Born in the USA: A History of Birth [rebroadcast]
It’s BackStory’s birthday! To celebrate our first year as a weekly show, the American History Guys are going back to where it all begins: birth. From midwives to maternity wards, ideas of sin, and of citizenship, this episode explores what it means to be “Born in the USA.”
Rinse and Repeat: Cleanliness in America
Cleanliness is next to godliness, we say, and Americans have long associated good hygiene with moral and spiritual purity. On this episode, we dig into the changing ways we’ve defined what it is to be clean. We’ll meet an 18th-century Pennsylvania woman who didn’t immerse herself in water for 28 years, and ask how Americans [...]
All Hopped Up: Drugs in America
In December, recreational marijuana use became legal in Washington and Colorado. But back in the early 20th century, both states were among the first to ban the drug. If that seems like a radical change, well – it’s hardly the first time a drug has undergone a major image overhaul in America. This week, we trace the [...]
Rinse and Repeat: Cleanliness in America
Cleanliness is next to godliness, we say, and Americans have long associated good hygiene with moral and spiritual purity. But what does it mean to be “clean” in America?
Coming Home: A History of War Veterans [rebroadcast]
How have war veterans been treated in the aftermath of America’s past wars? How much depends on the politics of the war? Are vets only as popular as the wars they’ve fought in?
Civil War 150: Empty Sleeves and Broken Hearts
In this interview Ed interviews Megan Kate Nelson about the proliferation of so-called “empty sleeve narratives” in poems, stories, songs, and artworks that glorified amputee veterans returning home after the Civil War.
Contagion: Responding to Infectious Disease
In this hour of BackStory we trace the trajectory of that change and examine the shifting role of the state when it comes to 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?
Beach Bodies: A History of the American Physique
On this episode of BackStory, we’ll take a look at what Americans have seen when they’ve looked in the mirror, and explore some of the lengths to which people have gone to achieve their body ideals.
Born in the USA
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.
Coming Home: A History of War Veterans
How have war veterans been treated in the aftermath of America’s past wars? How much depends on the politics of the war? Are vets only as popular as the wars they’ve fought in?
