Tom Ireland House, Webberville, Travis County, TX 1937 (via Library of Congress)

In 1931, Herbert Hoover called the idea of owning one’s own home “a sentiment deep in the heart of our race and of American life.” In this episode, the History Guys search for the roots of that sentiment, and consider how it has played out over time. The image of a deed to a home with a yard and picket fence is at the core of the American Dream, but for many, the housing reality has looked more like a pile of rent receipts and back mortgage payments. Why has the ideal of home ownership been so difficult for so many generations of Americans to attain? Was there ever a Golden Age of home ownership, anyway?

Guests Include:

• Loren Moulds — Historian, University of Virginia
• Richard White – Professor of History, Stanford University
• David Edelstein — Film critic, New York Magazine

Further Exploration

A wealth of additional resources on the history of homeownership in the United States, as well as a bibliography of works consulted during the making of the episode.

Even Further

• See the online discussion that helped shape this show.

Migrant cotton picker and her baby, Buckeye, AZ, 1940 (National Archives)

To mark the rebirth of BackStory as a weekly program, the History Guys set out to explore the earliest stages of life in America. They begin with a few of the basic assumptions we have about birth in America today, and spend the hour exploring how those assumptions came into being. How is it that hospital doctors moved in on what had been midwife’s exclusive territory? Why did Puritans think their newborns were damned from the outset? When did courts start ruling that fetuses had legal rights? Why have generations of Americans resisted the notion of birthright citizenship?

Guests Include:

• Laura Wattenberg: Founder, BabyNameWizard.com
• Peggy Bendroth: Congregational Christian Historical Society
• Laurel Thatcher Ulrich: Professor of History, Harvard University (A Midwife’s Tale)
• Jessica Waters, Professor of Law, American University

Show Segments

Listen to individual segments of the show.

Further Exploration

A wealth of additional resources on the history of birth and babies.

Even Further…

• See the online discussion that helped shape this show.
• See a listing of music used in this episode.
• See a list of the works consulted for the show.

BackStory (backstoryradio.org) is a 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. Hosted by renowned historians Peter Onuf, Ed Ayers, and Brian Balogh, the program is produced by VFH Radio at the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities. BackStory’s signature sound and spirit of inquiry emanates from the hearts and minds of its genial hosts, whose unscripted brilliance reflects a warmth and rapport that comes from their longtime friendship.

Key facts for stations are provided below, with a schedule of upcoming BackStory episodes. Please confirm carriage of BackStory with the American History Guys by contacting Steve Martin at 703-715-0827 or steve@sfmconsulting.com.

Moving from current headlines to drill down into U.S. history, each surprising BackStory episode features lively interviews with a diverse roster of scholars, experts, and ordinary citizens from around the country; listener calls; host discussions; and produced pieces. Topics are as diverse as college sports, reenactments, sugar, memorials, domestic terrorism, birthing, homeownership, the post office, philanthropy, protests, privacy, marriage, revivalism, and childhood—all in the context of American history.

Since BackStory first began as a monthly show in 2008, episodes have been broadcast by more than 130 primary stations in 39 states, 29 in the top 50 markets by population. Podcasts have been downloaded 1.4 million times. Major funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities—with additional corporate, foundation, institutional, and individual support—enabled BackStory to move to weekly production in May, 2012.

Debut Weekly BackStory Episodes

May 11—Born in the USA

BackStory explores the history of childbirth in America, looking at everything from changes in medical technologies to historical views on whether children are innately good or bad. Find out why you’re more likely today to meet a baby named “Messiah” than “Prudence” and follow shifting opinions on when legal personhood begins. The overarching question of the hour: What has it meant to be born in the USA?

May 18—Home! Bittersweet Home!

Where does the American dream of home ownership come from and who has been excluded from it? Turns out that even many homesteaders lost out to railroads in the end. And since emancipation, African Americans have been systematically challenged in their efforts to enter and remain in the housing market. BackStory also looks at Hollywood’s visions of a how a house of one’s own can turn into a nightmare.

May 25—Monumental Disagreements

For Memorial Day, the American History Guys are taking time to consider how and what Americans have memorialized. They’ve been wondering about the marble statues of presidents and those faces blasted into mountains—what do they really represent? Turns out, their meanings often say more about their creators than the people they memorialize. The Washington monument itself was the subject of decades of controversy about what sort of country the founders meant this to be.

June 1—Of Monkeys and Men

BackStory traces the ups and downs of the evolution debate. How were Darwin’s ideas received in the U.S., and why did it take six decades before the teaching of his theories in public school systems was seriously challenged? What lessons does history offer those interested in charting a harmonious relationship between science and religion?

June 8—Weathering the Storm

BackStory tackles weather in its strangest and scariest permutations: hurricanes, blizzards, tornadoes, you name it. How have Americans thought about extreme weather through history, and how has the weather shaped our times and lives? What kinds of disaster responses have been useful and which ones have been, well, disastrous?

June 15—The War of 1812: Which One Was That?

It was America’s first war. We fought the British. We fought the Indians. We thought we could conquer Canada! And to this day it’s the war Americans know least about. In this episode, BackStory gives the War of 1812 a second chance.

June 22—Committed to an Institution

With its status as a traditionally defined religious or civil union now clearly a topic of debate, the BackStory team explores how Americans have historically valued and worked to change or preserve the institution of marriage.

June 29—City Upon a Hill

Americans have long enjoyed thinking of themselves as “number one” in the world. In the 1830s Tocqueville first called American democracy exceptional in the history of social equality. BackStory looks at the changing meanings of American Exceptionalism.

