  • Added: Nov 11, 2014
  • Length: 09:31
  • Purchases: 3
Let's Make Up: Gang Related Reconciliation
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: BackStory with the American History Guys: Favorites
Caption: John Adams presented to King George III, in 1785, as first American ambassador to the English court. Wood engraving, 19th century., Credit: The Granger Collection, New York.
From BackStory's episode on the history of reconciliation in America. BackStory producer Andrew Parsons has the story of a peace summit between gan...

Bought by WABE and PRX Remix


  • Added: Nov 11, 2014
  • Length: 09:16
  • Purchases: 2
Let's Make Up: An Uncivil War
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: BackStory with the American History Guys: Favorites
Caption: John Adams presented to King George III, in 1785, as first American ambassador to the English court. Wood engraving, 19th century., Credit: The Granger Collection, New York.
Historian Rebecca Brannon tells the story of brutal fighting between Loyalists and Patriots in South Carolina during the Revolutionary War, and the...

Bought by PRX Remix


  • Added: Nov 11, 2014
  • Length: 09:45
  • Purchases: 1