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
Tarred, Feathered, and Branded
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: BackStory with the American History Guys: Favorites
Caption: "This is the enemy." Depiction of a Nazi officer, 1943, Credit: Library of Congress
Historian Ben Irvin talks about how tarring and feathering became a way to publicly brand your neighbor a Loyalist and an enemy in Revolutionary Am...

Bought by KMRE-LP Bellingham, Wash. and PRX Remix


  • Added: Jul 01, 2015
  • Length: 06:30
  • Purchases: 2
Is the Pope a Catholic?
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: BackStory with the American History Guys: Favorites
Caption: "This is the enemy." Depiction of a Nazi officer, 1943, Credit: Library of Congress
Scholar Maura Farrelly and host Brian Balogh discuss the pervasive bias against American Catholics that endured for much of U.S. history, which occ...

Bought by KMRE-LP Bellingham, Wash. and PRX Remix


  • Added: Jul 01, 2015
  • Length: 10:17
  • Purchases: 2
Live and Let Spy
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: BackStory with the American History Guys: Favorites
Caption: "This is the enemy." Depiction of a Nazi officer, 1943, Credit: Library of Congress
Former Soviet spymaster Oleg Kalugin reminisces about his time recruiting Americans to spy for the USSR– and how the U.S. eventually became his hom...

Bought by WOUB, New Hampshire Public Radio, Troy Public Radio, KMRE-LP Bellingham, Wash., and PRX Remix


  • Added: Jul 01, 2015
  • Length: 06:19
  • Purchases: 5
Laugh It Up, Fuzzball
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: BackStory with the American History Guys: Favorites
Caption: "The Happy Cottagers," by Clifford R. James, Credit: Library of Congress
Producer Bruce Wallace has the story of a peculiar craze in the 1920s, when recordings of people laughing broke the charts. This piece comes from t...

Bought by WETS, KMRE-LP Bellingham, Wash., WABE, and PRX Remix


  • Added: Jul 21, 2015
  • Length: 14:02
  • Purchases: 4
Single Serving
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: BackStory with the American History Guys: Favorites
Caption: "The Happy Cottagers," by Clifford R. James, Credit: Library of Congress
Sociologist Zsuzsa Berend reconsiders the lives of 19th-century women who chose, rather than to marry, to be happy by being useful. This story come...

Bought by WETS, KMRE-LP Bellingham, Wash., WTJU, and PRX Remix


  • Added: Jul 21, 2015
  • Length: 05:16
  • Purchases: 4
Chasing the Brass Ring
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: BackStory with the American History Guys: Favorites
Caption: "The Happy Cottagers," by Clifford R. James, Credit: Library of Congress
Psychiatrist Robert Waldinger tells host Brian Balogh about a longitudinal study at Harvard that was meant to track professional success, but start...

Bought by WETS, KMRE-LP Bellingham, Wash., KPIP-LP, KSVR Studios: Skagit Valley Radio, and PRX Remix


  • Added: Jul 21, 2015
  • Length: 09:35
  • Purchases: 5
The Ghost of Satires Past
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: BackStory with the American History Guys: Favorites
Caption: New York Mayor Seth Low shown taming the Tammany Tiger on the cover of Puck Magazine, Credit: Library of Congress
Comedians Azie Dungey and Jordan Black examine how history figures into their satirical web series Ask a Slave. This piece comes from the BackSto...

Bought by WDBM, WETS, and KMRE-LP Bellingham, Wash.


  • Added: Aug 18, 2015
  • Length: 06:43
  • Purchases: 3
What Fools These Mortals Be!
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: BackStory with the American History Guys: Favorites
Caption: New York Mayor Seth Low shown taming the Tammany Tiger on the cover of Puck Magazine, Credit: Library of Congress
BackStory producer Emily Gadek has the story of a satirical arms race during the election of 1884 that changed the face of political cartooning. ...

Bought by WETS, New Hampshire Public Radio, and KMRE-LP Bellingham, Wash.


  • Added: Aug 18, 2015
  • Length: 07:52
  • Purchases: 3
The United States of Lyncherdom
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: BackStory with the American History Guys: Favorites
Caption: New York Mayor Seth Low shown taming the Tammany Tiger on the cover of Puck Magazine, Credit: Library of Congress
Horrified by accounts of lynchings in his home state of Missouri, Mark Twain penned a dark, satirical essay on the subject — but then, he chose not...

Bought by WETS, KREV-LP, and KMRE-LP Bellingham, Wash.


  • Added: Aug 18, 2015
  • Length: 07:35
  • Purchases: 3
Native Ascetic
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: BackStory with the American History Guys: Favorites
Caption: Saint Kateri Tekakwitha, painted by Claude Chuchetiere c.1696., Credit: Wikimedia Commons
Producer Bruce Wallace heads to the birthplace of Kateri Tekakwitha, the first indigenous saint from North America, to see how she is remembered to...

