History: Beyond the Textbook
History: Beyond the Textbook examines American history through the experiences of those who lived it! Each 12-episode season, high school history teacher Alex Mattke covers a separate era of American history and features perspectives on well-known events and lesser-known experiences of famous historical figures. Season Three, covering "America's Crucial Years," returns on October 8 with new episodes every Tuesday up until the finale on December 24! Catch up on Seasons One (America's Colonial Era) and Two (America's Revolution) wherever you listen to podcasts.
Feel free to contact us with feedback and other questions at: hbttpodcast@gmail.com.
Episodes
36 episodes
3.12: Benjamin Banneker: Unsung Renaissance Man of America’s Crucial Years
It was a decision that came about during a dinner party…allegedly. Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson invited Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton, along with Congressman James Madison, to his quarters in New York City for an eve...
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Season 3
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Episode 12
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27:42
3.11: Sally and James Hemings, and Shifting Dymanics of American Slavery
Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello was his home, his castle, and in a way, his personal fiefdom: he had legal control over the happenings at this place, over the lives of its inhabitants. This included the hundreds of individuals who ...
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Season 3
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Episode 11
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31:10
3.10: Charles Willson Peale and William Hill Brown: the Curator and the Novelist of America’s Crucial Years
“Culture.” It’s a word that means something different depending on who you ask; to some, it means an element that is “popular” and can serve as a common frame of reference for a large group of people. To others, “culture” refers to ...
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Season 3
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Episode 10
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31:01
3.9: Mercy Otis Warren and Patrick Henry: Anti-Federalist Antagonists of Constitutional Ratification
It’s tough to say what most history classrooms emphasize when they cover Constitutional ratification, but our focus will be on its opponents...those individuals who heard about, and often read the results, of what happened in ...
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27:53
3.8: Roger Sherman and George Mason: Self-Educated Sages of the Constitutional Convention
The first formal meeting to reassess the Articles of Confederation was held in Annapolis, Maryland in September 1786, at about the same time as Shays’ Rebellion. Only five states bothered to send any delegates, and there was real...
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Season 3
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Episode 8
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26:22
3.7: The Farmer and the Fighter: Daniel Shays, Benjamin Lincoln, and the Importance of Shays' Rebellion
What became known as “Shays' Rebellion” was put down by force, but it opened the eyes of many to the reality that the current government was not working, and it has been used as an anecdote for why the Articles of Confederation were su...
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Season 3
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Episode 7
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26:21
3.6: Contrasting Tales of Settlement: Blue Jacket and Rufus Putnam in the Northwest Territory
We’ll focus on the American Midwest with this episode: specifically, the areas affected by the Northwest Ordinance of 1787. These fertile lands north of the Ohio River and east of the Mississippi River were considered ripe for American se...
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Season 3
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Episode 6
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30:42
3.5: Alexander McGillivray and the U.S.-Creek Treaty of 1790
The Peace of Paris would certainly anger and frustrate the many nations who held the lands that were supposedly now in American possession, and one of the most prominent was the Creek. The Creek stand out due to the efforts of their de fa...
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Season 3
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Episode 5
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28:40
3.4: Franciscan Father-President: Fray Junipero Serra and Alta California
Its 1769, and Spain is renewing their efforts to colonize what they called “Alta California” on the Pacific Coast. Leading the push was Fray Junipero Serra, a Franciscan whose efforts to spread the Catholic faith would earn him the title ...
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Season 3
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Episode 4
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27:15
3.3: John Jay, and the failure of American Foreign Policy
John Jay was a member of both Continental Congresses, served as ambassador to Spain during the later years of the American Revolution, helped negotiate the Peace of Paris that ended that war, authored a series of essays that became collectively...
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Season 3
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Episode 3
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26:31
3.2: The First Financier: Robert Morris and the Bank of North America
He was one of the wealthiest men in the colonies, so by extension, the United States of America. Foreign-born to unwed parents, he had the reputation of being a financial wizard who understood commerce, markets, and how to maximize profit...
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Season 3
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Episode 2
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25:46
3.1: John Dickinson, Architect of the Articles of Confederation
It's 1783, and military mutinies are intermittently breaking out across the United States. This, and other, issues stem from problems with the first official “national” government of the United States: the Articles of Confederation,...
