Dr. Erik Mathisen joins Hugh Wood and Rob O'Sullivan to discuss his paper "The Problem of Free Labor and the Origins of the Republican Party." Dr. Mathisen places the idea of Free Labor within a global context and attempts to understand how the

Elizabeth R. Varon, "White Supremacy in American Politics: An Origins Story"

Mar 19th, 2024 29m 16s

This week, Elizabeth Varon, Harold Vyvyan Harmsworth Professor of American History, University of Oxford, and Langbourne M. Williams Professor of American History, University of Virginia, examines the political discourse of the Reconstruction e

Dr. Noam Maggor - "Escaping the Periphery: Railroad Regulation as American Industrial Policy"

Mar 6th, 2024 27m 18s

Dr. Noam Maggor, Senior Lecturer in American History at Queen Mary, joins the podcast to discuss the transformation of American capitalism in the late-C19th. We focus on railroad regulation as a tool of the American 'developmental state'.

Prof. Jefferson Cowie - "Freedom's Dominion: A Saga of White Resistance to Federal Power"

Feb 28th, 2024 37m 44s

We discuss the complex history of ‘freedom’ in American history with 2023 Pulitzer Prize winner Jefferson Cowie (Vanderbilt University).

Prof. Andrew Preston - A Bridge in Chicago: The New Deal and National Security

Feb 22nd, 2024 35m 47s

Prof. Andrew Preston is joined by two of his supervisees, Sam and Caleb. They discuss his next book project, which is about the invention of national security in the New Deal period.

Prof. Stephanie Lewthwaite - "Relational Memories: Latinx Art in New York City Since the 1970s"

Feb 14th, 2024 21m 12s

Tune in for Latinx visual culture, New York's alternative 'artworlds' of the 1970s, Black Atlantic women artists and the nature of canonisation. Prof. Stephanie Lewthwaite is Associate Professor in American History (Faculty of Arts) at the Un

Dr. Joanna Cohen, "Hall’s Sympathies: Loss, Law, and the Limits of Feeling in Nineteenth Century America"

Feb 5th, 2024 32m 40s

Dr. Joanna Cohen, Reader in American History at Queen Mary University of London, invites Fergus and Rob to consider some major problems in nineteenth century legal history and the history of capitalism. A lot of our discussion turns on the mean

Dr. Lewis Defrates, "Neutrality by Absence: The Selective Repatriation of Americans at the Beginning of the First World War"

Oct 19th, 2023 23m 50s

Dr. Lewis Defrates discusses his paper "Neutrality by Absence: The Selective Repatriation of Americans at the Beginning of the First World War." The paper describes how the U.S. government rushed to extract its citizens, ordered by social categ

Prof. Nick Guyatt, Writing American History in Uncertain Times

Aug 14th, 2023 50m 41s

Prof. Nick Guyatt, Caleb Woodall, and Hugh Wood discuss Nick's role as editor of the upcoming Oxford Illustrated History of the United States. We discuss the history and culture wars, the narratives that surround the American past, and the diff

Prof. Richard J. M. Blackett, "Looking For Samuel Ringgold Ward"

Jul 7th, 2023 44m 39s

Richard J. M. Blackett, Andrew Jackson Professor of History at Vanderbilt University, joins Fergus and Shea to discuss the largely forgotten abolitionist Samuel Ringgold Ward.

Dr. Grace Mallon, "Federalism for Beginners: Intergovernmental Relations and Interdependent Sovereignty after 1789"

Jun 7th, 2023 26m 34s

Dr. Grace Mallon - Kinder Junior Research Fellow in Atlantic History, and fellow of University College, Oxford - joins Jasmin Bath and Hugh Wood to discuss the peculiarities and practicalities of federalism in the Early Republic period.

Prof. Andrew Preston, The Iraq War: 20 Years On

May 31st, 2023 26m 24s

Prof. Andrew Preston discusses the causes and implications of the American invasion and occupation of Iraq with Fergus and Hugh.

