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
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 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
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
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
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
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
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
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
With Liberty and Justice For All?
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: BackStory with the American History Guys: Favorites
Caption: Female personification of the Bill of Rights, 1941, Credit: Library of Congress
At the height of World War II, Jehovah’s Witnesses fought for the right not to pledge allegiance to the flag. Historian Sarah Barringer Gordon has ...

Bought by RadioFreePalmer, WOUB, New Hampshire Public Radio, KMRE-LP Bellingham, Wash., KCMJ Community Radio and more


  • Added: Jul 01, 2015
  • Length: 08:44
  • Purchases: 7
Smoking or Non?
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: BackStory with the American History Guys: Favorites
Caption: Female personification of the Bill of Rights, 1941, Credit: Library of Congress
Host Brian Balogh chats with legal historian Sophia Lee, about how both Big Tobacco and the anti-smoking lobby have breathed the language of civil ...

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


  • Added: Jul 01, 2015
  • Length: 07:37
  • Purchases: 2
Pursuing Freedom
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: BackStory with the American History Guys: Favorites
Caption: Female personification of the Bill of Rights, 1941, Credit: Library of Congress
English professor Jeannine DeLombard talks with host Ed Ayers about the paradox some slaves faced when they sued their owners for the right to be f...

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


  • Added: Jul 01, 2015
  • Length: 06:41
  • Purchases: 2
All Right, Mr. Deville, I'm Ready For My Contract
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: BackStory with the American History Guys: Favorites
Caption: Female personification of the Bill of Rights, 1941, Credit: Library of Congress
Historian Sophia Lee has the story of how Hollywood powerhouse Cecil B. DeMille fought labor unions in the 1940s, and championed the “right to work...

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


  • Added: Jul 01, 2015
  • Length: 08:16
  • Purchases: 2
Inside the Box
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: BackStory with the American History Guys: Favorites
Piece image
Journalist Marc Levinson shares the story of Malcolm McLean, who invented the shipping container and changed the way goods move around the world.

Bought by WOUB and KMRE-LP Bellingham, Wash.


  • Added: Jun 08, 2015
  • Length: 09:58
  • Purchases: 2
Fastball
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: BackStory with the American History Guys: Favorites
Caption: Italian-British driver Dario Resta finished a close second at the 1915 Indianapolis 500. , Credit: Library of Congress
Is America’s national pastime too slow? Major League historian John Thorn and famously off-speed pitcher Bill “Spaceman” Lee toss around this old d...

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


  • Added: May 26, 2015
  • Length: 09:00
  • Purchases: 2
A Quick Reno-vation
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: BackStory with the American History Guys: Favorites
Caption: Italian-British driver Dario Resta finished a close second at the 1915 Indianapolis 500. , Credit: Library of Congress
The Guys talk with historian Mella Harmon and guest Barbara Davis about Reno, Nev.'s boom years as America’s quickie divorce capital. This story co...

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


  • Added: May 26, 2015
  • Length: 07:14
  • Purchases: 3
On the Bly
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: BackStory with the American History Guys: Favorites
Caption: Italian-British driver Dario Resta finished a close second at the 1915 Indianapolis 500. , Credit: Library of Congress
With the help of historians Joyce Chaplin and Matthew Goodman, BackStory producer Nina Earnest has the story of journalist Nellie Bly’s 1889 race ’...

Bought by KBCS 91.3 FM Community Radio, KMRE-LP Bellingham, Wash., New Hampshire Public Radio, and KSVR Studios: Skagit Valley Radio


  • Added: May 26, 2015
  • Length: 11:31
  • Purchases: 4
Off to the Races
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: BackStory with the American History Guys: Favorites
Caption: Italian-British driver Dario Resta finished a close second at the 1915 Indianapolis 500. , Credit: Library of Congress
Historian John Mason takes host Brian Balogh to Virginia’s Eastside Speedway for a crash course in the surprisingly egalitarian history of drag rac...

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


  • Added: May 26, 2015
  • Length: 08:50
  • Purchases: 2
Curbside Searches
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: BackStory with the American History Guys: Favorites
Caption: Three ballerinas perform pas de trois as they cast ballots into trash can, atop the Empire State Building., Credit: World Telegram and Sun, Library of Congress
Legal scholar David Sklansky discusses California v. Greenwood, a landmark Supreme Court case that decided whether Americans throw out their expect...

Bought by KSVR Studios: Skagit Valley Radio and PRX Remix


  • Added: May 04, 2015
  • Length: 07:29
  • Purchases: 2
The Pig Apple
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: BackStory with the American History Guys: Favorites
Caption: Three ballerinas perform pas de trois as they cast ballots into trash can, atop the Empire State Building., Credit: World Telegram and Sun, Library of Congress
Historians Brett Mizelle and Catherine McNeur help BackStory producer Kelly Jones tell the story of the thousands of free-range pigs who managed Ne...

Bought by WABE, KSVR Studios: Skagit Valley Radio, KPIP-LP, and PRX Remix


  • Added: May 04, 2015
  • Length: 09:05
  • Purchases: 4
No Mountain High Enough
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: BackStory with the American History Guys: Favorites
Caption: Surrender of Genl. Lee, at Appomattox C.H. Va. April 9th. 1865, Credit: Currier & Ives, Library of Congress
Historian Brenda Stevenson talks with Ed about the extraordinary struggles black families endured to reunite, after slavery had wrenched them apart.

Bought by KSVR Studios: Skagit Valley Radio and PRX Remix


  • Added: Apr 24, 2015
  • Length: 07:34
  • Purchases: 2