Prof. Nemata Blyden, "The Erskine Family of Tennessee and Liberia: Tracing a Global Black Family History"
"Long before…American and European historians were interrogating the archives, as African historians, we were doing that. And we were using...
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Cambridge American History Seminar Podcast
A weekly (term-time) podcast featuring brief interviews with the presenters at the Cambridge American History Seminar. We talk about presenters' current research and paper, their broader aca...
Episodes
20 of 82 episodesProf. Christa Dierksheide & Prof. Nick Guyatt, ‘Jefferson’s Wolf: A Founding Father’s Troubling Answer to the Problem of Slavery’ (Harvard University Press, 2026)
“The wolf is a metaphor for race war, and we mean race war on a genocidal scale.” We release this episode at a historic moment. This Saturda...
Dr. Elsa Devienne, '"Paper or Plastic?": The Forgotten Movement to Ban Polystyrene in the US and the (Lost) Battle of Perception (1980s to today)'
“What happened? At one point, we were really close to banning polystyrene. What happened?” In this episode, we’re joined by Dr Elsa Devienne...
Dr. Caroline Johnston, 'Rocky Mountain Extractivism in Washington'
This episode explores ‘carbon cowboys,’ the creation of A Blueprint for Conservative Government (1980), and an emerging historical concept:...
Dr. Patrick Griffin, 'The American Revolution and Global Empire'
“Whether we like it or not, the American Revolution is kind of central to the idea of American civic life, and very central to American noti...
Annual Pitt Professor Beth Bailey, 'Making Change: Why the US Army Matters'
"Of course, it's an institution of social change. Because it has to manage all of the social changes that are taking place in society—becaus...
Prof. David Farber, 'The War on Drugs'
“What makes one drug or another useful to politicians?” David Farber asks. At the seminar, Farber presented new work on the late twentieth-c...
Dr. Erin Shearer, 'Enslaved Women, Infanticide, and a Feminist History of Harm: A New Direction in Slavery Studies'
N.B.: This episode describes sexual violence and graphic bodily harm. (With sincere apologies for the re-upload due to a technical issue.) “...
Prof. Eliga Gould, 'Union and Disunion: The Turbulent History of the United States' Founding Treaty'
When we think about the founding documents of the United States, two likely come to mind: the Declaration of Independence and the Constituti...
Dr. Kathleen Belew, ‘Thoughts and Prayers: America in the Age of Mass Violence’
“In 2024…the number of children and teachers killed in school shootings surpassed not only military, but active police duty deaths. So our e...
Dr. Brenna Greer, 'African Americans and the Photographic Seat of Honour'
‘Why do people look at Black people the way they do?’ This is the central provocation of our guest scholar's work. Dr Brenna Greer is an Afr...
Dr. Kaeten Mistry, 'Exposure: How State Secret Disclosures Helped Construct and Undermine the Cold War Consensus'
Dr Kaeten Mistry discusses his current research on the history of secrecy and the tensions it raises between civil liberties and national se...
Dr. Kaisha Esty, '“Live as Becomes a Free Christian Woman”: Freedwomen and State-Sanctioned Reform in the Era of Emancipation'
Please note that this episode contains discussion of sexual violence. This week, PhD candidates Sam Lanevi and Megan Renoir sit down with Dr...
Dr. Lydia Walker, 'We Don’t Call Them Wars Anymore: International Intervention and the United Nations'
“We Don’t Call Them Wars Anymore,” explores the history of international intervention after the Second World War, and how the role of the Un...
Dr. Wendell Nii Laryea Adjetey, 'Cross-Border Cosmopolitans: The Making of a Pan-African North America'
Dr. Wendell Nii Laryea Adjetey ( Nii Laryea Osabu I, Atrékor Wé Oblahii kè Oblayéé Mantsè) — Associate Professor of History and William Daws...
Dr. Tara Bynum, ‘Obour Tanner Makes an Archive: Or, How to Remember Your Famous (and Deceased) 18th-Century Friend, Phillis Wheatley’
In this episode of the Cambridge American History Seminar Podcast, we’re joined by Dr Tara Bynum, Associate Professor of English & African A...
Special Episode - Prof. Mia Bay - Her career and vision as the new Paul Mellon Professor
In this special episode, we’re joined by the incoming Paul Mellon Professor, Mia Bay. She is a leading scholar of American and African Ameri...
Prof. Axel Schäfer, 'The “Tempest Tost” and the “People of Plenty”: Migration and the Politics of Consumption in the U.S. Since the 1880s'
Axel Schäfer, Professor in American Studies at Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, and of U.S. History at the Obama Institute, joins us...
Prof. Molly Warsh, 'Servants of the Seasons: Temporary Mobilities in the Global Early Americas'
In this episode, we’re talking with Molly Warsh, Associate Professor of History at the University of Pittsburgh, about her new book project,...
Prof. Kimberly Welch, 'Eulalie Mandeville’s Money: A Free Black Woman and Her Legacy in Antebellum New Orleans'
In this episode, we’re joined by Kimberly Welch , Associate Professor of History and Law at Vanderbilt University. Kim is currently a Fellow...