Prof. Gregory Daddis, "Faith and Fear: America's Relationship with War in the Modern Era"

May 24th, 2023 32m 59s

Prof. Daddis joins Caleb Woodall and Fergus Selsdon Games, both PhD candidates here at Cambridge, to discuss his forthcoming work Faith and Fear: America's Relationship with War in the Modern Era. We discuss power, gender, and America's faith i

Dr. Meg Jacobs, "The New Deal's AAA Reconsidered: State-Building from the Bottom Up"

Mar 18th, 2023 38m 6s

For the final episode before Easter break, Dr. Meg Jacobs and Caleb Woodall join Hugh Wood to discuss the New Deal's Agricultural Adjustment Agency. We cover topics such as collectivism, coercion, and the saving of American capitalism. As noted

Prof. Emily West, "Enslaved Women and the Duality of Feeding in the Antebellum South"

Mar 13th, 2023 37m 29s

This week, Prof. Emily West, from Reading University, and Meg Roberts, a PhD candidate at the University of Cambridge, join Hugh Wood to discuss Prof. West's paper, "Enslaved Women and the Duality of Feeding in the Antebellum South." Here's a l

Prof. Sophie White, "His Master's Grace": Extra-Judicial Violence in Atlantic Slave Societies"

Mar 3rd, 2023 34m 6s

This week, Prof. Sophie White and Will Johnson, an MPhil here at Cambridge, join Hugh Wood to discuss Prof. White's paper, "His Master's Grace": Extra-Judicial Violence in Atlantic Slave Societies." Here are the links to the project and works m

Dr. Robert Lee, "Indigenous Land and Sovereign Wealth in America: The Case of the Connecticut School Fund"

Feb 27th, 2023 43m 6s

This week, Dr. Robert Lee and Megan Renoir join Hugh Wood to discuss indigenous dispossession, institution building, and the complexities of post-revolutionary governing. Here's a link to Dr. Lee's prizewinning work on Land Grab Universities: h

Dr. Emily Brady, "I Didn't Know She Took Pictures": African American Women Photographers in the Long Civil Rights Movement"

Feb 7th, 2023 37m 1s

Dr. Emily Brady - the Broadbent Junior Research Fellow at Christ Church College, Oxford - joins Marie Puysségur and Hugh Wood to discuss her work on African American Women photographers in the long civil rights movement. Here's a link to an art

Prof. Bruce J. Schulman, "From the 'Smoke Filled Room' to the 'Singing Teapot': Women Voters and the Transformation of American Politics, 1924-1928"

Jan 30th, 2023 45m 19s

This week, Prof. Bruce J. Schulman, discusses some research drawn from his current book project, a monumental volume of the Oxford History of the United States, covering the period 1896-1929. We're joined by Eric Wycoff-Rogers, who's just submi

Dr. Caitlin Harvey, "Eureka! Gold Rushes, Universities, and Globalization, 1840-1910"

Jan 24th, 2023 33m 54s

For the first episode of 2023 (re-uploaded due to a technical error!), we're joined by Dr. Caitlin Harvey, an early career research fellow at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge. Alongside Caitlin, we're joined by Rob O'Sullivan, a PhD candidate at

Dr. Caitlin Harvey, "Eureka! Gold Rushes, Universities, and Globalization, 1840-1910"

Jan 23rd, 2023 33m 54s

For the first episode of 2023, we're joined by Dr. Caitlin Harvey, an early career research fellow at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge. Alongside Caitlin, we're joined by Rob O'Sullivan, a PhD candidate at Sidney Sussex and historian of Irish ide

Dr. Erin Trahey, "Power Ever Follows Property: Sugar Heiresses and the Devises Act of 1761" - 2/12/22

Dec 13th, 2022 32m 24s

In this episode, Dr. Erin Trahey, Assistant Professor of Early American History at Cambridge, discusses a chapter from her upcoming book project, Free Women of Jamaica: Property, Race and Power in Jamaican Slave Society 1760-1834, entitled: "Po

Prof. Fredrik Logevall, "JFK: The Road To Power" - 28/11/22

Dec 1st, 2022 45m 3s

In this episode, Professor Fredrik Logevall discusses a chapter from the upcoming second volume of his biography of President John F. Kennedy. Theo Zenou - a PhD candidate at Hughes Hall - joins Hugh Wood to talk through JFK's character, contem

Prof. Angus Burgin: "From the New Economy to Neoliberalism" - 21/11/22

Nov 24th, 2022 51m 53s

This week, Professor Angus Burgin discusses his paper, "From the New Economy to Neoliberalism" with PhD students Sam Pallis and Hugh Wood.

Mario Del Pero on 'In the Shadow of the Vatican', 17/2/20

Feb 19th, 2020 41m 10s

Professor Mario Del Pero, Professor of International History, Institut d’études politiques at Sciences Po, Paris, speaks about his paper 'In the Shadow of the Vatican' with PhD student Christopher Schaefer.The pair discuss the missionary effo