Ben Franklin's World

There are a lot of books about Benjamin Franklin. They tell us about his youth and accomplishments in business, politics, and diplomacy. They tell us about his serious interest in electricity and science, and about his philanthropic work. But only a handful of these books tell us about Benjamin Franklin as a man. What did Benjamin Franklin think about and experience when it came to his private, lived life? Nancy Rubin Stuart, an award-winning historian and journalist and author of Poor Richard’s Women: Deborah Read Franklin and the Other Women Behind the Founding Father, joins us to investigate the private life of Benjamin Franklin by using the women in his life as a window on to his experiences as a husband, father, and friend. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/349 Complementary Episodes 🎧 Episode 022: Vivian Bruce Conger, Deborah Read Franklin & Sally Franklin Bache 🎧 Episode 031: The Papers of Benjamin Franklin 🎧 Episode 149: George Goodwin, Benjamin Franklin in London 🎧 Episode 175: Daniel Mark Epstein, The Revolution in Ben Franklin’s House 🎧 Episode 193: Partisans: The Friendship and Rivalry of John Adams & Thomas Jefferson 🎧 Episode 207: Young Benjamin Franklin 🎧 Episode 320: Benjamin Franklin’s London House   REQUEST A TOPIC 📨 Topic Request Form 📫 liz@benfranklinsworld.com WHEN YOU'RE READY 🗞️ BFW Gazette Newsletter👩‍💻 BFW Listener Community🌍 The History Explorers Club   LISTEN 🍎 Apple Podcasts  💚 Spotify  🎶 Amazon Music 🛜 Pandora CONNECT 🦋 Liz on Bluesky 👩‍💻 Liz on LinkedIn 🛜 Liz’s Website SAY THANKS 💜 Leave a review on Apple Podcasts 💚 Leave a rating on Spotify Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On December 19, 1777, George Washington marched his Continental Army into its winter encampment at Valley Forge. In school we learned this was a hard, cold winter that saw the soldiers so ill-supplied they chewed on the leather of their shoes. But is this what really happened at Valley Forge? Were soldiers idle, wallowing in their misery? Ricardo Herrera, a historian of American military history and a visiting professor in the Department of National Security and Strategy at the U.S. Army War College, joins us to investigate the winter at Valley Forge with details form his book, Feeding Washington’s Army: Surviving the Valley Forge Winter of 1778. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/348 Complementary Episodes 🎧 Episode 158: The Revolutionaries’ Army 🎧 Episode 189: Sam White, The Little Ice Age   🎧 Episode 194: Longfellow House-Washington’s Headquarters 🎧 Episode 298: Lindsay Schakenbach Regele, Origins of American Manufacturing 🎧 Episode 301: From Inoculation to Vaccination, Part 1 🎧 Episode 302: From Inoculation to Vaccination, Part 2 🎧 Episode 332: Experiences of Revolution: Occupied Philadelphia 🎧 Episode 333: Experiences of Revolution: Disruptions in Yorktown   REQUEST A TOPIC 📨 Topic Request Form 📫 liz@benfranklinsworld.com WHEN YOU'RE READY 🗞️ BFW Gazette Newsletter👩‍💻 BFW Listener Community🌍 The History Explorers Club   LISTEN 🍎 Apple Podcasts  💚 Spotify  🎶 Amazon Music 🛜 Pandora CONNECT 🦋 Liz on Bluesky 👩‍💻 Liz on LinkedIn 🛜 Liz’s Website SAY THANKS 💜 Leave a review on Apple Podcasts 💚 Leave a rating on Spotify Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It’s impossible to overstate the importance of African and African American music to the United States’ musical traditions. Steven Lewis, a Curator of Music and Performing Arts at the Smithsonian, notes that “African American influences are so fundamental to American music there would be no American music without them.” Jon Beebe, a Jazz pianist, professional musician, and an interpretive ranger at the New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park, leads us on an exploration of how and why African rhythms and beats came to play important roles in the musical history and musical evolution of the Untied States. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/347 Complementary Episodes 🎧 Episode 167: Eberhard Faber, The Early History of New Orleans 🎧 Episode 295: Ibrahima Seck, Whitney Plantation Museum 🎧 Episode 308: Jessica Marie Johnson, Slavery & Freedom in French New Orleans 🎧 Episode 342: Elizabeth Ellis, The Great Power of Small Native Nations 🎧 Episode 343: Chad Hamill, Music & Song in Native North America 🎧 Episode 344: Music in British North America 🎧 Episode 345: Amateur Musicians in the Early United States 🎧 Episode 346: Music & Politics in the Early United States   REQUEST A TOPIC 📨 Topic Request Form 📫 liz@benfranklinsworld.com WHEN YOU'RE READY 🗞️ BFW Gazette Newsletter👩‍💻 BFW Listener Community🌍 The History Explorers Club   LISTEN 🍎 Apple Podcasts  💚 Spotify  🎶 Amazon Music 🛜 Pandora CONNECT 🦋 Liz on Bluesky 👩‍💻 Liz on LinkedIn 🛜 Liz’s Website SAY THANKS 💜 Leave a review on Apple Podcasts 💚 Leave a rating on Spotify Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How did everyday Americans in the early United States use and enjoy music? How did they create and circulate new songs and musical lyrics? Our five-episode series about music in early America continues in this fourth episode about music and politics in the early United States. Billy Coleman, an Assistant Teaching Professor of History at the University of Missouri and author of the book Harnessing Harmony: Music, Power, and Politics in the United States, 1788-1865, joins us to investigate the role music played in early American politics. