Person

Joanne B. Freeman

Related Excerpts

Book cover for Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow

Chernow Gonna Chernow

A Pulitzer Prize winner punches down.

The Making of the Radical Republicans

How did the struggle for emancipation become a mass politics?

Greg Gianforte Is Lucky. Reporters Once Carried Daggers To Deal With Unruly Politicians.

There is a long history of congressmen behaving badly.
Political cartoon of U.S. President Martin Van Buren sitting on a fence as men on each side try to pull him toward them.
partner

The Spirit of Party and Faction

On factional strife in the Early Republic, and why parties themselves were universally despised.
Inaugural oath being sworn by President
partner

Four More Years: Presidential Inaugurations

An hour of stories about a few high-stakes inaugurations from the past.
Two men fighting during Shay's Rebellion.
partner

Fights Over American Democracy Reach Back to the Founding Era

In early America, the soaring ideals behind establishing a new democracy were marked by cycles of progress and backlash.
United States Capitol

America Is Headed Toward Collapse

How has America slid into its current age of discord? Why has our trust in institutions collapsed, and why have our democratic norms unraveled?
Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau on the phone, March 1985.

Calling Bob Morgenthau

The tensions between the Manhattan District Attorney and President George H.W. Bush.
The Burr-Hamilton Duel, 1804, Peter Newark American Pictures / Bridgeman Images .

Dueling: The Violence of Gentlemen

What honor required of men.
Former President Donald Trump in Selma, North Carolina

The Historians Take a First Crack at Donald J. Trump

On the promises and perils of very recent history.
Painting of 18th century hunting party of men in long, tri-cornered hats, and curly wigs, riding horses.

The Comforts of a Single State

Thomas Jefferson imagines an unequal gender utopia.
Lithograph of the Fox Sisters.
partner

The Fox Sisters

The story of Kate and Margaret Fox, the small-town girls who triggered the 19th century movement known as Spiritualism.
Newspaper front-page with headline "When Gen. La Grippe Declares War on the U.S.A."
partner

Forgotten Flu

A look back at the so-called “Spanish Flu," how it affected the U.S., and why it’s often overlooked today.
Ed Ayers next to the cover of his book, "The Thin Light of Freedom."
partner

The Thin Light of Freedom

On this episode of BackStory, Brian sits down with Ed to talk about a project of his that’s been twenty-five years in the making.