Ben Franklin's World

Lauren Duvall, assistant professor of history at the University of Oklahoma and author of The Home Front, examines civilian life under British occupation during the Revolution. Short scenes show women negotiating quartering, households coping with officers, disruptions to urban labor, and enslaved people seeking freedom amid chaos. The conversation moves from city routines to how occupation reshaped daily life and memory.

Garrett Cloer, a National Park Service historian who specializes in Revolutionary-era sites, guides listeners through the Longfellow House's dual lives. He discusses its Loyalist origins, Washington's nine-month headquarters during the Siege of Boston, daily life inside the command center, and how Henry Wadsworth Longfellow later turned it into a literary landmark. Short tours, gardens, and preservation stories round out the conversation.

Matthew Cagle, curator and historian at Fort Ticonderoga with a PhD in material culture studies, guides a brisk tour of the fort's French origins and its role in 18th-century warfare. He traces the chaotic 1775 capture, the logistics of hauling sixty tons of artillery through winter, and how those guns forced the British from Boston. Visit and research resources are also highlighted.

Jeanne Sheehan Zaino, political scientist focused on democratic institutions; Nicole Mahoney, public historian of Thomas Paine and early America; Leanne O'Boyle, founder of the Thomas Paine Legacy at Bull House. They explore Paine’s afterlife, democracy’s “day two problem,” local civic experiments in Lewes, women’s roles around Common Sense, protest language like “the law is king,” and how places shape democratic ideas.

Shirley Green, an adjunct history professor and author who traces freeborn Black soldiers through genealogical research, tells the story of William and Benjamin Frank. She explores why free men of color enlisted, daily life and combat in integrated regiments, how the Revolution split families, and one brother’s path to Nova Scotia as a Black Loyalist.

Judith Van Buskirk, Professor Emerita and author who reconstructs African American Revolutionary lives. She discusses why 5,000–7,000 Black men enlisted, shifting Continental Army policies on Black service, vivid pension-story sources, the First Rhode Island Regiment, and veterans’ postwar struggles and legacies.

Ronald Angelo Johnson, historian and Baylor chair who studies early America and Haiti, connects the American and Haitian revolutions. He traces 1763's Atlantic shifts, Saint-Domingue’s social upheavals, French strategy, and the 1779 arrival of Black Chasseurs in Georgia. Short, sharp stories reveal how revolutions circulated across the Atlantic and reshaped each other.

Mike Duncan, podcaster and author known for Revolutions, offers a concise mini bio and deep knowledge of Lafayette. The conversation traces Lafayette’s leap to America, his bond with Washington, and how American lessons shaped his role in France. It highlights his military learning, political ideals, and cross-Atlantic influence during the Age of Revolutions.

John Ferling, historian and professor emeritus of the American Revolution, walks through how European rivalry reshaped the war. France’s secret aid, the shift after Saratoga, and the naval buildup that made Yorktown possible. Spain’s strategic entry and wider European loans also prolonged the struggle. The conversation focuses on diplomacy, military coordination, and the global stakes that decided independence.

Robert Parkinson, an Assistant Professor of History at Binghamton University and author of *The Common Cause*, dives into how Revolutionary leaders united thirteen diverse colonies into a shared identity. He discusses the evolution of the 'Common Cause,' emphasizing how early propaganda shifted from positive to fear-based wartime messaging. Parkinson reveals the role of newspapers in spreading these narratives, often leaning on race and exclusion, and assesses their long-term impact on American perceptions of race and national identity.