Tag "Doing History “To the Revolution!”"
By oieahc December 26, 2017

We’ve Been Doing History’s History

Today’s post accompanies “Freedom and the American Revolution,” episode 166 of Ben Franklin’s World and part of the Doing History 2: To the Revolution! series. You can find supplementary materials for the episode on the OI Reader app, available through iTunes or Google Play. History is a primary context for every decision we make; our understanding of the past—our own as individuals and collectively—is background, framework, presumption, and rationale. It’s not always conscious, and it’s not always exact or even correct. But it is there, informing us. It isn’t the case, either, that history is inescapable, or the past makes any specific future inevitable. Individuals and communities large and small can make change happen suddenly or deliberately. But when we recognize change, it is because we know what came before. Read More

#VastEarlyAmericaDoing History 9 min read
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By Rachel B. Herrmann December 05, 2017

Histories of Hunger in the American Revolution

Today’s post accompanies “The American Revolution in North America,” episode 163 of Ben Franklin’s World and part of the Doing History 2: To the Revolution! series. You can find supplementary materials for the episode on the OI Reader app, available through iTunes or Google Play. By Rachel B. Herrmann Poor Joseph Plumb Martin. The Connecticut private had been at it again—eating something a bit iffy to deal with his hunger. This time, it was “an old ox’s liver” that Martin had procured from camp butchers before chucking it into his kettle. The more he boiled it, “the harder it grew,” he recalled, but he ate it anyway. The next morning, Martin’s stomachache drove him to the doctor, who gave him “a large dose of tartar emetic.” After taking the medicine and exercising to encourage it to do its work, Martin promptly “discharged the hard junks of liver like grapeshot from a fieldpiece.”[1] Martin ate a fair amount of offal throughout his service. He sampled “A sheep’s head which” he “begged of the butchers,” and an ox’s milt, or spleen—which also made him vomit.[2] Not all soldiers shared Martin’s predilection for what chefs today refer to fondly as “the nasty bits,” but during the Revolutionary War, British and American soldiers suffered from the curse of bad army food. Read More

Doing History 14 min read
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By oieahc November 22, 2017

Planning a spring syllabus? Read this first

2017 was an extraordinary year for the Omohundro Institute’s burgeoning role as a podcast producer. Liz Covart, creator and host of Ben Franklin’s World, joined the OI full-time as Digital Projects Editor. While they remain based in Boston much of the year, Liz, her partner Tim, and their companion Sprocket, planted a Red Sox flag in front of… Read More

Doing History 5 min read
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By Eugene R.H. Tesdahl November 21, 2017

Smuggling, the American Revolution, and the Riverine Highway

Today’s post accompanies “Smuggling and the American Revolution,” episode 161 of Ben Franklin’s World and part of the Doing History 2: To the Revolution! series. You can find supplementary materials for the episode on the OI Reader app, available through iTunes or Google Play. by Eugene R.H. Tesdahl Smuggling. We have been conditioned to resent the word and the act. Smuggling brings to mind all sorts of seedy images: Prohibition, drug mules from Mexico, arms traffickers in the Middle East, even cigarette smugglers between the US and Canada. Rarely does smuggling elicit images of the American Revolution, and yet contraband trade routes and the dynamic women and men who navigated them deeply influenced the Revolutionary War and the birth of America. Read More

Doing History 13 min read
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By John Fea November 14, 2017

The Greenwich Tea Burning: The Political and Religious Roots of Local Revolutionary Resistance

Today’s post accompanies “The Politics of Tea,” episode 160 of Ben Franklin’s World and part of the Doing History 2: To the Revolution! series. You can find supplementary materials for the episode on the OI Reader app, available through iTunes or Google Play. by John Fea In 1772, Philip Vickers Fithian, a twenty-four year old graduating senior at the College of New Jersey at Princeton, delivered his commencement disputation on the topic, “political jealousy is a laudable passion.” The disputation echoed the words of John Trenchard and Thomas Gordon’s Cato’s Letters. It distinguished between “domestic and ecclesiastical jealousies,” which were harmful to the kind of Christian morality essential to sustaining a republican government, and “political” jealousy, which Fithian described as “rational, uniform, and necessary.” The truly “jealous” citizen kept a careful and virtuous watch on his government leaders to guard against vice and corruption. Political jealousy served as a unifying force. Fithian said that it had the “natural tendency” to “unite people” around interests closely associated with the preservation of a political community. Two years later, Fithian would witness political jealousy in action among the patriots of his hometown, the small hamlet of Greenwich, New Jersey. Read More

Doing History 9 min read
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By Holly A. Mayer October 31, 2017

Following the Army

Today’s post accompanies “The Revolutionaries' Army,” episode 158 of Ben Franklin’s World and part of the Doing History 2: To the Revolution! series. You can find supplementary materials for the episode on the OI Reader app, available through iTunes or Google Play. By Holly A. Mayer Women have volunteered service in all American wars, but they have always been exempt from the civic obligation to serve in the military. As Linda Kerber has argued, that meant that they found themselves “outside the boundaries of [civic] reciprocity and entitlement.” If the definition of “citizen” included bearing arms as a communal obligation, but one could not or would not bear arms for the state, could that person be a citizen entitled to all attendant rights and privileges? When that question arose well after the Revolution in debates over giving women the right to vote, suffragists argued that the obligation entailed more than bearing arms: it was “risking one’s life for the republic, and that childbearing women repeatedly satisfied that obligation.” Rights activists then and later also contended that women preserved the republic in other ways.[i] Nonetheless, activists accepted the premise that willingness to meet the obligation to sustain the nation, meaning to risk life and property, was key to full citizenship. One may also argue that it was key to full representation in history. Read More

Doing History 12 min read
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By oieahc September 12, 2017

The Histories of the Revolution

What was the American Revolution? When did it start, why did it start, and did it end with the Treaty of Paris… or the Constitution, or is it still unfolding?  These seem like simple questions, but Americans have been debating the answers since the Continental and British armies were still on the battlefield. Over the past century,  historians have argued that the Revolution was political, ideological, social, cultural. Some have claimed that revolutionary  ideas mattered most; others have explored the ways in which revolutionary  ideals fell short in practice for many Americans. Read More

Doing History 5 min read
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By Joseph M. Adelman August 15, 2017

Teaching with Ben Franklin's World

Among many other things, the advent of history podcasts has opened new possibilities for engagement both inside and outside of the classroom at all levels. The first Doing History series, which outlines the process that historians use to develop and create historical research projects, was designed in part for exactly that purpose. Over the past few months, we’ve heard from numerous teachers at all levels from elementary to college about the ways in which they’re using Doing History and Ben Franklin’s World as part of their teaching and professional development. With a new semester just about to begin and instructors polishing up syllabi and lesson plans, we wanted to share how some teachers are doing so. Read More

Doing History 8 min read
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By Eliga Gould July 04, 2017

When Did America Really Become Independent?

Eliga Gould is Professor of History at the University of New Hampshire and the author most recently of Among the Powers of the Earth: The American Revolution and the Making of a New World Empire. When I teach the American Revolution, I often ask my students, when did the United States become independent? The conventional… Read More

Doing History 9 min read
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By Martha Howard December 14, 2016

ICYMI: Doing History "To the Revolution!" sneak peek!

We are excited to announce a second year of collaboration with Liz Covart, creator of Ben Franklin’s World, in 2017. Together we bring you Doing History: To the Revolution! Professor Mary Beth Norton kicked off the season early with a sneak peek yesterday. Building on her recent article in the William and Mary Quarterly, Professor Norton asks… Read More

Doing History 2 min read
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