The Way of Improvement Leads Home: American History, Religion, Politics, and Academic life.

Dec 11 2023 127 ep. 975
The Way of Improvement Leads Home: American History, Religion, Politics, and Academic life. Podcast artwork

A biweekly discussion dedicated to American History, historical thinking, and the role of history in our every day lives. Hosted by historian John Fea

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Episode 124: Christian Capitalism in Early America

Dec 11 2023 54 mins  
In this episode we talk with Wesleyan University historian Joseph Slaughter, author of Faith in Markets: Christian Capitalism in Early America. He offers a new account of the interplay between religion and capitalism in early American history by focusing on 19th-century Protestant entrepreneurs and how they infused faith into their business and, in turn, how those businesses shaped

Episode 123: Drew Gilpin Faust on Growing-Up at Midcentury

Dec 03 2023 44 mins  
She was a privileged baby boomer who grew up on a horse farm in segregated Virginia. By her 21st birthday she had worked for peace in Communist Europe, traveled the country in the cause of racial justice, marched for voting rights in Selma, and led anti-Vietnam protests at Bryn Mawr College. Our guest in this episode is distinguished American historian and former Harvard University

Episode 122: The Metropolitan Sound of the American Century

Nov 06 2023 52 mins  
In his new book Bridge & Tunnel Boys, historian Jim Cullen discusses how Billy Joel and Bruce Springsteen represented what he calls "the metropolitan sound of the American century." In this episode of the podcast, we talk with Cullen about how Joel and Springsteen were shaped by their lives on the periphery of New York City. Our conversation ranges across several subjects, includin

Episode 121: Reagan's Evangelical Vision for America

Oct 29 2023 54 mins  
How did Ronald Reagan use the media to shape his evangelical vision for America, a vision rooted in political freedom, economic freedom, and religious freedom that is still with us today and continues to define the discourse of both of our political parties? In this episode we talk to Diane Winston, the Knight Chair in Media and Religion at the University of Southern California, ab

Episode 120: Popular Historians in Post-War America

Oct 15 2023 63 mins  
Should professional historians write for the general public? If so, who is the "public" they are trying to reach? And when historians do write for the public how do they manage to make their work readable and accessible without sacrificing scholarly integrity? What role does politics, and even activism, play in popular history writing? These are questions that the historical profes

Episode 119: How the Social Gospel Undermined Social Democracy

Oct 08 2023 58 mins  
There was a profound difference between Christian Socialism and the so-called "Social Gospel." Janine Giordano Drake explains these differences in her new book The Gospel of Church: How Mainline Protestants Vilified Christian Socialism and Fractured the Labor Movement. Drake argues that Protestant reformers associated with Mainline Protestantism and the Federal Council of Churches

Episode 118: Evangelicals and the Environment

Oct 01 2023 57 mins  
Most Americans probably think of conservative evangelicals as climate change deniers who believe global warming is a hoax. If this is you, you would not be entirely wrong. But our guest today, Neill Pogue, author of The Nature of the Religious Right: The Struggle Between Conservative Evangelicals and the Environmental Movement, suggests that this story is much more complicated. We

Episode 117: The Idea of Fraternity in America

Sep 24 2023 50 mins  
What is fraternity? Our guest today, political scientist Susan McWilliams Barndt, discusses her father's 1973 magnum opus The Idea of Fraternity in America. We talk about the work of Wilson Carey McWilliams, the historical context in which he wrote his magisterial work of political theory and history, and why we still need his ideas today. The Idea of Fraternity was just re-release

Episode 116: Historical Thinking for a Democracy

Aug 21 2023 51 mins  
If you've listened to this podcast over the years you know that we champion "historical thinking" as one of our best hopes for sustaining and preserving American democratic life. In this episode we talk with Zachary Cote, the Executive Director of THINKING NATION, a non-profit organization devoted to helping K-12 social studies students mature into citizens who are empowered to ana

Episode 115: Evangelicalism: Its Metaphors and Stories

Aug 13 2023 48 mins  
What is American evangelicalism? In her new book The Evangelical Imagination, Karen Swallow Prior, one of the most careful observers of, and participants in, evangelical life, analyses the literature, art, and popular culture that has surrounded the movement and unpacks some of its most deeply held concepts, ideas, values, and practices. Our conversation revolves around topics such