Key Facts for Stations:

★ BackStory is available weekly via PRX and the PRSS ContentDepot.

★ Weekly BackStory episodes will be fed on Fridays.

★ BackStory programs follow the standard NPR specials clock, with billboard (0:59), news hole (5:00), and fixed 1-min. breaks at 19:00 and 39:00.

★ Custom station promos provided.

★ BackStory is available for broadcast free of carriage fees.

Promotional Materials—Files and Links

BackStory Logo

(downloadable file – scalable image available)

Pictures of the American History Guys

Ed Ayers – photo

Brian Balogh – photo

Peter Onuf – photo

In Studio – photo

Group – photo

(downloadable files)

Article—Meet the Guys

Article—Meet BackStory‘s Producers

Ruins of San Francisco City Hall after 1906 earthquake and fire.

In 1815, a volcanic eruption in Indonesia sent enough ash into the sky to disrupt weather across the globe for the next year.  In New England, 1816 became known as “The Year Without a Summer.”  Snow fell throughout June and July.   Temperatures swung wildly. Crops and animals died.  According to one diarist, the 4th of July saw “ice as thick as window glass” as far south as Pennsylvania.  Tens of thousands of people picked up and left; their search for greener pastures in Indiana and Illinois became the first chapter in a larger story of westward expansion.

This week on BackStory, we tackle weather in its strangest and scariest permutations.  How have Americans thought about extreme weather through history, and how has the weather shaped our history?  What kinds of disaster responses have been useful and which ones have been, well, disastrous?  And how much of a natural disaster can we really blame on nature?

Please help us shape this show!   Ever moved from one region to another to escape the threat of hurricanes or earthquakes?  What do you think we learned (or didn’t learn) from Katrina?  How does climate change fit into the picture?  And why  are disaster movies so compulsively watchable?  Share your stories, questions, and ideas below!

Photo courtesy Library of Congress

Sloshed, hammered, smashed. . . Ben Franklin might have said that Americans were double toung’d or cherry merry – but it all means the same thing. Drinking, and drunkenness, has always been a feature of the American landscape. But throughout our history, there has been a tension between excess and prohibition. In the Colonial era, men frequently hit the bottle before attending court or church – and their wives provided the homemade cider. In the 19th century, anxieties about big cities, race, and ethnicity inflamed a virulent fight for prohibition. And in the 20th century, not everyone celebrated the freedom to buy booze after Prohibition’s repeal.

In this hour, we’ll explore the social, economic, and health consequences of drinking. BackStory fans may have heard our Alcohol show a few years ago – but we’re taking another look deep into the liquor cabinet, and finding out what it means to drink booze in America. Right now, we want to know what YOU have to say. Is there a recipe for a drink you can’t wrap your head around? Do you have a traditional tailgating beer? Do you remember when the drinking age was 18? What are the darker sides of alcohol? We want to know what you think comprises the American story of booze. Post here, or at www.facebook.com/backstory

A key player on that team is senior producer Tony Field, who has led production since BackStory was first launched as a monthly show on public radio back in 2008. Last summer, with the support of a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, Wyndham and Field embarked on a nationwide talent search aimed at putting together an outstanding creative group of associate producers—experienced in radio, intellectually adventurous, committed to making history vibrate positively for a large listening audience. They recruited diverse young professionals whose enthusiasm for the weekly and its mission has brought them to Charlottesville from around the nation.

“None of the staff are historians, as such,” notes Field. “And having producers in the studio who are listening to the guys with interested but not academically trained ears is a good approximation of the audience we believe is out there for our show: People who are interested in stories in depth, interested in big ideas presented in an accessible style.” The staff’s concerns, he adds, reflect that “post-Ira Glass, post-RadioLab sensibility” which pushes producers to look for innovative, even breakthrough, ways to tell stories.

Visit a BackStory pitch-meeting, and you’ll see this playing out, as each producer argues for pursuing sometimes-edgy production options—tapping alternative resources, taking new approaches to involving the Guys or engaging their guests, developing attention-getting features, figuring out new ways to introduce calls—all with the goal of making history “real” for listeners, strikingly expressing its importance for today. This team is convinced that, conveying history though innovative storytelling done by the leading practitioners of the subject, BackStory can define a new form for radio. And though the process of framing and making exciting shows is inherently collaborative, Field and Wyndham have encouraged these producers to make their own contributions—to bring their individual backgrounds and unique interests to the table as well.

A 2010 Florida State graduate, associate producer Eric Mennel arrived at BackStory in October, fresh off a six-month internship with This American Life. There he was involved in all aspects of production, co-producing pieces ranging from two-ways to an hour-long investigation, culminating in producing and reporting his own story. At WUSF, Tampa, he reported and produced local spots for Morning Edition and All Things Considered. He has also been a news anchor and segment producer at WVWS in Tallahassee; done production work for Studio 360; and interned at The Daily Show. What has really shaped Mennel’s approach to radio, though, is TAL’s focus on stories. Drawn to BackStory by the prospect of contributing to the creation of a new national weekly, he was also attracted by the time-bound yet transcendent nature of history. “We’re doing history in the sense that we’re doing a show that is consistently about the past,” he says. “But on the college sports show we did a story about the integration of the Alabama football team. That’s not just a story about the past. It’s also a football story. And it’s a story about human relationships.”

