The History of the Americans
About the show
Latest episodes
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La Salle, Frontenac, and the Secret Mission for France
October 5, 2026 · 36 minIt is the 1670s. Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, having returned from exploring south of Lake Erie, made common cause with the flamboyant and visionary new governor of New France, Louis de Buade, Comte de Frontenac. Together they hatch…
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Introduction to René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle
August 27, 2026 · 44 minIt is time to get back to New France and the exploration of the middle of this beautiful country of ours. Our vehicle will René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, known to both his contemporaries and to history as “La Salle.” You’ve heard…
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William Penn and the Selling of Pennsylvania
August 5, 2026 · 31 minIt is the spring of 1681. The “exclusion crisis,” an insurgency in Parliament proposing to exclude the king’s brother, James, Duke of York, from the line of succession, was reaching its climax. Even so, on March 4 King Charles II found…
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The Founding of Pennsylvania and Some Other Stuff
July 26, 2026 · 31 minWith Sir William Penn’s passing in 1671, and his deathbed admonition that his son stay true to himself, young William Penn was both financially independent and liberated from worrying that his own activism on behalf of the Quakers would…
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William Penn Before Pennsylvania 2: Penn on Trial
July 10, 2026 · 29 minWilliam Penn returned from Ireland in August 1670, and soon found himself arrested, along with fellow Quaker William Mead, for preaching to a crowd in public in violation of “the common law,” an ambiguity that would play out during their…
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Sidebar: A Reading of the Declaration of Independence and Brief Notes on the Signers
July 2, 2026 · 42 minThe purpose of this episode is very simple: If you find yourself driving in your car with others this weekend (or on some future Fourth of July) and you and your passengers – perhaps they are your children and now they are a captive…
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William Penn Before Pennslvania 1
June 30, 2026 · 33 min[Announcement: From November 4 through 6, 2026, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) is hosting its inaugural Soapbox free speech conference in Philadelphia, the city where so many of America’s defining debates over…
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Sidebar Conversation: Richard Bell on The American Revolution and the Fate of the World
June 22, 2026 · 1 hr 4 minRichard Bell, Rick to his friends and podcast hosts, is Professor of History at the University of Maryland. He is the author of the book Stolen: Five Free Boys Kidnapped into Slavery and their Astonishing Odyssey Home which was a finalist…