BackStory with the American History Guys: Favorites

Series produced by BackStory with the American History Guys

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A collection of the best stories and features from BackStory, meant for excerpt by programs or stations.

BackStory is a weekly one-hour public radio show that provides a national broadcast audience with an enjoyable and accessible way of engaging challenging themes in American history and how they connect with today.

The pieces in this series are available for individual excerpt. If you are interested in full episodes of BackStory, check out our main series page.


188 Pieces

Order by: Newest First | Oldest First
Never Never Land
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: BackStory with the American History Guys: Favorites
Caption: Pedro Pan girls, Florida City, Fla., 1962. , Credit: Courtesy of Ileana Ortega Menéndez.
BackStory editor Robert Armangol explores the legacy of Operation Pedro Pan, a plan to save Cuban children from communist indoctrination by leaving...

  • Added: Oct 08, 2014
  • Length: 12:09
The Reason in the Riot
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: BackStory with the American History Guys: Favorites
Caption: The police in Gary, Ind., 1908, Credit: Library of Congress
Brian Balogh speaks with former Senator Fred Harris about the commission convened by President Lyndon Johnson in the dark days of the 1967 Detroit ...

Bought by Radio Catskill, New Hampshire Public Radio, WABE, RadioFreePalmer, KVSC and more


  • Added: Sep 24, 2014
  • Length: 10:24
  • Purchases: 6
Running the Riot
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: BackStory with the American History Guys: Favorites
Caption: The police in Gary, Ind., 1908, Credit: Library of Congress
Legal scholar Alasdair Roberts talks with Peter Onuf about the beginnings of municipal police departments in the U.S., which were organized not to ...

Bought by KFAI Minneapolis and PRX Remix


  • Added: Sep 24, 2014
  • Length: 07:40
  • Purchases: 2
Above the Law
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: BackStory with the American History Guys: Favorites
Caption: The police in Gary, Ind., 1908, Credit: Library of Congress
Producer Nina Earnest explores how the professionalization of the Los Angeles Police Department -intended to free the police from municipal corrupt...

Bought by New Hampshire Public Radio, KFAI Minneapolis, and PRX Remix


  • Added: Sep 24, 2014
  • Length: 10:46
  • Purchases: 3
Can We Still Call It Wilderness?
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: BackStory with the American History Guys: Favorites
Caption: The mountain pass, Sierra Nevada, Credit: Library of Congress
Writer Emma Marris and historian Paul Sutter join the Guys as they discuss the Wilderness Act of 1964, and how American ideas of wilderness and how...

Bought by PRX Remix


  • Added: Sep 15, 2014
  • Length: 10:43
  • Purchases: 1
Evicted From the Wild
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: BackStory with the American History Guys: Favorites
Caption: The mountain pass, Sierra Nevada, Credit: Library of Congress
Producer Jesse Dukes has the story of some five hundred families who were made to leave their homes in an area supposedly “pristine and free of hum...

Bought by New Hampshire Public Radio and PRX Remix


  • Added: Sep 15, 2014
  • Length: 08:03
  • Purchases: 2
The Black Power Salute?
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: BackStory with the American History Guys: Favorites
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Host Brian Balogh talks with sociologist Harry Edwards, founder of the Olympic Project for Human Rights, about the iconic moment at the 1968 Olympi...

Bought by WAMC Northeast Public Radio, WXDU, KFAI Minneapolis, and PRX Remix


  • Added: Jul 14, 2014
  • Length: 09:20
  • Purchases: 4
Ping-Pong Diplomacy
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: BackStory with the American History Guys: Favorites
Piece image
Producer Bruce Wallace explains how ping-pong helped to thaw U.S.- China relations during the 1970s, while remaining a potent field for propaganda ...

Bought by WOUB, KFAI Minneapolis, and PRX Remix


  • Added: Jul 14, 2014
  • Length: 11:14
  • Purchases: 3
International Pressures, Domestic Pain
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: BackStory with the American History Guys: Favorites
Piece image
Producer Kelly Jones and archivist Jane Tuttle bring us the story of trailblazer Lucile Godbold’s participation in international athletics in the 1...

