Whether you’re a Romney or Obama supporter, it’s likely that you would agree on one thing: the national debt – at more than 16 trillion dollars – is too large. And yet, America’s first Treasury Secretary called this debt a “national blessing.” What did he mean by that, and are there times when Americans have celebrated being in the red?

On this episode, the American History Guys ask why debt has continued to be so controversial in a nation that was founded on borrowing. What factors have contributed most to our ballooning deficit, and who, historically, has been most concerned about it? To whom does the nation owe all this money, and how has the slate of creditors changed?

Guests Include

• Bill Chrystal, Alexander Hamilton impersonator
• Julia Ott, Asst. Prof. of History, The New School

Further Reading

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

Listen to individual show segments.

Even Further….

• See the discussion that helped shape this show.
• Listing of Interstitial Music Used

Rambles Through Our Country — An Instructive Geographical Game for the Young, 1890.

The red state/blue state representation of the U.S. was originally intended to tell us something about electoral politics. But it has come to stand in for a lot more than that. So how did that map’s cultural meaning come to be so fixed?

In the spirit of this question, we’re devoting this episode of BackStory to maps, and asking how the ways in which Americans have charted space illustrate the ways in which they’ve understood themselves socially. Over the course of the hour, the History Guys explore the layered meanings of several key maps. These include a map that helped forge sectional alliances in the lead-up to the Civil War; a colonial-era map that illustrates how Native Americans understood space; a collection of maps that Woodrow Wilson thought might lead to world peace; and an 1890 map designed to minimize conflict over natural resources in the American West.  And – the History Guys uncover the curious story of the map that gave America its name.

Guests Include:

• Felipe Fernandez-Armesto, Professor of History at the University of Notre Dame
• Susan Schulten, Professor of History at the University of Denver
• S. Max Edelson, Associate Professor of History at the University of Virginia
• Wes Reisser, Adjunct Professor of Geography at George Washington University
• Donald Worster, Professor of History at the University of Kansas

Further Exploration:

View the maps featured on this episode.

Listen to individual show segments.

Delve into some of the outside resources pulled together by the BackStory team in order to illustrate the full scale of the history of mapping in the United States, and take a look at a bibliography of sources used in the making of this episode.

Even Further:

See a listing of music used in this episode.

Read the listener comments that helped shape this episode.

Louis Firetail (Sioux, Crow Creek), wearing tribal clothing, in American history class, Hampton Institute, Hampton, Virginia, ca. 1900 (Library of Congress)

In this live performance at Colonial Williamsburg’s Kimball Theatre, the History Guys take on the history of Indians in Virginia. From Jamestown to Thomas Jefferson to Disney’s Pocahontas, they consider some of the ways Virginian Indians have been imagined by non-Native people, and reflect on how those images have shifted over the centuries. Along the way, they are joined by two special guests, actor Larry Pourier and Colonial Williamsbug’s own Buck Woodard — both of whom contributed to the 2005 film The New World.

Guests Include

• Larry Pourier, native production manager for Colonial Williamsburg
• Buck Woodard, manager at the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation and adjunct instructor at Virginia Commonwealth University and the College of William and Mary

Further Reading

• More on the Jamestown and Roanoke settlements
• A detailed analysis of Terrence Malick’s The New World