Associate producer Jess Engebretson was graduated from Swarthmore in 2009, parlaying her experiences there working for War News Radio and the Sudan Radio Project into a Watson Fellowship. She subsequently spent two years researching radio in post-conflict societies—living in Indonesia, Rwanda, and Liberia—also working as a trainer at community radio stations and doing some freelancing for PRI’s The World. After two years abroad, Engebretson landed back in the States and headed to Charlottesville to join the Backstory team in October. “All of the radio I had done was very news-focused,” she says, “and you often only get three sentences in a news cast. Frequently I would be working on a story and, at the end, would look at it and realize that, though people might think they understand what’s going on, they don’t. That’s because there’s this whole big part of the story that I didn’t have time to tell—the context, the backstory.” Beyond this, Engebretson says that her time overseas made vivid how profoundly a history of conflict can shape a society’s future direction.  It’s this sense of the immediacy of the past—of its connections with the present—that initially drew her to BackStory.

Associate producer Anna Pinkert joined the BackStory team in December after a stint at Radio Boston, a daily regional magazine show out of WBUR. Prior to that, this Wesleyan history major pursued her passion for the subject by working on exhibitions for museums—developing video, audio, and interactive games. Eventually, she decided to explore her interest in radio production by attending the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies in Maine, where she produced a feature named by The University of Missouri Review’s 2011 audio contest as Best Professionally Recorded Documentary. Pinkert was hoping to find opportunities to do history in radio, yet kept hearing from professional colleagues that such a thing didn’t exist. “I had felt for a long time there must be a way to do history on the radio that can be offbeat and inventive and doesn’t have to be this static thing that everyone assumes it will be.” So BackStory’s premise immediately drew her interest, playing into a fascination with all things past and how to bring those vividly to life.

Technical director Jamal Millner has been a professional musician since he was fourteen. This University of Virginia graduate in ethnomusicology traveled the world through his twenties, playing with the likes of B.B. King, Taj Mahal, the Dave Matthews Band, and Corey Harris. Though those touring days are behind him now, the expert ear and engineering/production skills that he developed during this period eventually led him to create an audio production company—making a living “from something I had sort of been doing since I messed around with multiple cassette players, when I was just a kid.” Millner’s true musical calling is jazz, and that affinity, he says, is a good match for BackStory: “Much like New Orleans musicians, the Guys are in a sort of democratic back-and-forth when they riff on a theme. Each one gets the floor, but they also interact, almost like call and response, bouncing ideas off ideas, so it’s a form of intellectual polyphony.” Millner’s compositional strengths contribute to finding an audio texture unique to the program, something that he did part-time, mixing and mastering monthly BackStory episodes, until assuming his current position in January.

A Charlottesville native, Nell Boeschenstein has just joined BackStory as its part-time assisting producer for research, having previously interned for the show. A 2002 graduate of Dartmouth, where she edited the literary magazine and received a prize from the Academy of American Poets, Boeschenstein is an essayist and former print journalist whose work has appeared in The Believer, The Rumpus, This Recording, and The Morning News. She will receive her MFA in nonfiction writing from Columbia this June.  She brings what she describes as “an affinity for narrative and exploring the intellectual implications of stories, along with a keen interest in radio production” to BackStory’s development process.

“Our way of working is all about process,” says BackStory’s senior producer Tony Field, a Wesleyan graduate who concentrated in history and is leading the production team in engaging the intellectual, technical and operational challenges of producing a weekly, nationally targeted history show. Field previously worked at WNYC, as a producer for NPR’s Peabody Award-winning On the Media. He has also worked as an editor, writer, and producer for Radiolab. He has produced for PRI’s Fair Game, Soundportraits Productions, and WBUR News. And he has worked with Curtis Fox Productions as editor of The New Yorker magazine’s “Campaign Trail” podcast series. “Tony brings extensive radio experience to the show and is doing a super job orchestrating the production process with our new associate producers, developing a multi-layered, highly appealing weekly program,” says Wyndham.

BackStory’s founding executive producer, Andrew Wyndham is director of media programs at the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, where he also executive produces the Virginia radio program With Good Reason and has developed other radio initiatives, including a VFH Humanities Feature Bureau. He coordinates the development and promotion of BackStory and is the program’s fund-raiser. A Washington and Lee graduate, he previously developed and served as project director for the award-winning 2003 Re-Imagining Ireland international conference and festival, executive producing and directing an internationally broadcast video documentary and editing a collection of essays which came out of that program. He has also created an international conference and festival on Irish film and coordinated the Southern Humanities Media Fund. He holds an M.A. in English from the University of Virginia.

Working with the new producers and consulting with Graham Griffith—founding executive producer of The Takeaway and founding senior producer for On Point—Wyndham and Field adopted a development schedule that both reflects the future pace of operations and has left space for evaluation and critique. Kerry Donahue—former executive producer at WNYC, former producer of Marketplace Index with David Brancaccio, and adjunct professor at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism—has also assisted in defining the process and is coordinating advisory listening groups composed of public radio program directors from around the country. Former WAMU Program Director, Steve Martin of SFM Consulting, is managing BackStory’s weekly marketing campaign, reaching out to stations near and far.

The BackStory Guys, with their production team and consultants, are focusing on creating an exciting menu of often-surprising shows that connect American history and current issues in compelling new ways—more on those programs in coming weeks. You can now preview what the team is accomplishing: Listen to “Born in the USA,” an AUDITION PROGRAM available here on PRX or at the BackStory website.

The Worlds Largest Peanut Monument stands along I-75 in Ashburn, Georgia.

For Memorial Day, we’re taking some time out to think about how and what Americans have memorialized. In this episode, we’ll attempt to breathe some life back into the debates and controversies that have surrounded some of our most iconic national monuments. We’ll pay particular attention to the way monuments often seem to say more about their creators than about the people they memorialize. Case-in-point: the Washington Monument, the subject of decades of controversy about what sort of country the founders meant this to be.

