BFW Revisited: The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution
What caused the American Revolution? Taxation without representation? Colonies that had outgrown their dependence on the British Empire? Or...
Radio and PodcastLive Radio & Podcasts
Society & Culture
Ben Franklin's World
This is a show about early American history. Awarded Best History Podcast by the Academy of Podcasters in 2017, it’s for people who love history and for those who want to know more about the...
Episodes
20 of 556 episodes450 Whose Revolution? The Delaware and the War for Independence
In December 1776, a Delaware Chief named White Eyes stood before the Second Continental Congress. He had not come to declare himself a revol...
BFW Revisited: The Brafferton Indian School, Part 1
In 1723, the College of William & Mary opened the Brafferton building, a permanent home for an Indian School the college had been chartered...
449 Stealing America: Indigenous Slavery and the American Revolution
More than half a million Indigenous people were enslaved within the present-day borders of the United States. Historian Linford Fisher spent...
BFW Revisited: American Expansion & the Political Economy of Plunder
The Declaration of Independence proclaimed that all men are endowed with the unalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happine...
448 The Declaration of Independence as American Scripture
The engrossed copy of the Declaration of Independence is on display at the National Archives building in Washington, DC. Millions of visitor...
BFW Revisited Threads of Power
For the Haudenosaunee, the Six Nations People, the American Revolution brought not liberty, but land loss, displacement, and the dismantling...
447 The Other Committee Members: Robert R. Livingston, Roger Sherman, and the Declaration of Independence
Five men served on the Continental Congress’s Declaration Committee. We know three of them well: Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and Benjamin...
447 The Other Committee Members: Robert R. Livingston, Roger Sherman, and the Declaration of Independence
Five men served on the Continental Congress’s Declaration Committee. We know three of them well: Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and Benjamin...
BFW Revisited: A Declaration in Draft, 2026
Every American knows Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence, but was he really its sole architect? In this revisited episode...
BFW Revisited: A Declaration in Draft, 2026
Every American knows Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence, but was he really its sole architect? In this revisited episode...
446 The Declaration of Independence at 250
250 years after its signing, the Declaration of Independence remains an unfinished document. Its famous assertion "that all men are created...
446 The Declaration of Independence at 250
250 years after its signing, the Declaration of Independence remains an unfinished document. Its famous assertion "that all men are created...
445 How Independence Happened, Pt 3: The Articles of Confederation
The man Congress chose to draft the United States’ first constitution refused to vote for independence. John Dickinson wrote a bold plan, on...
445 How Independence Happened, Pt 3: The Articles of Confederation
The man Congress chose to draft the United States’ first constitution refused to vote for independence. John Dickinson wrote a bold plan, on...
444 How Independence Happened, Part 2: The Model Treaty
Declaring independence on July 2, 1776 was only the beginning. To actually become a nation, the United States needed something else: foreign...
444 How Independence Happened, Part 2: The Model Treaty
Declaring independence on July 2, 1776 was only the beginning. To actually become a nation, the United States needed something else: foreign...
443 How Independence Happened, Part 1: The Lee Resolution
Declaring independence on July 2, 1776, was only the beginning. To actually become a nation, the United States needed something else: foreig...
443 How Independence Happened, Part 1: The Lee Resolution
Declaring independence on July 2, 1776, was only the beginning. To actually become a nation, the United States needed something else: foreig...
BFW Revisited: Reading the Declaration of Independence for Equality
On July 4th, 2026, the United States marks 250 years since the Declaration of Independence announced a new nation to the world. But how well...