L-R: Buck Woodard, Peter Onuf, Ed Ayers, Brian Balogh, Larry Pourier

]]> http://backstoryradio.org/america-indian-country/feed/ 3 american identity,backstory live show,culture wars,holiday,native americans,racism,thomas jefferson,virginia history In this live performance at Colonial Williamsburg's Kimball Theatre, the History Guys take on the history of Indians in Virginia. In this live performance at Colonial Williamsburg's Kimball Theatre, the History Guys take on the history of Indians in Virginia. From Jamestown to Thomas Jefferson to Disney's Pocahontas, they consider some of the ways Virginian Indians have been imagined by non-Native people, and reflect on how those images have shifted over the centuries. Along the way, they are joined by two special guests, actor Larry Pourier and Colonial Williamsbug's own Buck Woodard -- both of whom contributed to the 2005 film The New World.   Guests Include * Larry Pourier, native production manager for Colonial Williamsburg * Buck Woodard, manager at the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation and adjunct instructor at Virginia Commonwealth University and the College of William and Mary Further Reading * More on (http://www.bu.edu/historic/hs/james_horn/) the Jamestown and Roanoke settlements * A detailed analysis (http://web.archive.org/web/20120618021000/http://www.latrobe.edu.au/screeningthepast/25/pocahontas-new-world.html) of Terrence Malick’s The New World BackStory with the American History Guys no 41:13 http://backstoryradio.org/a-history-of-our-national-debt/ http://backstoryradio.org/a-history-of-our-national-debt/#comments Wed, 27 Jul 2011 17:36:54 +0000 http://backstory.vfhblogs.org/?p=2906 “A national debt, if it is not excessive, will be to us a national blessing.” – Alexander Hamilton

With Congress at a standstill over whether to raise the nation’s borrowing limit, and the national debt approaching the size of the entire U.S. economy, you’d be hard pressed to find a politician with anything good to say about our debt.  But America’s first Treasury Secretary famously called it a “national blessing.” What did he mean by that, and are there other times in history when Americans have actually celebrated our national debt?

On this episode, the History Guys ask why debt has continued to be so controversial in a nation that was founded on borrowing. What factors have contributed most to our ballooning deficit, and who, historically, have been most concerned about it? To whom does the nation owe all this money, and how has the slate of creditors changed? Is the current debt crisis truly unprecedented? How can history help us understand the extent to which debt endangers our 21st century economy?

Guests Include

• Bill Chrystal, Alexander Hamilton impersonator
• Julia Ott, Asst. Prof. of History, The New School (When Wall Street Met Main Street: The Quest for an Investors’ Democracy)

Further Reading

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

Even Further….

• Full Show Transcript
• Listing of Interstitial Music Used

All centuries

• Politics of Debt: 10 Trillion and Counting (an interactive PBS website)
• Bureau of Public Debt (website)
• The debt clock
• See who’s physically calculating the debt
• The hidden cost of American Debt
• The Debt Ceiling, Explained
• A brief history of U.S. Debt
• Federal Reserve: Instruments of Debt (video)
• How debt those in White House
• Debt through the Ages (graphs)
• From Surplus to Massive Debt in Ten Years: How it escalated
• Where’s our money going? (graph)

18th century

• Alexander Hamilton’s First Report on Public Credit
• Hamilton’s (hypothesized) posthumous views on modern debt
• Jefferson’s Beliefs on National Debt (PDF)
• Hamilton vs Jefferson: importance of national bank (clip from John Adam’s HBO special)
• Original Intent of Debt Ceiling

19th century

• Bureau of Public Debt: 19th century overview
• Debt  + the Andrew Jackson era
• Freedom from Debt under Jackson
• Civil War at 150: Debt Lessons from Lincoln

2oth century

• 1917: the first real debt limit
• Mr & Mrs America (film attempting to Mobilize the home-front in WWII)
• Propaganda: Buy War bonds to save from Nazis
• FDR shows how to buys bonds
• Egg & Us: 1950′s film urging Americans to help pay off debt

Read up on the origins and history of the idea of race.
Peruse an excerpt from The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family, by Annette Gordon Reed, which won the 2009 Pulitizer Prize in History.
Watch Barack Obama’s March 2008 speech about race.
Listen to the story of Loving v. Virginia, the Supreme Court decision that ended laws against intermarriage or read about it.

Slavery & Science — Historian Daryl Scott discusses rise of scientific racism and how race has evolved–and not evolved–in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Michael Kinsley, founding editor of Slate.com, talks about why he’s not worried about objectivity in the new media landscape.

Excerpted from: Just the Facts?: Partisanship & the Press

Matthew Goodman tells the story of an elaborate hoax involving “lunar man-bats” in the early days of the penny press.