Help us out: Do you have a favorite memorial or monument? Anything close to home or that hits you more personally than anything in DC? Tell us all about it, below.

A woodcut of the Haymarket Square bombing in 1886. From Harper's Weekly.

On September 16th, 1920, a bomb exploded on Wall Street as workers took their lunch break.  The explosion killed 38 people and injured hundreds. The targets? What we’d call today the one percent, the powerful financiers who ran JP Morgan.  The Wall Street attack was the deadliest terrorist bombing in the US until Oklahoma City in 1995 - but at the time, people saw it as just one more bombing in a long string of anarchist attacks.

That got us wondering: how has Americans’ experience of terrorism changed over the centuries?  What sorts of people and movements have been identified as particular threats?  When have we found effective responses to the threat of terror, and when have we gone disastrously wrong?

Please help us shape this show!  Do you remember the Weather Underground or the kidnapping of Patty Hearst?  In the post-9/11 world, has domestic terrorism completely disappeared from view?  How do we balance counterterrorism and our civil liberties?  Share your stories, questions, and ideas below.

Each week, the show chooses a topic and tells stories, conducts interviews, and shares insight on how that topic has played out through American history. From time to time, we’ll also include radio features by outside producers. Here’s what we’re looking for in these features:

First, an historical angle (the “back” part of BackStory).  We want to get inside the ways that Americans from earlier eras experienced their world.  Your angle can be environmental, social, political, economic — we’re open to pretty much anything as long as it illuminates something fascinating about the past.   Please note that stories set wholly in the present day (or the past five to ten years) aren’t going to work for us.  We get a lot of 20th century pitches, so we’re especially eager for stories from earlier eras.

Second, a story (the “story” part of BackStory). Your characters might be alive, or they might be long dead. Either way, you should still have some character(s) with something at stake. Second, when pitching your story, think about ways to bring these characters to life. We’re open to re-enactments, experts telling the story second hand, oral histories, all the typical stuff. But don’t be afraid to think outside the box. Questions we’re always going to ask are: Why did this happen when it happened? What does this reveal about America at the time? Why should we care about that now? In general, we are open to pieces between three and ten minutes in length.

Audio Postcards

We’re also looking for short pieces (no more than two minutes) that pair a strong sense of place with an historical perspective. “Historical perspective” can be interpreted broadly — it could entail visiting the site of a famous battle or speech, but it could also deal with family stories, local lore, a quirky tradition, etc. The postcard should be driven by the sounds of the place, though narration is certainly also fine. We’d be especially interested in postcards from areas outside the east coast.

To Pitch

Email Associate Producer Jess Engebretson at <jengebretson at virginia dot edu>, with the word “PITCH:” in your title. The more concise your pitch, the better. Include what, if any, sources you would use in your story and how you would produce them. Also give us an idea about what you imagine your piece would sound like (field tape, scoring, effects, readings, etc.). We understand we’re a new show, so we won’t be offended if you compare it to something you might hear on another radio show. We’re open to non-narrated features, written essays, and reported pieces. You don’t need to have worked in radio or history to pitch, but if you can give us a sense of your experience (radio or otherwise), please do, and if you can include a couple of links to your best stuff, so much the better.

Topics

BackStory has a rolling schedule of topics. We always strive to make our shows relevant, and so in our show production process, are always paying attention to the news-of-the-day, as well as to our general sense of “what people are talking about.” Below is a list of topics we’re actively considering, though feel free to pitch either a new show topic or a story that is just so good we might be able to build a show around it. The list will be updated every week or two, so be sure to keep checking back.

(Last update: 4/27/12)

Natural Disasters

Ahead of hurricane season, BackStory’s looking at a show on natural disasters: floods, tornadoes, blizzards, hurricanes, you name it.  Some questions we’re mulling over: why are some disasters remembered and others forgotten?  How natural are natural disasters?  Keep in mind that while we all love wild stories, we’re looking for pitches that get beyond “this crazy thing happened” and show us something surprising about American society or culture.

The War 1812: Wait… which one was that?

This June marks the bicentennial of America’s declaration of war in 1812. It was our first real war as a nation, the first time we needed to build a military, and the first time we thought we could take over Canada. Americans know virtually nothing about the War of 1812. We’re planning to tell stories that bring the war to life today. We’re looking for surprising aspects of the war that have had lasting aspects on our lives today. We’ve got stories about Johnny Cash, Massachusetts secessionists, and the Navy’s newest attempt to rebrand itself using its glory days: 1812. Let us know what you’ve got!

Flags

The pledge of allegiance was written to convince school children to buy magazines. All those pictures of Washington crossing the Delaware with an American flag? Those are anachronistic (google that word if you need to). The American flag holds a really special place in our society, but that wasn’t always the case. We had to get it there somehow. We want stories of flags, big and small. State flags, national flags, pirate flags — it’s all fair game for this episode, slated for early June.

The Right to Privacy

With Google and Facebook modifying their privacy policies in very particular ways as of late, a lot of Americans have claimed a “fundamental right to privacy” in their Internet dealings. Yet the word “privacy” appears nowhere in the U.S. Constitution, and legal scholars still haven’t been able to agree on what, exactly, the word means. So what does this “fundamental right” actually amount to, why is it so difficult to define, and how did it come to represent so much that we Americans hold dear? We want stories of people throughout American history grappling with this dilemma, challenging it, and maybe even pushing it to whole new levels.