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/346 Complementary Episodes 🎧 Episode 207: Nick Bunker, Young Benjamin Franklin 🎧 Episode 227: Kyle Courtney, Copyright & Fair Use in Early America 🎧 Episode 243: Joseph Adelman, Revolutionary Print Networks 🎧 Episode 343: Chad Hamill, Music and Song in Native North America 🎧 Episode 344: David Hildebrand, Music in British North America 🎧 Episode 345: Glenda Goodman, Amateur Musicians in the Early United States REQUEST A TOPIC 📨 Topic Request Form 📫 liz@benfranklinsworld.com WHEN YOU'RE READY 🗞️ BFW Gazette Newsletter👩‍💻 BFW Listener Community🌍 The History Explorers Club   LISTEN 🍎 Apple Podcasts  💚 Spotify  🎶 Amazon Music 🛜 Pandora CONNECT 🦋 Liz on Bluesky 👩‍💻 Liz on LinkedIn 🛜 Liz’s Website SAY THANKS 💜 Leave a review on Apple Podcasts 💚 Leave a rating on Spotify Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Our study of music in Early America continues with this third episode in our five-episode series.Our last two episodes (Episode 343 and Episode 344) helped us better understand the musical landscapes of Native North America around 1492 and colonial British America before 1776. In this episode, we jump forward in time to the early days of the United States.Glenda Goodman, an Associate Professor of Music at the University of Pennsylvania and the author of the book Cultivated by Hand: Amateur Musicians in the Early American Republic, joins us to investigate the role of music in the lives of wealthy white Americans during the earliest days of the early American republic.Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/345 Complementary Episodes🎧 Episode 145: Rosemarie Zagarri, Mercy Otis Warren🎧 Episode 237: Nora Doyle, Motherhood in Early America🎧 Episode 311: Katherine Carté, Religion in the American Revolution🎧 Episode 343: Chad Hamil, Music and Song in Native North America🎧 Episode 344: David Hildebrand, Music in British North AmericaREQUEST A TOPIC📨 Topic Request Form📫 liz@benfranklinsworld.comWHEN YOU'RE READY🗞️ BFW Gazette Newsletter 👩‍💻 Join the BFW Listener CommunityLISTEN 🎧🍎 Apple Podcasts 💚 Spotify 🎶 Amazon Music🛜 PandoraCONNECT🦋 Liz on Bluesky👩‍💻 Liz on LinkedIn🛜 Liz’s WebsiteSAY THANKS💜 Leave a review on Apple Podcasts💚 Leave a rating on Spotify Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Our 5-episode series about music in Early America continues with this second episode that seeks to answer your questions about music in Early America.David Hildebrand is a musicologist and an expert on early American music. His research specialty is in Anglo-American music, and he joins us to answer your questions.Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/344 Complementary Episodes🎧 Episode 219: Adrian Covert, Taverns in Early America🎧 Episode 250: Virginia, 1619🎧 Episode 290: The World of the Wampanoag, Part 1🎧 Episode 291: The World of the Wampanoag, Part 2🎧 Episode 343: Chad Hamill, The Musical Landscape of Native America  REQUEST A TOPIC📨 Topic Request Form📫 liz@benfranklinsworld.comWHEN YOU'RE READY🗞️ BFW Gazette Newsletter 👩‍💻 Join the BFW Listener CommunityLISTEN 🍎 Apple Podcasts 💚 Spotify 🎶 Amazon Music🛜 PandoraCONNECT🦋 Liz on Bluesky👩‍💻 Liz on LinkedIn🛜 Liz’s WebsiteSAY THANKS💜 Leave a review on Apple Podcasts💚 Leave a rating on Spotify Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What was music like in Early America? How did different early Americans—Native Americans, African Americans, and White Americans—integrate and use music in their daily lives?Your questions about music inspired this 5-episode series about music in Early America.Our exploration begins with music in Native America. Chad Hamill, a Professor of Applied Indigenous Studies at Northern Arizona University, is an ethnomusicologist who studies Native American and Indigenous music. He will guide us through Native North America’s musical landscapes before European colonization.Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/343 Complementary Episodes🎧 Episode 163: The American Revolution in North America🎧 Episode 290: The World of the Wampanoag, Part 1🎧 Episode 291: The World of the Wampanoag, Part 2🎧 Episode 297: Claudio Saunt, Indian Removal Act of 1830🎧 Episode 310: Rosalyn LaPier, History of the Blackfeet🎧 Episode 323: Michael Witgen, American Expansion and the Political Economy of Plunder🎧 Episode 342: Elizabeth Ellis, The Great Power of Small Native Nations REQUEST A TOPIC📨 Topic Request Form📫 liz@benfranklinsworld.comWHEN YOU'RE READY🗞️ BFW Gazette Newsletter 👩‍💻 Join the BFW Listener CommunityLISTEN 🍎 Apple Podcasts 💚 Spotify 🎶 Amazon Music🛜 PandoraCONNECT🦋 Liz on Bluesky👩‍💻 Liz on LinkedIn🛜 Liz’s WebsiteSAY THANKS💜 Leave a review on Apple Podcasts💚 Leave a rating on Spotify Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Did you know that small Native American nations had the power to dictate the terms of French colonization in the Gulf South region?Elizabeth Ellis, an Assistant Professor of History at Princeton University and a citizen of the Peoria Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma, joins us on an exploration of the uncovered and recovered histories of the more than 40 distinct and small Native nations who called the Gulf South region home during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Ellis is the author of The Great Power of Small Nations: Indigenous Diplomacy in the Gulf South.Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/342 Complementary Episodes🎧 Episode 037: Kathleen DuVal, Independence Lost🎧 Episode 064: Brett Rushforth, Native American Slavery in New France🎧 Episode 082: Alejandra Dubcovsky, Information & Communication in the early American South🎧 Episode 139: Andrés Reséndez, The Other Slavery🎧 Episode 171: Jessica Stern, Native Americans, British Colonists, and Trade🎧 Episode 233: Gwenn Miller, A History of Russian America 🎧 Episode 251: Cameron Strang, Frontiers of Science🎧 Episode 303: Matthew Powell, La Pointe-Krebs House   REQUEST A TOPIC📨 Topic Request Form📫 liz@benfranklinsworld.comWHEN YOU'RE READY🗞️ BFW Gazette Newsletter 👩‍💻 Join the BFW Listener CommunityLISTEN 🍎 Apple Podcasts 💚 Spotify 🎶 Amazon Music🛜 PandoraCONNECT🦋 Liz on Bluesky👩‍💻 Liz on LinkedIn🛜 Liz’s WebsiteSAY THANKS💜 Leave a review on Apple Podcasts💚 Leave a rating on Spotify Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Prepare for tricks, treats, and time travel! In honor of Halloween, we’re traveling back to the mid-seventeenth century to investigate a case of demonic possession and the practice of exorcism in New France.Mairi Cowan, an Associate Professor of History at the University of Toronto, Mississauga, joins us to investigate the life of a young French woman named Barbe Hallay and her demonic possession. Cowan is the author of The Possession of Barbe Hallay: Diabolical Arts and Daily Life in Early Canada.Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/341 Complementary Episodes🎧 Episode 108: Ann Little, The Many Captivities of Esther Wheelright🎧 Episode 197: Brett Rushforth, Native American Slavery in New France🎧 Episode 278: Sarah Pearsall, Polygamy: An Early American History🎧 Episode 283: Anne Marie Lane Jonah, Acadie 300🎧 Episode 318: Ste. Geneviéve National Historical Park🎧 Episode 334: Brandon Bayne, Missions and Mission Building in New Spain  REQUEST A TOPIC📨 Topic Request Form📫 liz@benfranklinsworld.comWHEN YOU'RE READY🗞️ BFW Gazette Newsletter 👩‍💻 Join the BFW Listener CommunityLISTEN 🎧🍎 Apple Podcasts 💚 Spotify 🎶 Amazon Music🛜 PandoraCONNECT🦋 Liz on Bluesky👩‍💻 Liz on LinkedIn🛜 Liz’s WebsiteSAY THANKS💜 Leave a review on Apple Podcasts💚 Leave a rating on Spotify Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The War of 1812 is an under-known conflict in United States history. It’s not a war that many Americans think about or dwell upon. And it was not a war that the United States can claim it clearly won.Nicholas Guyatt, a Professor of North American History at the University of Cambridge, joins us to investigate the War of 1812 and the experiences of American prisoners of war using details from his book, The Hated Cage: An American Tragedy in Britain’s Most Terrifying Prison.Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/340 Complementary Episodes🎧 Episode 048: Kenneth Miller, Enemy Captives During the War for Independence 🎧 Episode 051: Catherine Cangany, A History of Early Detroit🎧 Episode 076: Nathan Perl-Rosenthal, Citizen Sailors🎧 Episode 080: Jen Manion, Liberty’s Prisoners🎧 Episode 096: Nicholas Guyatt, Origins of Racial Segregation in the United States🎧 Episode 098: Gautham Rao, Birth of the American Tax Man🎧 Episode 323: Michael Witgen, American Expansion and the Political Economy of Plunder REQUEST A TOPIC📨 Topic Request Form📫 liz@benfranklinsworld.comWHEN YOU'RE READY🗞️ BFW Gazette Newsletter 👩‍💻 Join the BFW Listener CommunityLISTEN 🍎 Apple Podcasts 💚 Spotify 🎶 Amazon Music🛜 PandoraCONNECT🦋 Liz on Bluesky👩‍💻 Liz on LinkedIn🛜 Liz’s WebsiteSAY THANKS💜 Leave a review on Apple Podcasts💚 Leave a rating on Spotify Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices