Historians & Their Histories

In this episode of Historians & Their Histories , Prof. Andrew Schocket discusses his current research into what the founders actually meant when they wrote "We the People," examining how early Americans counted one another for taxation and political representation from the 1770s through the 1790s. At the MHS, he has been working with the papers of Jonathan Jackson, the federal marshal who adminis...

In this episode of Historians & Their Histories, we speak with Rachel Wiedman. She discusses her dissertation research on gender and political culture in the Civil War era North, tracing a shift in how Northerners evaluated political leadership from an ideal of restrained manhood that valued moderation and compromise to one of martial manhood that prized principle, moral courage, and confrontation...

In this episode of Historians & Their Histories , Prof. Christopher Willoughby discusses his research on racial science and medicine in antebellum America, tracing how northern medical schools, including Harvard Medical School, taught and institutionalized theories of biological racial difference. At the MHS, he has been working with the papers of John Collins Warren, examining how this notable Ha...

In this episode of Historians & Their Histories, Prof. Chelsi Arellano discusses her research on the Glorious Revolution of 1688 and its ripple effects across the British Empire, with a particular focus on the Bostonian Revolt of 1689. She explores how colonists in Massachusetts Bay, frustrated by the dissolution of their charter under James II and the creation of the Dominion of New England, were...

In this episode of Historians & Their Histories , Prof. Marcus Nevius discusses his current book project, titled "Fear of a Maroon Republic: Atlantic Slave War and the Problem of Archival Absence," which builds on his earlier work on marronage in the Great Dismal Swamp to explore how maroons appear and disappear in the historical record with a particular focus on Jamaica. He also reflects on the e...

In this episode of  Historians & Their Histories , Prof. Peter Messer discusses his research on early American political culture, focusing specifically on the local complexities of revolutionary-era events in Massachusetts. He shares how his work re-evaluates the 1773 "salvaged tea" controversy in Wellfleet, Massachusetts and the 1768 Liberty Riot, exploring the frequent disconnect between immedia...

In this episode of Historians & Their Histories , we speak with Boone Ayala. He discusses his research on chartered corporations as instruments of imperial rule and his work at the MHS on the 1684 revocation of the Massachusetts Bay Company's charter, which he situates within a broader assault on corporate autonomy happening simultaneously across England. We also hear about his path from computer...

On this special episode of Historians & Their Histories , guest host Megan Kate Nelson sits down with Amy Watson, Assistant Professor of History at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. They discuss Prof. Watson's new book Patriots Before Revolution: The Rise of Party Politics in the British Atlantic, 1714-1763 , available now in hardcover and paperback. They discuss what it meant to be a patri...

In this episode of Historians & Their Histories , Dr. Elizabeth Hines discusses her research into the relations between New England and New Netherland in the 17th century, which grew out of a broader project on Anglo-Dutch relations across the globe. She explores why England and the Netherlands ultimately went to war in the First Anglo-Dutch War of 1652–1654. We also hear about her journey from ph...

In this episode of Historians & Their Histories , Dr. Blake Grindon examines the 1777 death of Jane McCrea during the British Saratoga campaign and how this event became a powerful propaganda tool in the American Revolution. Dr. Grindon discusses how McCrea's story in which she was allegedly killed by Native warriors allied with the British spread rapidly through newspapers across the thirteen sta...

In this episode of Historians & Their Histories , Dr. Ross Nedervelt explores why Bermuda and the Bahamas held strategic significance for the United States during the Age of the American Revolution. He discusses how these islands were exempted from the Continental Congress's 1775 embargo on the British Empire due to their sympathy for the American cause and their supply of arms to the patriots. Hi...

In this episode of Historians & Their Histories , independent scholar and author Monique Hayes discusses her historical fiction novel which follows two African American brothers who take opposing paths during the American Revolution. She shares the challenges of writing about a period with few first-person narratives from African Americans, the excitement of discovering primary sources like Thomas...