A History of Marriage

In 1859, the media watched with rapt attention as congressman Daniel Sickles was tried for the murder of Phillip Barton Key. Sickles had caught his wife, Teresa, in an affair with Key, and had shot him three times—once in the groin. At the trial, one of Sickles’ attorneys argued that, “The person or body of the wife is the property of the husband, and the wife cannot consent away her own purity…” In other words, by committing adultery, Key had effectively trespassed onto Sickles’ property, and because married women held no legal rights of their own, Sickles was acting in “self” defense. Today, there’s literally an iPhone App that will help you plan your divorce. We want stories that show how people have defined marriage over time, and what that has said about society and the institution itself. Get creative.

Corporations

What are these things? Are they people or aren’t they? Do they have certain rights endowed by their creator(s)? People seem to think that corporations today are more influential than they have ever been, but that may not be the case. Give us your best stories on corporate greed, corporate welfare, corporate charity… whatever you’ve got. We want to know how the public has felt about corporations over the years, and if/how corporations have dealt with public pressure. Think politics, think power, think influence, but also think about America as the largest economy in the world with one the highest standards of living.

A History of “Scandal!”

E! TV’s got nothing on American history. We want stories that show what it took for something to be scandalous in the 1780s, what our scandals today would have looked like back then, and stories of the biggest scandals nobody has ever heard of. Something to think about with all these stories: Why do we care? This should lend some insight as to what Americans valued in their own time and how easy it was to tread on those values.

The American Presidency

Kind of a biggy this year.  We’re going to leave this one intentionally vague for now, but a few things to consider; The changing power of the President, the changing perception of the President, the changing look of the president, the actual job of the President as defined by the Constitution, etc.  OK. Go!

When the National Endowment for the Humanities awarded BackStory with the American History Guys one the largest radio grants in recent years, one thing was for sure: At the top of the list of reasons for supporting the show’s transition to weekly production were its accomplished scholar-hosts, Peter Onuf, Ed Ayers, and Brian Balogh. The Guys’ style and substance have prompted individuals ranging from novelist Nicholson Baker to Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Eric Foner to praise the program. And the hosts are why so many stations around the country have repeatedly scheduled BackStory since its launch as a monthly in 2008. Stations and their audiences, as well as a universe of podcast listeners, are drawn to BackStory because of the voices and reflections of Onuf, Ayers, and Balogh. People are inspired by what they say, the connections they make, and the insights they communicate—by their level of thoughtful engagement with past and present.

Between them, Peter, Ed, and Brian have written enough books to supply a modest library and penned enough articles to wallpaper the University of Virginia’s historic Rotunda.  And yet their appeal is far from “ivory tower.” The rapport among the three, and their warm and convivial banter, makes it clear from a first hearing that they aren’t merely accomplished scholars. Their humor and humanity permeate their commentary, enticing listeners to gather around the metaphorical kitchen table, exploring what has changed and what has stayed the same.

When the three get together in the studio to do what they do so well—talk history with each other, guests, or callers—their goal, Peter playfully says, is to channel the spirit of John Muir—to be “forest people, not tree people.” What he’s saying is that the Guys explore far-reaching connections, rather than focusing on minute details or dates. Their goal is to frame the big picture (be it about motherhood or Independence Day or home ownership), rather than chopping history up into a collection of data. The point actually seems to be to use what they know about time, rather than letting time use them. And this approach, linking up and tracing change between eras, allows them, Brian says, to shine a signature light on America’s past.

As Brian readily admits, “A recording session rarely goes by when something Peter or Ed says doesn’t blow my mind.” All three understand that history has a reputation for being dry or dense, and they are working to prove that wrong. Spontaneously sharing their perspectives as they talk together, often with callers and fellow experts, they enjoy making history unfold in ways that even they don’t expect. The pleasure comes both from the discussion, which they relish, and from knowing that they are making history appealing and accessible for large audiences.

The Guys are as down-to-earth in person as they sound on the air. Pass Peter on the street and you might never guess he is the Thomas Jefferson Foundation Professor of History at the University of Virginia. Every day, he rides his bike to the studio, arriving in full yellow rain gear with water dripping off his moustache when the weather is bad. He is one of the preeminent scholars of Jefferson and the early American period, known for such books as The Mind of Thomas Jefferson and Jefferson’s Empire: The Language of American Nationhood, but when he was growing up Peter had no intention of becoming an 18^th-century U.S. history scholar.

After spending a year at the American University in Cairo, he planned to study Middle Eastern history, but met a roadblock when he realized he found “Arabic really boring” and discovered that “I’m not good at languages.” After graduating from college, he tried journalism, spending time in his home state of Connecticut, writing obituaries, covering education, and trying to save enough money to hitchhike across the country to California, Kerouac-style. It was the Sixties, after all, and Peter wanted to see the country. It wasn’t until he’d spent a couple of years in journalism and begun to tire of the daily grind that he returned to Johns Hopkins for graduate school. The rest—as they say—is history.

Ed, who is both a professor of history and President of the University of Richmond, also initially thought he wanted to pursue journalism. The so-called “New Journalism” was flowering at the time, and Ed “wanted to be Tom Wolfe.” Like Wolfe, Ed is a Southerner—he’s a native of Tennessee. The connection may seem obvious in retrospect, but it wasn’t until he started graduate studies at Yale that Ed took a course in Southern history and discovered the regional focus that would shape his life and career. Living among the Yankees in New Haven, he was aware for the first time of his own regional identity and how it defined him in the eyes of the country. The realization was life changing.

