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
48 episodes
4.12: The Conscious Campaigner: Aaron Burr and the “Revolutionary” Election of 1800
Every four years, the United States holds a presidential election, and the Electoral College selects the next president. 1800 was no different, although the result certainly was different than the previous three: for the first ti...
4.11: Benjamin Franklin Bache and Thomas Jefferson: The Republican Renegades of the Alien and Sedition Acts
There are a few moments in American history where it appeared at the time, and even more so in hindsight, where laws were passed that stunted individual American rights in the name of national security. The first of these laws we...
4.10: Elbridge Gerry and Dr. George Logan: Polarizing Politicians of the XYZ Affair
As John Adams claimed the presidency, “France” was the nation that lay on the minds of most Americans, and these problems would lead to hostile actions towards American shipping and an event known as the “XYZ Affair.” Two contrasting tech...
4.9: Olaudah Equiano and James Monroe: the Author and Governor of early American Abolition
The idea of immediately ending slavery was viewed as unconstitutional since it was never explicitly mentioned in the document that came out of the Philadelphia Convention, and the legal ramifications extended to compensation since, by ...
4.8: Eli Whitney, the Cotton Gin, and the foundations of American Industry
Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin in the 1790’s, and the previously laborious process of separating cotton seeds by hand was now mechanized, and thus, more efficient. Admittedly, the previous statement is a bit of an oversimplification…...
4.7: Dr. Rush, the Free African Society, and Philadelphia's Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793
Yellow fever devastated the nation’s capital of Philadelphia in 1793…hardly a center known for its tropical climate, but the disease nevertheless proved deadly. Our focus today is placed on one individual, and one group: one was ...
4.6: His Own Man: Toussaint Louverture, Indispensable Leader of the Haitian Revolution
The struggles of Haiti go back talking hundreds of years, from when French colonization and their participation in the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade reshaped the fabric of the western half of the island on which Haiti is located. Th...
4.5: Kamehameha The Great and the Unification of the Hawai'ian Islands
Unfortunately, in your typical U.S History course, Hawai’i probably enters the narrative during a unit on imperialism, where Queen Lili’uokalani was forced into surrendering the throne and James Dole’s company established a fruit empire. ...
4.4: Little Turtle, the “Mad” General, and the Battle of Fallen Timbers
Conflict between Indigenous tribes and nations and European, and later, American, settlers, is a consistent theme throughout American history, and we’ve certainly covered our fair share on the podcast. The aftermath of St. Clair'...
4.3: John Trumbull and James Madison: The Artist and Antagonist of Jay’s Treaty
One was the preeminent politician of his time who helped shape that America we have today, well-versed in history, philosophy, and political theory. The other is mainly known as a painter, but an influential one at that. So what do ...
4.2: Marquis de Lafayette and the French Revolution
It was an event that we as a nation helped inspire and was seen as an extension, maybe even a culmination, of the application of Enlightenment ideals to an entire nation. But while the American Revolution center...
4.1: Alexander Hamilton: The First Bank of the United States and the Whiskey Rebellion
Borrowing a host of ideas from his elder financier Robert Morris, Alexander Hamilton would accept the position of Secretary of the Treasury and metaphorically hit the ground running. He issued four reports on the state of the American eco...
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...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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 ...
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...
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...
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,...
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...