Excerpted from: Just the Facts?: Partisanship & the Press

The History Guys discuss Thomas Jefferson’s sometimes contradictory ideas about a free press.

Excerpted from: Just the Facts?: Partisanship & the Press

Historian Marcus Daniel explains that the bitter rhetoric of editors in the 1790s played a key role in the birth of our democracy.

Excerpted from: Just the Facts?: Partisanship & the Press

From FDR to Sarah Palin, leaders on both sides of the political aisle have long claimed Thomas Jefferson as their own.  So what did Jefferson really stand for? That’s the question at the root of this special podcast, produced in conjunction with HISTORY.com.

In Part One, the History Guys take on the perennial debate over the appropriate role of central government. Did Jefferson think it should be pared-down and limited, or robust enough to confront external threats if and when they arise?

In Part Two,  the History Guys look at Jefferson’s idea of a “wall of separation” between church and state.  How did the personal beliefs of Jefferson and his contemporaries influence the framing of the Constitution itself?

PART TWO

PART ONE

From FDR to Sarah Palin, leaders on both sides of the political aisle have long claimed Thomas Jefferson as their own.  So what did Jefferson really stand for? That’s the question at the root of this special podcast, produced in conjunction with HISTORY.com.

In Part One, the History Guys take on the perennial debate over the appropriate role of central government. Did Jefferson think it should be pared-down and limited, or robust enough to confront external threats if and when they arise?

In Part Two,  the History Guys look at Jefferson’s idea of a “wall of separation” between church and state.  How did the personal beliefs of Jefferson and his contemporaries influence the framing of the Constitution itself?

PART ONE

PART TWO

Guests Include:

• Marcus Daniel, historian and author of Scandal and Civility: Journalism and the Birth of American Democracy
• Matthew Goodman, author of The Sun and the Moon: The Remarkable True Account of Hoaxers, Showmen, Dueling Journalists, and Lunar Man-Bats in Nineteenth-Century New York
• Michael Kinsley, founding editor of Slate.com

Show Highlights

• Peter Porcupine — Marcus Daniel explains that the bitter rhetoric of editors in the 1790s played a key role in the birth of our democracy.
• Jefferson & the Press — The History Guys discuss Thomas Jefferson’s sometimes contradictory ideas about a free press.
• Lunar Manbats — Matthew Goodman tells the story of an elaborate hoax involving “lunar man-bats” in the early days of the penny press.
• New Media & Objectivity — Michael Kinsley talks about why he’s not worried about objectivity in the new media landscape.

Web Exclusive

The Adorable Origins of Yellow Journalism
When did news become so… jaundiced? It’s hard to say. But we do know when it got yellow. Associate producer Rachel Quimby tells the story of the Yellow Kid– an improbable character who found himself at the center of the late nineteenth-century newspaper wars.

Further Reading

Want to dig deeper into the history of partisanship and the press? Check out this list of resources compiled by the History Guys to learn more.

Check out the music in our “Partisanship and the Press” show.

Were the categories of “black” and “white” already in place when Africans first came to America, and if not, when did they take shape? How did the founders think about race, and what are we to make of the contradictions between the public writings of men like Jefferson and their behavior in private? What is the “one-drop rule,” and where did it come from? In what ways have religion and science affirmed and challenged notions of racial difference? It’s not hard to see the progress that’s been made on the road to racial equality, but what have been the major setbacks and reversals along the way?

Guests include:

*Pulitzer Prize winner Annette Gordon Reed (The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family) reflects on why Thomas Jefferson’s relationship with his slave, Sally Hemings, continues to be so controversial

*Historian Daryl Scott (Howard University) parses the differences between race consciousness and racism throughout the 20th century

Features & Highlights

Hear more about racial purity and racism in these interviews with Annette Gordon Reed and Daryl Scott. Listen here.

Further Reading

Want to dig deeper into the history of racial purity? The BackStory research team has compiled a comprehensive list of resources for further explanation. Read on.