Scene on radio is sponsored by better help, and our listeners get ten % off their first month of online therapy at better help dot com slash scene. The standard american story ties together the nation's capitalist success s and democracy as inseparable forms of freedom. But whose freedom? In fact, the us built its economic might in the first half of the nineteenth century on stolen land and captive exploited labor. Violence is part of the syst that is America; it's not a bug,. It is a main feature of this thing that in terms of the building ofAmericas greatness.
In the decades after America’s founding and the establishment of the Constitution, did the nation get better, more just, more democratic? Or did it double down on violent conquest and exploitation?
Reported, produced, written, and mixed by John Biewen, with series collaborator Chenjerai Kumanyika. The series editor is Loretta Williams. Interviews with Robin Alario, Edward Baptist, Kidada Williams, and Keri Leigh Merritt.
Music by Algiers, John Erik Kaada, Eric Neveux, and Lucas Biewen. Music consulting and production help from Joe Augustine of Narrative Music.