The History of the Americans Podcast

05/08/2026

There's a new episode up, "William Penn and the Selling of Pennsylvania."

Bigly real estate deals! And Penn's defense of colonization against its critics.

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It 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 time to grant William Penn a vast territory extending…

27/07/2026

Your podcaster at the Columbus family house in Genoa….

26/07/2026

Genoa, birthplace and first home of Christopher Columbus just now.

26/07/2026

There’s a new episode up! Pass it along and stuff.

With 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 hurt his family. William now owned lands that generated incom...

13/07/2026

I wrote a new piece on Substack on restarting the teaching of American history. I hope you take a look at it.

Start small, and adopt a credo rather than a "narrative"

10/07/2026

Egads, there's a new episode up!

#214 William Penn Before Pennsylvania 2: Penn on Trial

Courtroom drama, a landmark legal precedent, and a poignant reconciliation, among other things. Proliferating to podcast apps now.

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02/07/2026

Jumping Jehoshaphat, there's a new episode up! I read the Declaration of Independence, and give nano-bios of the signers. Since you should read or listen to the DofI every year, and this year especially, just play this episode!

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The 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 audience at your mercy - might…

30/06/2026

There's a new episode up! Listen to the first of two on "William Penn Before Pennsylvania," and learn that boys used to be punished for *not* smoking to***co.

Like and repost and stuff, if the spirit moves you. Other links in the comments.

[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 liberty began. I and the wife of the pod will be there and w...

26/06/2026

John Papola had me on his podcast "Dad Saves America," which has ~500,000 followers on YouTube alone. We recorded it in mid-April, but it dropped this evening. I had a great time, and I hope you enjoy listening to it and pass it around if you do. And get in there and comment!

We get into a lot of edgy stuff, but with a smile.

I sat down with Jack Henneman, host of the “History of the American...

22/06/2026

There's a new episode up, "Sidebar Conversation: Richard Bell on The American Revolution and the Fate of the World," in which we discuss some of the global ripple effects from the American Revolution from his new book. Fun stuff!

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Richard 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 for the George Washington Prize and the Harriet Tubman…