In this episode of Historians & Their Histories , we sit down with Ethan Gonzales, a PhD candidate at the University of Virginia. Ethan discusses his dissertation project, which examines the "information ecosystem" of the 1790s and how the early federal government utilized diplomatic agents to gather and control information abroad. He explains how the United States, as a young republic in a world...

This episode features the first-ever live audience taping of the MHS podcast Historians & Their Histories. Kanisorn Wongsrichanalai, from the MHS Research Department interviews special guests about their journeys to becoming historians. Betsy Klima, Professor of English at UMass Boston and recipient of the MHS NEH Long Term Fellowship, discusses her biographical research on Susanna Haswell Rowson,...

In this episode of Historians & Their Histories , Dr. Eric Paul Totten discusses his research on the Federal Department of the South, focusing specifically on New England regiments that carried conservative, anti-abolitionist, and nativist beliefs into the Civil War. He shares how his work examines the "dark turn" of military occupation, moving beyond traditional narratives to investigate instance...

In this episode of Historians & Their Histories , Alaina Scapicchio discusses her research into the public memory of the American witchcraft trials, focusing specifically on monuments, memorials, and other forms of commemoration. She shares how an unexpected archival discovery about a "ducking stool" connected to George Washington's grandfather expanded her research beyond Salem to the broader col...

In this episode of  Historians & Their Histories , Prof. Donald F. Johnson discusses his research on the experience of the American Revolution in local communities throughout North America. His work examines how the revolutionary movement transformed from a fringe, urban effort in late 1774 into a massive, grassroots mobilization by 1775. Prof. Johnson highlights the crucial, often-overlooked role...

In this episode of Historians & Their Histories , Professor Thomas Lecaque tells us about his current book project on holy war rhetoric in colonial America. He shows how the language and ideology of medieval crusades thrived across Christian denominations during the imperial wars between England and France from 1680 to 1765. Professor Lecaque explains his unique academic journey from medievalist t...

This episode will be published on 6 October 2025. In this episode of Historians & Their Histories , we speak with Laura Clerx, a PhD candidate in the History Department at Boston College. Laura discusses her research into the connections between scientific inquiry and commercial enterprise in the post-revolutionary United States. She explores why the same figures who populated early scientific soc...

On this special episode of Historians & Their Histories , guest host Megan Kate Nelson interviews Manisha Sinha, Draper Chair in American History at the University of Connecticut. They discuss Prof. Sinha's latest publication,  The Rise and Fall of the Second American Republic: Reconstruction, 1860-1920 . Prof. Sinha tells us about the scholars that influenced her understanding of Reconstruction a...

On this episode of  Historians & Their Histories , we speak with Cornelia H. Dayton, Professor of History at the University of Connecticut. Prof. Dayton discusses her research into the life of John Peters, the husband of acclaimed poet Phillis Wheatley. We also learn about her path to becoming an historian, her early interest in constitutional law, and the challenges of researching subaltern subje...

On this episode of Historians & Their Histories , we speak with Elliot Warren, a PhD candidate at William & Mary. Elliot discusses his research on the influence of local governments on the understanding of republicanism and capitalism in the late eighteenth century. We also learn about how his background in local politics has shaped his understanding of the relationship between the local and natio...

On this episode of  Historians & Their Histories , Prof. Adam Laats complicates the history of the American public school system and explains what this story can tell us about the state of public education today. Prof. Laats discusses how children attended, and did not attend, public school in the nineteenth century. We also hear about the collections he is examining while at the MHS and some of t...

On this episode of Historians & Their Histories , we sit down with Andy Colpitts, a PhD candidate in the Department of Performing and Media Arts at Cornell University. Andy tells us about "Old Home Days", a festival tradition established by New Hampshire Governor Frank Rollins at the turn of the twentieth century to welcome former residents back to rural New England. Andy discusses how these festi...

In this episode of Historians & Their Histories, we learn about an overlooked element of the textile industry in early American society. Emily Whitted, a PhD candidate at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, discusses the practice of mending and repair work on various textiles throughout eighteenth century America. Emily also discusses the similarities between and difficulties of using both ma...