Skip to main content

NEH Events

RADIO

December 28, 2012

Best of the Best of the New BackStory

As 2012 winds down, and a New Year is born, American History Guys Brian, Ed, and Peter reflect on their first weekly season, reprising favorite interviews, riffs, features, and calls.
radio
December 21, 2012

Naughty & Nice: A History of the Holiday Season

The Puritans banned Christmas, once a time of rowdiness when the poor demanded food from the rich.

radio
December 14, 2012

Apocalypse Now & Then: End Times in America

BackStory Radio examines how apocalyptic visions gain traction from time to time, and what they tell us about American hopes and fears through the centuries.

radio
December 7, 2012

You've Got Mail: A History of the Post Office

BackStory Radio looks at the history of the U.S. Postal Service

radio
November 16, 2012

Straight Shot: A History of Gun Ownership

The American History Guys explore the history of guns in America

radio
November 2, 2012

Pulling the Curtain: Voting in America

BackStory Radio looks at the history of voting in America.

radio
October 19, 2012

Tiny Nation, Big Problems: Cuba in American History

50 years ago this week, a U.S. military jet photographed strategic nuclear missiles that had been installed by the Soviets in Cuba.

radio
August 31, 2012

Turf War: A History of College Sports

BackStory Radio's American History Guys explore the history of American college sports.

radio
August 24, 2012

Conventional Wisdom: A History of American Political Conventions

BackStory Radio's American History Guys explore the development of American political conventions.

radio
August 17, 2012

Climate Control: A History of Heating and Cooling

The American History Guys consider the advent of air conditioning, and explore its far-reaching implications on everything from architecture and leisure to demography and politics.

radio
August 10, 2012

Here to There: A History of Mapping

From the 16th to 18th centuries, many European mapmakers were convinced that California was an island — an Edenic paradise populated by black Amazons.

radio
August 3, 2012

Beach Bodies: A History of the American Physique

Aspirations to a more perfect body have a long history in America.

radio
July 27, 2012

City Upon a Hill: American Exceptionalism in U.S. History

In this episode, the American History Guys at BackStory Radio look at the changing meanings of Exceptionalism.

radio
June 29, 2012

Independence Daze: A History of July Fourth

In the early days of our nation, July Fourth wasn’t an official holiday at all.

radio
May 25, 2012

Monumental Disagreements

Why is there no image of George Washington on the Washington Monument? Three history professors discuss the controversy over building the Washington Monument in "Monumental Disagreements,"...

radio
May 18, 2012

Home Bittersweet Home

The American history guys, all history professors, ask whether there was ever a Golden Age of home ownership in the second episode of a new NEH-funded weekly radio show being launched across the country.

radio
May 16, 2012

Wade in the Water: Songs and Stories of the Mississippi

As the Mississippi winds its way past New Orleans, American Routes is reminded of the power and place of these waterways in American culture.

radio
May 11, 2012

BackStory with the American History Guys

University of Virginia history professors Peter Onuf and Brian Balogh and Ed Ayers, president of the University of Richmond, explore “Childbirth in America” in the first episode of a NEH-funded weekly show.

radio