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Season 3
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Episode 1
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26:15
2.12: King George III, Enlightened Monarch of the American Revolution
He’s the man responsible for the loss of Britain’s North American colonies, and a cruel, despotic monarch at that…these are both perceptions of King George III, and it’s realistically how many Americans learn about Britain’s king at the time of...
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Season 2
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Episode 12
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28:15
2.11: The Officer and the Commoner: Lord Cornwallis and Joseph Plumb Martin at the Battle of Yorktown
It was the last significant battle of the American Revolution, although this couldn’t have been predicted at the time. The Americans, British, and the French felt that 1781 was a "now or never" year for the Revolution, and that s...
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Season 2
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Episode 11
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31:09
2.10: Banastre Tarleton and England's "Southern Strategy"
Much of the history of the American Revolution focuses on actions in what was called the “Northern” theater, and to a degree, this makes sense: given the outsized role Massachusetts played in the pre-war years and the early years of combat.&nbs...
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Season 2
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Episode 10
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30:33
2.9: Martha Washington, the Oneidas, and the Winter at Valley Forge
Those present at the winter at Valley Forge in 1777-1778 included a veritable “who’s who” of future American political leadership, such as George Washington, Henry Knox, and Alexander Hamilton. Prominent names are usually associated...
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Season 2
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Episode 9
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29:37
2.8: Dueling Bens: Arnold, Franklin, and the Turning Point at Saratoga
One man was all-in for independence dating back to the years before the first shots at Lexington and Concord, while the other held out hope for a moderate solution and was even accused of holding sympathies to the British cause. One is Be...
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Season 2
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Episode 8
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30:32
2.7: Joseph Brant: Mohawk Loyalist of New York's Frontier
He sided with the British in the American Revolution, and successfully convinced many of his countrymen to do so. The education he received at the hands of Eleazar Wheelock allowed him to understand colonial culture, while his upbringing ...
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Season 2
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Episode 7
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29:34
2.6: A Most Radical Writer: Thomas Paine, and the stunning victory at Trenton
He arrived in North American in December 1774 with a fever so devastating that he needed to be carried ashore. This man also carried with him letters of introduction from none other than Dr. Benjamin Franklin, so there must have been
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Season 2
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Episode 6
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29:57
2.5: Revolutionary Power Couple: John and Abigail Adams and the Declaration of Independence
He was a lawyer who would devote his life to public service; she was an independent woman who would devote her life to her family and supporting her husband's political efforts, both in spirit and in practice. Both of them would come to s...
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Season 2
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Episode 5
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29:32
2.4: Patriot Physician: Dr. Joseph Warren and the Battle of Bunker Hill
He was a local man who became a well-respected physician, treating all members of Boston society, Patriot and Loyalist alike. However, his personal sympathies lay with the growing movement that would push towards full independence from Gr...
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Season 2
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Episode 4
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28:45
2.3: Poet of the Revolution: Phillis Wheatly and American Freedom
She arrived in Boston in the 1760's, was purchased by the wealthy Wheatly family, and went on to become a published, not to mention, accomplished, poet. She enjoyed an up-close view of the key events leading up to the American Re...
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Season 2
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Episode 3
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28:36
2.2: The Guiding Hand: Samuel Adams and the Boston Tea Party
A name most likely associated with a beer company, what role did Samuel Adams really play in fermenting opposition to British policies prior to the American Revolution? His role is usually relegated to the shadows, but he became such an i...
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Season 2
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Episode 2
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28:57
2.1: The Prominent Pre-Revolution Loyalist: Thomas Hutchinson and the Stamp Act
Now known as the prototypical Loyalist, it wasn't always this way...Thomas Hutchinson was one of the most well-known men in Boston when the French and Indian War ended. He had a successful career as a merchant and a public servant, with a...
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Season 2
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Episode 1
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34:38
1.12: Pontiac and the war against British Imperialism
He led his forces against the mighty British military, captured their forts, forced them to surrender...and ultimately lost the war that bears his name. Odawa Chief Pontiac, an Anishinaabeg of the western Great Lakes, fought a war against...
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Season 1
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Episode 12
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34:45