Ed’s roots are evident in the prize-winning scholarly books he’s written, among them In the Presence of Mine Enemies: War in the Heart of America, 1859-1863 and The Promise of the New South: Life After Reconstruction. In fact, ever since that graduate class, his work has been about a region coming to terms with its past. This crucially important focus is also at the heart of his acclaimed digital project, The Valley of the Shadow, which follows life in two American communities—one Northern and one Southern—from 1859 through Reconstruction. It is also central to his work at the University of Richmond, where his aim is to foster a progressive school in what was once the capital of the Confederacy.

Brian, UVA’s Compton Professor of History, took a more circuitous route to the BackStory microphone than either Peter or Ed. His dream job was to be the “Deputy Mayor for Operations” of a large city, and that was the career he pursued throughout his first decade after Harvard, working as budget analyst in Boston and then as an advisor to a New York City Council member. After ten years as a bureaucrat, however, he began to realize that, though he initially loved all his jobs in government, “as soon as I figured out what I was doing, they were much less interesting.” It occurred to him that what he really wanted to do was to study how big corporations intersected with and influenced government, rather than acting—as he had been—as one of many players in the political drama. He thus entered graduate school thinking he would later return to politics as “the world’s most historically enlightened deputy mayor.” But that was not to be: Brian both caught the teaching bug and found scholarship, writing and editing books such as Integrating the Sixties: The Origins, Structure, and Legacy of a Turbulent Decade.

BackStory’s 20^th-Century Guy still cops to a perennial soft spot for history’s bureaucrats. His heroes, for example, include the first administrators of the Tennessee Valley Authority and NASA. And his third book, A Government Out of Sight: The Mystery of National Authority in Nineteenth-Century America, focuses on the ways in which government non-bureaucratically used subsidies, the law, state and local governments, and other third parties to shape the developing nation.

A major market program director has written of the BackStory Guys’ ability to do “deep dives,” while keeping their thoughts “down-to-earth,” not taking themselves too seriously. Another commends “the way in which BackStory provides historical context for current events.” Because the Guys are not only hosts, but also have the respect and admiration of leading historians, they constantly help their producers draw on diverse scholarly resources from all parts of the country. Their goal of bridging the gap between public and scholarly interests will be on display during a live televised show at this April’s conference of the Organization of American Historians in Milwaukee.

For the future, however, the Guys’ main focus is on the production of radio. Their knowledge, talent, flair, and capacity for sharing the fun and significance of history via broadcasts and podcasts have left listeners asking for more. Luckily for their fans, Peter, Ed, and Brian will soon be back on the air. On May 11 they will launch BackStory as a national weekly—bringing the past alive, taking listeners on fascinating excursions into realms of historical investigation.

Next Month: The BackStory Production Team

Considering the stereotypes about Puritan New England, you might be surprised to learn that sweethearts in the 18^th century were not only allowed to sleep together before marriage – they were encouraged to! The catch? They had to do it within the parents’ home. It was known as “bundling,” and although sex was theoretically not involved, the practice coincided with a huge increase in premarital pregnancy. By the end of the century, 1/3 of all brides were pregnant by the time they reached the altar.

In this episode, the History Guys explore three centuries of pre-marital intimacy. Did economic considerations used to play a greater role in coupling? In what ways have dating practices challenged class & racial boundaries? Has the idea of “romance” itself morphed over time?

Guests Include:

*Beth Bailey — historian and author of From Front Porch to Back Seat: Courtship in 20th Century America

*Pamela Epstein — historian and blogger-in-chief, Advertising For Love

Features & Highlights

Hear more about dating in the 19th and 20th centuries in these extended interviews of Pam Epstein and Beth Bailey. Listen here.

Web Exclusive

Extended Interview: Beth Bailey tells Brian Balogh about three generations of courtship in her own family…and why there are only two entries for the word “love” in the index of her book.

Further Reading

Want to dig deeper into the history of dating? The BackStory research team has compiled a comprehensive list of resources for further exploration. Read On.

]]> http://backstoryradio.org/love-me-did-a-history-of-courtship-2/feed/ 1 economic history,economy,family,racism,religion,social history In this Valentine's Day special, BackStory delves into the history of courtship. From "bundling" to the back-seat, the History Guys explore three centuries of pre-marital intimacy. (http://backstoryradio.org/files/2009/12/loves-reward1.jpg)This episode was originally broadcast (http://backstoryradio.org/love-me-did-a-history-of-courtship/) in February, 2010. Considering the stereotypes about Puritan New England, you might be surprised to learn that sweethearts in the 18th century were not only allowed to sleep together before marriage – they were encouraged to! The catch? They had to do it within the parents’ home. It was known as “bundling,” and although sex was theoretically not involved, the practice coincided with a huge increase in premarital pregnancy. By the end of the century, 1/3 of all brides were pregnant by the time they reached the altar. In this episode, the History Guys explore three centuries of pre-marital intimacy. Did economic considerations used to play a greater role in coupling? In what ways have dating practices challenged class & racial boundaries? Has the idea of “romance” itself morphed over time? Guests Include: *Beth Bailey (http://www.temple.edu/history/bailey/index.html) -- historian and author of From Front Porch to Back Seat: Courtship in 20th Century America (http://books.google.com/books?id=fqVre9_N2gkC&dq=from+front+porch+to+back+seat+bailey&printsec=frontcover&source=bn&hl=en&ei=6htaS_yUGdGZ8Abcq_j-BA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CBwQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=&f=false) *Pamela Epstein (http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~history/index.php?content=deptmem&name=adj_epstein) -- historian and blogger-in-chief, Advertising For Love (http://www.advertisingforlove.com/) Features & Highlights Hear more about dating in the 19th and 20th centuries in these extended interviews of Pam Epstein and Beth Bailey. Listen here (http://backstoryradio.org/love-me-did-fe…and-highlights/). Web Exclusive (http://backstoryradio.org/files/2010/02/kissmequick.jpg)Extended Interview: (http://backstoryradio.org/2010/10/beth-bailey-extended-interview/) Beth Bailey tells Brian Balogh about three generations of courtship in her own family...and why there are only two entries for the word "love" in the index of her book. Further Reading Want to dig deeper into the history of dating? The BackStory research team has compiled a comprehensive list of resources for further exploration. Read On (http://backstoryradio.org/love-me-did-further-reading/). BackStory with the American History Guys no 54:56 http://backstoryradio.org/podcast-big-news-from-backstory/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=podcast-big-news-from-backstory http://backstoryradio.org/podcast-big-news-from-backstory/#comments Sat, 04 Feb 2012 22:36:50 +0000 Tony (BackStory Producer) http://backstoryradio.org/?p=3473 We know that it’s been a while since you’ve heard from us, and we apologize for that. We miss you too. Hopefully the news contained in this here podcast will ameliorate some of the pain.

