In The Past Lane - The Podcast About History and Why It Matters

This week at ITPL, the American history podcast, I interview historian Karen Cox, about her new book: Goat Castle: A True Story of Murder, Race, and the Gothic South. It tells the incredible story of a murder that took place in Natchez, Mississippi in 1932. It’s a captivating tale in its own right, but as you’ll soon hear, the Goat Castle story reveals a great deal about the US in the 1930s, everything from mass media and sensationalism, to Jim Crow racism and popular nostalgia for the Old South.

This week at ITPL, the American history podcast, I interview historian Joshua Clark Davis about his new book, From Head Shops to Whole Foods: The Rise and Fall of Activist Entrepreneurs. It’s a fascinating examination of 4 types of “activist entrepreneurship” - African American bookstores, feminist businesses, head shops, & organic food. Davis also discusses the transformation of Whole Foods from a 1970s activist, alternative business into a huge profit-seeking corporation.

This week at In The Past Lane, the history podcast, I mark the 240th anniversary of the Battle of Saratoga with an interview with Dean Snow, author of a new book titled, 1777: Tipping Point at Saratoga. It’ll give you a new appreciation of how this often overlooked battle was in many ways, the decisive moment in the American Revolution. Join us for another fun and informative exploration of American history.

This week at ITPL, the history podcast, I speak with historian Erin Krutko Devlin, author Remember Little Rock, a book about the famous 1957 Civil Rights desegregation crisis. We’ll talk about the crisis and the courageous role played by the students known as the Little Rock Nine. But we’ll also discuss how Little Rock has become part of a problematic triumphant American history narrative of racial progress that blinds us to persistence of racial inequality.

This week at ITPL, the history podcast, I speak with America's most acclaimed documentary filmmaker, Ken Burns, about his new project, The Vietnam War. Vietnam is one of the most divisive events in American history and, not surprisingly, this documentary has attracted a lot of attention. This episode begins with a short set-up piece, kind of a Vietnam 101, and then moves on to the main event, my interview with Ken Burns. I hope you enjoy listening as much as I did. #VietnamWarPBS #KenBurns

This week In The Past Lane, the history podcast, asks: What do the controversies in the 1960s and 1970s surrounding sex education and bilingual education have to do with each other? I talk with historian Natalia Petrzela to talk about her book, Classroom Wars: Language, Sex, and the Making of Modern Political Culture. It examines the history of education policy and how it both reflected and shaped political discourse

This week at In The Past Lane, the history podcast, bring to you an episode about a remarkable initiative called, History Unfolded: US Newspapers and the Holocaust. It’s collecting and making available to the public thousands of articles from US newspapers between 1933 and 1945 that told American readers in vivid detail about the Nazi campaign against Jews in Europe. So give a listen and learn how this new digital research initiative is changing the way we understand the American response to the Holocaust

The rising popularity of libertarianism raises an important question: Where does it fit in the history of American political culture? Is it a mainstream ideology with deep roots in U.S. history? Or is it one on the fringe? In this American history podcast, I'll speak with Christine Woodside, author of the book, Libertarians on the Prairie: Laura Ingalls Wilder, Rose Wilder Lane, and the Making of the Little House Books.

Given President Trump’s ban on transgender personnel serving in the US armed forces, this history podcast looks at the history of female and trans soldiers who have fought in past US wars. Specifically, we dive into the story of Albert Cashier, possibly the best known transgender soldier in US history who served in the Union Army. It's a remarkable chapter in American history that provides us with important historical perspective on the current #TransBan debate.

With the mainstream news media under siege these days, and with some people denouncing it as so-called “fake news,” this seems like a good time to explore freedom of the press in U.S. history. So in this history podcast episode, we’ll talk about the fascinating story of the arrest and prosecution of a little known New York newspaper publisher named Peter Zenger in 1735. That trial helped popularize a new and broader definition of freedom of the press and led to its inclusion in the First Amendment.

In this history podcast, we take a look at the fascinating history of the Ten Commandments in American history. Even though you might think such a story would be situated in Israel, it’s actually a very American story. Over the last 150 years of U.S. history, Americans have found many imaginative ways to embrace, reimagine, and repurpose the Ten Commandments. Listen as I talk with historian Jenna Weissman Joselit about her book, Set In Stone: America's Embrace of the Ten Commandments.

In this American history podcast, we step up to the plate to take on the origins and history of baseball, and how it has both reflected and shaped US society. We'll discuss: How 18th C British immigrants brought early forms of baseball like rounders and cricket to America. How the Civil War played a key role in popularizing baseball. Why Alexander Cartwright and NOT Abner Doubleday is the “father of baseball.” How 50 African Americans played in the major leagues until 1890 – long before Jackie Robinso

In this episode, this history podcast explores a fascinating and little-known chapter in American history -- the story of an American colony that developed on a small island off Cuba following the Spanish American War of 1898. The Isle of Pines attracted some 2,000 US settlers in the early 20th C, many of whom viewed it as Americans had once viewed the US west. To learn more about this unique colony, I speak with historian Michael Neagle about his new book, America's Forgotten Colony: Cuba's Isle of Pines.

This week at ITPL, the American history podcast, we talk about the US presidency. Specifically, we examine the history of how US presidents have endeavored to use the media, some more effectively than others, to their political advantage. In other words, it’s the history of “spin.” To learn about spin and how and why it’s played such a critical role in the evolution of the modern presidency, I talk to historian David Greenberg about his book, Republic of Spin: An Inside History of the American Pres

In The Past Lane, the history podcast, is in Chicago to check out a cool history exhibition and speak with John Russick of the Chicago History Museum. "Spies, Traitors, and Saboteurs: Fear & Freedom in America" explores how throughout US history the nation has handled internal threats like terrorists, spies, saboteurs, hate groups, etc, while protecting civil liberties. Some of the many incidents it explores includes: the Palmer Raids, the Haymarket bombing, Japanese Internment, and McCarthyism.