Was the early United States a “Christian nation?” Did most of its citizenry accept God and the Bible as the moral authority that bound them together as one nation? Scholars have taken a binary stance on these questions. Some argue that early America...
If early Americans desired slaves mostly to produce sugarcane, cotton, rice, indigo, and tobacco, what would happen if Europeans and early Americans stopped purchasing those products? Would boycotting slave-produced goods and starving slavery of its...
Many Americans associate the state of Utah with Mormons. But did you know the Mormons almost settled in Texas? Spencer McBride, an editor with the Joseph Smith Papers Documentary Editing Project, joins us to explore the life of Joseph Smith, founder...
Do you know which early American reform movement pushed for abolition, women’s rights, pacifism, and economic growth? Today, Adam Shprintzen, Assistant Professor of History at Marywood University and author of The Vegetarian Crusade: The Rise of an...
You may know the stereotype of the “busybody New Englander,” the person who knows all about their neighbors’ private affairs. This stereotype comes from the New England town-church ideal: The idea that ministers and congregants of the town church...