If you’re interested in reading more about college sports in American history, follow this link.

When yellow fever struck Philadelphia in 1793, a ninth of the city’s population died.  The entire federal government picked up and fled.   A hundred years later, the pendulum had swung sharply in the opposite direction.  Health workers took extreme measures to contain disease — imprisoning the sick, burning entire districts, and vaccinating resistant citizens at gunpoint.  We wondered: why the change?

In this episode, we’ll trace the shifting role of the state in preventing and coping with epidemics.  Where do we draw the line between promoting the public good and protecting individual rights?  How did people understand the causes and experience of disease in their own time?  And why did so many people resist public health measures, so fiercely, for so long?

Please help us shape this show!  Were you transfixed by “Contagion”?  Remember avoiding the swimming pool during polio scares?  Have an opinion on current vaccination requirements?  Share your stories, questions, and ideas below.

Tom Ireland House, Webberville, Travis County, TX 1937 (via Library of Congress)

If home ownership is such a central part of the American Dream, then why has it been so difficult for so many Americans to attain? Was there ever a Golden Age of home ownership?

In this episode of the show, we’ll search for the roots of the ideal that “Every American should own his own home,” and examine some of the systemic challenges that many Americans have faced in trying to achieve that ideal. As we’ll hear, even the homesteaders were stymied in their attempts to claim what was supposed to be theirs.

Help us Out: Has the recent housing market collapse affected you? Do you remember your family’s first move to the suburbs? Have you ever fallen victim to a neighborly feud? What are your feelings about your childhood home vs. the place you live now? Let us know in the comment section below!

The weekly funding, which has come through since last April, will enable BackStory to realize the full potential of its grounding concept, becoming a regularly scheduled program that takes topics from the headlines and shines light on their history in often-surprising ways. The show’s spirit of inquiry emanates from the hearts and minds of its genial hosts, who happen to be world-renowned authorities–University of Virginia historians Peter Onuf and Brian Balogh, and historian and president of the University of Richmond, Ed Ayers. Casting their minds across three centuries of American history–debating each other, engaging callers, interviewing guests and presenting features–they work with BackStory’s producers to create informative, accessible and entertaining shows.

The signature sound of the program reflects the unscripted brilliance of Onuf, Ayers, and Balogh–with a warmth and rapport that comes from being good friends. Their energy as hosts combined with a sweeping historical expertise in their respective centuries (18th, 19th, and 20th) distinguishes BackStory’s dynamic from all other programs on the air. Of exchanges between Onuf, Ayers, and Balogh, celebrated historian Eric Foner says that the way they handle history “points to contemporary relevance without sacrificing historical nuance and complexity. It brings up to date scholarship out of the ivory tower in way the public can appreciate.” Novelist Nicholson Baker has called the Guys, “three congenial, learned, funny men fly-fishing in the rock-strewn river of American history,” also describing BackStory as “a lovely addition to any radio listener’s life.”

BackStory’s weekly launch date is set for May 11. This will come after months of lab work on various aspects of the program (from show opens, to music, to the treatment of calls), including assessing and practicing possible new features (among these, a weekly news roundup and on-air explorations with segment producers). BackStory reruns and occasional new episodes continue to air widely, answering and whetting the appetites of listeners who have long asked for the show to be weekly. As the staff works to make this happen, they are testing a new production model, retooling and planning for the late spring re-launch. The atmosphere at VFH mixes anticipation with the sense of an exciting new challenge. Their eyes on the prize of national weekly broadcast, BackStory’s producers hope the prediction of one station programming director will prove true: That BackStory does for American history what Carl Sagan did for the cosmos.

For a visitor to BackStory’s home at the VFH in Charlottesville, VA, the staff’s sense of purpose is palpable: a newly-hired associate producer is cutting an interview with one of the first black football players at the University of Alabama; another new AP is on the phone with a librarian in Arizona, inquiring about the history of immigration legislation in the state; a third is in studio where she interviews a Civil Rights era photographer for a show on protests, guided by senior producer Tony Field, formerly of WNYC’s On the Media. Down the hall, BackStory’s creator and executive producer Andrew Wyndham, just off the phone about an upcoming live gig in Milwaukee, consults with the show’s new technical director over a question of sound quality. An hour from now, Onuf, Balogh and Ayers will take calls from listeners, coordinated by Field and other team members. Before day is done, the staff will brainstorm upcoming show themes and explore new segment ideas.