Bought by New Hampshire Public Radio, WETS, and KMRE-LP Bellingham, Wash.


  • Added: Sep 24, 2015
  • Length: 08:22
  • Purchases: 3
Nun But the Truth
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: BackStory with the American History Guys: Favorites
Caption: Saint Kateri Tekakwitha, painted by Claude Chuchetiere c.1696., Credit: Wikimedia Commons
Host Brian Balogh heads to Our Lady of the Angels, a Trappist monastery in the Blue Ridge Mountains, to find out what life is really like behind th...

Bought by WETS, KMRE-LP Bellingham, Wash., and PRX Remix


  • Added: Sep 24, 2015
  • Length: 07:12
  • Purchases: 3
President or Puppet?
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: BackStory with the American History Guys: Favorites
Caption: Saint Kateri Tekakwitha, painted by Claude Chuchetiere c.1696., Credit: Wikimedia Commons
Presidential scholar Barbara Perry discusses Protestant fears that JFK would answer to the Pope, not the American people if elected president — and...

Bought by WGBH Radio Boston, WOUB, WETS, KMRE-LP Bellingham, Wash., and PRX Remix


  • Added: Sep 24, 2015
  • Length: 09:39
  • Purchases: 5
A House Divided
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: BackStory with the American History Guys: Favorites
Caption: "Quiet! Loose talk can cost lives." Office of War information 1943., Credit: National Archives
Host Peter Onuf and scholar Joanne Freeman discuss efforts by Southern Congressmen in the 1830s to bar any mention of slavery on the floor of the U...

Bought by WETS


  • Added: Oct 02, 2015
  • Length: 07:06
  • Purchases: 1
The Ghost of An Idea
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: BackStory with the American History Guys: Favorites
Caption: "Quiet! Loose talk can cost lives." Office of War information 1943., Credit: National Archives
Producer Nina Earnest has the story of Ida Craddock, whose spiritualist sex advice became the target of censor Anthony Comstock’s crusade to ban th...

Bought by WETS, New Hampshire Public Radio, and WRIR


  • Added: Oct 02, 2015
  • Length: 09:40
  • Purchases: 3
Up To Code
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: BackStory with the American History Guys: Favorites
Caption: "Quiet! Loose talk can cost lives." Office of War information 1943., Credit: National Archives
Scholar Thomas Doherty explores the Motion Picture Production Code, a 5,000 word guideline that censored — and shaped –American cinema for nearly t...

Bought by WETS and PRX Remix


  • Added: Oct 02, 2015
  • Length: 08:28
  • Purchases: 2
War of Words
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: BackStory with the American History Guys: Favorites
Caption: "Quiet! Loose talk can cost lives." Office of War information 1943., Credit: National Archives
Reporters Joe Galloway and John Fialka, along with scholar Dan Hallin, discuss how coverage of Vietnam lead to new restrictions on the press in war...

Bought by WOUB, WETS, and New Hampshire Public Radio


  • Added: Oct 02, 2015
  • Length: 08:36
  • Purchases: 3
A Plague O' Both Your Houses
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: BackStory with the American History Guys: Favorites
Caption: William Jennings Bryan beating the drum of populism, cover of 'Puck' magazine, 1901., Credit: Library of Congress
Historian Paul Gilje describes a series of riots against smallpox inoculation in colonial Massachusetts, making the case that 18th century mobs and...

Bought by WETS


  • Added: Oct 26, 2015
  • Length: 07:38
  • Purchases: 1
Alliance, Divided
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: BackStory with the American History Guys: Favorites
Caption: William Jennings Bryan beating the drum of populism, cover of 'Puck' magazine, 1901. , Credit: Library of Congress
Historian Omar Ali tells the story of the Black Populists of the American South, who paid an immense price for their brief rise to political power ...

Bought by WETS and WRIR


  • Added: Oct 26, 2015
  • Length: 07:21
  • Purchases: 2
Follow the Yellow Brick Road
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: BackStory with the American History Guys: Favorites
Caption: William Jennings Bryan beating the drum of populism, cover of 'Puck' magazine, 1901. , Credit: Library of Congress
Producer Kelly Jones and scholar Ranjit Dighe explain how The Wizard of Oz is more than just a children’s story—it’s also a great way to make sense...

Bought by WOUB, WVTF, New Hampshire Public Radio, and WETS


  • Added: Oct 26, 2015
  • Length: 08:37
  • Purchases: 4
Party People
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: BackStory with the American History Guys: Favorites
Caption: William Jennings Bryan beating the drum of populism, cover of 'Puck' magazine, 1901. , Credit: Library of Congress
Scholars Harry Watson and Jason Opal tell the story of “people’s president” Andrew Jackson’s notoriously wild inauguration party. This segment come...

Bought by WETS


  • Added: Oct 26, 2015
  • Length: 07:33
  • Purchases: 1