The Jeffersonians with Kevin R.C. Gutzman

George Rogers Clark conquered the Northwest. Or did he? We talk with Larry Nelson, historian of Ohio, co-author (with David Curtis Skaggs) of The Sixty Years War for the Great Lakes 1754-1814, about the Northwest Territory in the Revolution, and a book about Alexander McKee. This area, larger than the existing 13 colonies, was contested by the Native People who lived in it, the British, Spanish, French, and Americans. Clark could invade it, could win it, but could not keep it. The Revolutionary period was one episode in a long series of wars over this contested middle ground.

She was a wife, mother, confidant, and a social and political advisor during one of the most tumultuous periods of American history. Despite never being elected to an office, in recognition of her power of influence and sagacity her portrait now hangs permanently in the Senate Chamber of the Massachusetts General Court. Few women in the period of the American Revolution and early Republic left behind such a voluminous correspondence as Abigail Adams. As her husband John got further involved in the cause of American independence and sovereignty, Abigail's circle of friends and admirers grew in like proportion, eventually leading her from Weymouth, Massachusetts to the great courts of Europe.   We talk with  John L. Smith, Jr., , author of The Unexpected Abigail  Adams:  A Woman not Apt to be Intimidated. 

Richard Brookhiser has been writing about American politics for half a century, though he has refreshed himself by writing a dozen books about the founding period, beginning with Founding Father: Rediscovering George Washington,  with additional books on Gouverneur Morris, James Madison, the Adamses, Alexander Hamilton, and Abraham Lincoln, "the Founders' Son." We talk with him about the political ideas of the founding generation, and how they were viewed in their day-- his next book is on the artist Jonathan Trumbull—and ours.

Henry Knox, Boston book-seller and emerging patriot, in 1774 married Lucy Flucker, daughter of the Provincial Secretary and leading loyalist.  Lucy's family would leave with the loyalist evacuation in March 1776, forced out by the cannon Henry brought from Ticonderoga.  Lucy would never see them again.  She and Henry would exchange more than 500 letters over the course of their married life, letters which Philip Hamilton has used for this window into the Revolutionary world.  The Revolutionary War Lives and  Letters of Lucy and Henry Knox are from the war--Henry would be with the army from the siege of Boston through Yorktown, and he and Lucy, young, bright, and in love, shared it all.  

Phillis Wheatley's poetry continues to inspire and to challenge us.  Poets Artress Bethany White and Danielle Legros Georges brought together twenty contemporary Black women poets to reinterpret, or reimagine, Phillis Wheatley Peters' poems.  Today, in addition to Artress and Danielle,  we are joined by two of the poets, Florence Ladd and Yalie Saweda Kamara.  Their collection Wheatley at 250:  :  Black Women Poets Re-Imagine the Verse of Phillis Wheatley Peters,  a poetic conversation among past, present, and future,  features both the poems of Phillis Wheatley and their  contemporary re-imagining.

Get your copy of Wheatley at 250 here: https://www.pangyrus.com/product/wheatley-at-250/

Liberty Poles were central to the Revolution, as Patriots raised them to symbolize their resistance, and British soldiers tore them down.  Americans in the 1790s revived the custom of Liberty Poles, in opposition to the policies of the Washington and Adams administrations.  We talk with Shira Lurie, author of .The American Liberty Pole:  Popular Politics and the Struggle for Democracy in the Early Republic, about these symbols of liberty and the contentious politics in the Revolution era.

The American Revolution began along the waterfront.  We talk with Christopher Magra,  author of two books on different aspects of the maritime war:  The Fisherman's Cause  delves into the role of Massachusetts' cod fishery in the years before the war. and the transformation of fishing vessels into warships; and Poseidon's Curse e shows how Britain's impressment of sailors into the Royal Navy brought on resistance from American sailors and fishermen.

The history of the American Revolution is peppered with the stories of women who perform acts of heroism in service to the cause of Liberty. Women such as Mary Ludwig Hays, Margaret Corbin & Deborah Sampson are among the many heralded for their service. Many more women served as information gatherers for General Washington, and today, Aly Riley, auther of "She Spies; Women of the Revolution" will join us to discuss the role of women in the spy rings of General Washington.

Why are there so few—if any—good movies about the Revolution?  Maybe because the right people with the right passion have not made them.  Mark O'Rourke is a veteran of the U.S. Army, and an attorney, and has now launched a new mission—producing a film about :1777:  Saratoga, the Turning Point of the War..  We talk with Mark O'Rourke about the battle of Saratoga, and the film he hopes to have made in time for the battle's 250th anniversary in October 2027, and how you can help get this story to the screen.

Franklin and Washington loom large for civic virtue and disinterested patriotism, and Madison warned that good and wise statesmen would not always be at the helm, because many of their contemporaries were self-interested schemers and outright liars.  We hear from Timothy Hemmis and David Head editors of A Republic of Scoundrels, which introduces us to the schemers, intriguers, and adventurers—such as Aaron Burr, Mathew Lyon, Benedict Arnold, James Wilkinson—who also helped create the new nation.