As Field says, “This process is all about process.” Working with Graham Griffith–former executive producer of The Takeaway and senior producer for On Point–Wyndham and Field adopted a development schedule that both reflects the future pace of operations and leaves space for evaluation and critique. As the BackStory staff hews to the plan, they store useful audio and bank evergreen shows in preparation for the launch. Meanwhile, Kerry Donahue, former executive producer at WNYC, is coordinating advisory listening groups composed of public radio program directors from around the country. And former WAMU Program Director Steve Martin of SFM Consulting is initiating BackStory’s weekly marketing campaign, reaching out to stations near and far.

The BackStory team aims to make the weekly show’s name a household word, with a reputation for what one listener has called its “challenging content but laid-back style.” A key to realizing this goal has been the recent arrival of four new supporting staff: Eric Mennel joined BackStory as an associate producer in October 2011 after a six-month stint interning at This American Life, having previously reported and produced as an intern for WUSF in Tampa; associate producer Jess Engebretson, who produced War News Radio while at Swarthmore, came in at the same time, following a year of teaching radio to aspiring young journalists in Liberia and Indonesia under a Watson Fellowship, also doing some freelance reports for PRI’s The World. Anna Pinkert arrived in December, fresh from producing at WBUR’s Radio Boston, following on course work at the Salt Institute and experience developing multi-media for museums; Jamal Millner, an accomplished musician–who has performed with such artists and groups as John Jackson, John D’earth, Taj Mahal, and the Dave Matthews Band–previously mixed and mastered monthly episodes of BackStory under contract, but became the show’s full-time technical director at the beginning of January 2012.

This team works with Field and Wyndham on details of the weekly production process, engaging a roster of show topics as diverse as childbirth, homeownership, college sports, philanthropy, protests, sugar, public health, farming, pets, guns, privacy, free speech, utopias, populism, exceptionalism, and the postal service. With listeners already tuning in across the country and on the web, the aim of the weekly show is to preserve its essential chemistry, inventively telling stories about America’s past–and how it affects our present–in ways that entertain, surprise and inform. Such a program, as a Tampa listener has said, “really satisfies a need” and BackStory does this “with a sense of humor.”

Lawrence Textile Strike of 1912

From Tunisia to Zucotti Park, 2011 was a year of change-making. Time magazine dubbed “the protester” its person-of-the-year, arguing that not since 1848 had citizen-activists overthrown as many entrenched regimes as they did last year. Maybe so, but was “the protester” of 163 years ago really equivalent to today’s activists? Or has protest itself morphed and evolved in the decades since?

In this episode, we’ll explore political protest in its American forms, and ask how the protest tactics we’re familiar with today came into being. From the Tea Party of 1773 to its contemporary namesake, how have protesters marketed their message to the larger world? What strategies have proven the most successful?

What most interests you about the history of protest in America? Post your comments, stories, and questions below. Or just hold up a really big sign outside our offices.

In this episode, the History Guys examine the history of the “holiday season” in America.  Has Christmas grown more or less religious? How has the holiday evolved and changed here? To what extent was Hanukkah a reaction to Christmas, and how have American Jews shaped and reshaped their own wintertime rituals?

Guests include:

• Stephen Nissenbaum, historian and author of The Battle for Christmas
• John Gibson, host of Fox News Radio and author of The War on Christmas: How the Liberal Plot to Ban the Sacred Christian Holiday is Worse than You Thought
• Rabbi Laura Baum, founder of ourjewishcommunity.org
• Tyrone Jones, Santa Claus impersonator at Cheltenham Square Mall

Show Highlights

Listen to individual excerpts from the show, including interviews with historian Stephen Nissenbaum, Rabbi Laura Baum, and Santa impersonator Tyrone Jones.

Web Exclusive

Listen to more of historian Stephen Nissenbaum’s conversation with 18th century guy Peter Onuf. Here, they discuss the history of Christmas in the slave south.

Further Exploration

Click here for a comprehensive list of online resources on the history of Christmas, Hannukah, and Kwanzaa.

Even Further…

• See a listing of the music used in this episode.
• Read the full transcript of “Naughty & Nice.”

Chicago Kent College of Law indoor baseball player, M. Ryan. 1910.

Quick — what’s the first thing that comes to mind when we say “college sports?” Did you think “scandal?” What about “pay-for-play?”

College sports have provided some of the most heated controversies of the year, and so we can’t help but wonder; why do sports even exist at colleges and universities? After all, it seems like most of the problems associated with amateur athletics would disappear if they weren’t taking place at places of “higher learning.”

In this episode, we’re going to look at the origins of college sports, and the ways universities have justified athletics on their campuses throughout history. And that question about paying student athletes? Turns out… it goes back a lot further than you might think.

Let us know what you want to know! Share your stories, questions, and ideas below.

Further Reading

COMING SOON…

On this episode of BackStory, the History Guys explore the ways Americans have attempted to grapple with the biggest question of them all: “Where did we come from?” Together, they trace the ups and downs in the relationship between science  and religion. Are there times when the two have not been at odds? How did the Founders conceive of “creation,” and why did the idea of extinction pose such a challenge to their worldview? How were Darwin’s ideas received in the U.S., and why did it take six decades before public school systems started challenging the teaching of his theories? What lessons does history offer those interested in charting a peaceful relationship between science and religion in the future?

Guests Include:

• Ronald Numbers – Professor of the History of Science and Medicine at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

• Joe Wilkey – Head of the Department of Science at Rhea County High School, Evensville, TN.

Features and Highlights

Listen to an extended interview with Professor of the History of Science and Medicine at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Further Reading

Resources galore! The BackStory team has pulled together some outside material to help you navigate the world of origin stories.

Even Further…

• Full Show Transcript