Bought by New Hampshire Public Radio, KFAI Minneapolis, and PRX Remix


  • Added: Jul 14, 2014
  • Length: 06:11
  • Purchases: 3
Voices from the Oilfields
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: BackStory with the American History Guys: Favorites
Piece image
Using oral histories of early East Texas oil workers, recorded in the 1950s, we hear about the chaos and excess that accompanied the discovery of oil.

Bought by KFAI Minneapolis and PRX Remix


  • Added: Jun 02, 2014
  • Length: 05:12
  • Purchases: 2
Rockefeller’s Rose
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: BackStory with the American History Guys: Favorites
Piece image
Historian H.W. Brands talks with host Ed Ayers about John D. Rockefeller, the Standard Oil trust, and the contradictory capitalism of the Gilded Age.

Bought by WOUB, KFAI Minneapolis, and PRX Remix


  • Added: Jun 02, 2014
  • Length: 09:32
  • Purchases: 3
1973 – The Year That Changed Everything
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: BackStory with the American History Guys: Favorites
Piece image
BackStory producer Nina Earnest tells the story of the oil shocks of 1973 and how they continue to shape the world we live in today, with help from...

Bought by KUFM - Montana Public Radio, WABE, Louisville Public Media, KFAI Minneapolis, and PRX Remix


  • Added: Jun 02, 2014
  • Length: 10:11
  • Purchases: 5
Meatless Moralism
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: BackStory with the American History Guys: Favorites
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Ed sits down with historian Adam Shprintzen to discuss the 19th-century Americans who saw a vegetarian diet as a powerful tool of moral reform, one...

Bought by WOUB and KFAI Minneapolis


  • Added: May 20, 2014
  • Length: 08:45
  • Purchases: 2
Calming the System
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: BackStory with the American History Guys: Favorites
Piece image
Host Ed Ayers talks with English professor Kyla Wazana Tompkins about the austere diet created by Sylvester Graham, designed to ward off a new kind...

  • Added: May 20, 2014
  • Length: 10:09
A Political Diet Plan
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: BackStory with the American History Guys: Favorites
Piece image
Host Brian Balogh talks with food journalist Marian Burros about the US Senate’s attempt to encourage healthy eating in the 1970s, and the pushback...

Bought by WOUB and KFAI Minneapolis


  • Added: May 20, 2014
  • Length: 07:41
  • Purchases: 2
The Mother behind Mothers’ Day
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: BackStory with the American History Guys: Favorites
Piece image
Producer Nate DiMeo tells the story of Anna Jarvis and the history of Mother’s Day.

Bought by RadioStPete Florida, RadioStPete Florida, WSGE, Cove Mountain Educational Broadcasting, WUTC and more


  • Added: May 13, 2014
  • Length: 06:04
  • Purchases: 12
Liberty in Liberia?
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: BackStory with the American History Guys: Favorites
Piece image
The American History Guys discuss the Liberian experiment – a project to build a perfect community for free blacks, outside the United States. The ...

Bought by KFAI Minneapolis and PRX Remix


  • Added: May 06, 2014
  • Length: 07:24
  • Purchases: 2
Harlem in Montmartre
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: BackStory with the American History Guys: Favorites
Piece image
BackStory producer Chioke I’Anson tells the story of Eugene Bullard, the first African-American fighter pilot in World War I – only he flew for Fra...

Bought by WABE, KFAI Minneapolis, and PRX Remix


  • Added: May 06, 2014
  • Length: 06:23
  • Purchases: 3
A (Red) Star is Born
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: BackStory with the American History Guys: Favorites
Piece image
Sergei Khrushchev and writer Peter Carlson tell us about a moment of levity during Russian Premier Nikita Khrushchev’s visit to the United States i...

Bought by KFAI Minneapolis and PRX Remix


  • Added: Apr 29, 2014
  • Length: 06:19
  • Purchases: 2
The Destinies of Half the World
From: BackStory with the American History Guys
Series: BackStory with the American History Guys: Favorites
Piece image
The American History Guys discuss Alexis de Tocqueville’s 1830s prediction that the US and Russia would become dominant world powers, and probe why...

  • Added: Apr 29, 2014
  • Length: 07:57