In 1764, the Bostonian Samuel Adams railed against Parliament's new Sugar Act. The law actually lowered the customs duties that Americans paid on their imported sugar and molasses, but to Adams and others, it was a form of taxation without representation. By submitting to Parliament's will, Adams asked, "are we not reduced from the character of free subjects to the miserable state of tributary slaves?"

To our modern ears, Adams's words smack of hypocrisy. How could free Americans justify comparing themselves to slaves when many colonists held fellow human beings in bondage? Or, as the Englishman Dr. Samuel Johnson would ask in 1775, "how is it that we hear the loudest yelps for liberty among the drivers of negroes?" But as both sides knew, the politics of slavery were as powerful as slavery itself. For more than a century, British subjects throughout the Atlantic world had used the blurred lines between freedom and unfreedom to claim the moral high ground over their political opponents. And as a dispute over taxes erupted into the American Revolution, the politics of slavery and the prospect of abolition raised fundamental questions about the very meaning of the revolution itself.

In this episode, Dr. Jim Ambuske is joined by Dr. Matthew Mason to discuss his recent book, Seeking the High Ground: Slavery and Political Conflict in the British Atlantic World.

Hosted by Dr. Jim Ambuske. Executive producers are Dr. Lynn Price Robbins, Jeanette Patrick, and Patrick Long. Audio and video editing by Patrick Long. Revolutions in Retrospect is a joint production of Primary Source Media and Revolutionary Histories.

For modern Americans, age is a prime factor in many milestones: learning how to drive, voting for the first time, and legally consuming alcohol. Using age as a standard for laws began in the founding era. Despite many advancements in the understanding of human development, it has largely remained unchanged since.

And while we might think of these age-based laws as safeguards for children, they were in fact developed with the goal of better controlling them. Is it time that such laws, both civil and criminal, were updated for modern society?

In this episode, Dr. Lynn Price Robbins is joined by Dr. Holly White to discuss her new book, Constructing American Childhood: Age-Based Laws and the Illusion of Protection in the Early United States.

Hosted by Dr. Lynn Price Robbins. Executive producers are Dr. Jim Ambuske, Jeanette Patrick, and Patrick Long. Audio and video editing by Patrick Long. Revolutions in Retrospect is a joint production of Primary Source Media and Revolutionary Histories.

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." So begins the preamble to the Declaration of Independence. In our own time, these words are part of the American Creed, the most important part of a document that set a new nation on its revolutionary course. But to Thomas Jefferson and the men who wrote the Declaration in the summer of 1776, these stirring words were but window dressing to the charges levelled against the men who they held responsible for a civil war and had made independence necessary.

In that moment, no part of the Declaration mattered more to them than the list of 27 grievances directed at King George III, a series of indictments that accused the monarch of betraying his British American subjects. Yet, more than just the king lurked behind each count. He alone could not "impose Taxes on us without our Consent" nor have "plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people" without help from a gallery of tyrants and rogues. Names like Gage, Hutchinson, Tryon, or Duggingston may not appear in the Declaration, and they may be obscure to us, but to Jefferson and other British Americans, their presence was self-evident.

In this episode, Dr. Jim Ambuske is joined by Dr. Robert Parkinson to discuss his new book, Tyrants and Rogues: Understanding the Declaration of Independence.

Hosted by Dr. Jim Ambuske. Executive producers are Dr. Lynn Price Robbins, Jeanette Patrick, and Patrick Long. Audio and video editing by Patrick Long. Revolutions in Retrospect is a joint production of Primary Source Media and Revolutionary Histories.

We know the stories of the Founding Fathers and the drafting of the Declaration of Independence — but what about the people who learned about it days, weeks, or even months later across the colonies and around the world?

Tracing the Declaration's journey—from broadsides and public readings to censored London printings—reveals how diverse audiences such as printers, Anglican ministers, Indigenous nations, enslaved people, and everyday colonists encountered, translated, and reacted to the Declaration when it was still news, and not yet the sacred historical text that we consider it today. Dr. Lynn Price Robbins is joined by Dr. Emily Sneff to discuss her new book, When the Declaration of Independence was News.

Hosted by Dr. Lynn Price Robbins. Executive producers are Dr. Jim Ambuske, Jeanette Patrick, and Patrick Long. Audio and video editing by Patrick Long. Revolutions in Retrospect is a joint production of Primary Source Media and Revolutionary Histories.

Sir James Wright very much had Georgia on his mind. The colony's last royal governor envisioned a bright future for one of British America's youngest provinces, but events soon outran his imagination.

Although Georgians were slower to embrace revolution in the 1770s than fellow subjects were in Virginia or Massachusetts Bay, a delay due in no small measure to Governor Wright's power and influence, he could stem the tide only for so long. When revolution came it put the governor's own loyalty to the test. Would he stay loyal to his king, or would he defy him?

In this episode, Dr. Jim Ambuske is joined by Dr. Greg Brooking to discuss his recent book, From Empire to Revolution: Sir James Wright and the Price of Loyalty in Georgia.

Hosted by Dr. Jim Ambuske. Executive producers are Dr. Lynn Price Robbins, Jeanette Patrick, and Patrick Long. Audio and video editing by Patrick Long. Revolutions in Retrospect is a joint production of Primary Source Media and Revolutionary Histories.

In 1861, the United States fractured into civil war—but the young republic had come dangerously close to a similar breaking point decades earlier. In 1798, under President John Adams, the controversial Alien and Sedition Acts inflamed partisan tensions, prompting the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions, which nearly tore the new nation apart.

Amid this crisis, George Washington turned to an unlikely ally. Patrick Henry—the fiery orator famous for his "Give me liberty or give me death!" speech—came out of retirement at Washington's urging. Once a fierce Anti-Federalist, Henry set aside ideological differences to defend the Constitution and protect the fragile Union. This final act created a framework for loyal opposition in a republic, demonstrating that passionate disagreement need not mean disunion.

Dr. Lynn Price Robbins is joined by Dr. John Ragosta to discuss his book, For the People, For the Country: Patrick Henry's Final Political Battle.

Hosted by Dr. Lynn Price Robbins. Executive producers are Dr. Jim Ambuske, Jeanette Patrick, and Patrick Long. Audio and video editing by Patrick Long. Revolutions in Retrospect is a joint production of Primary Source Media and Revolutionary Histories.

The American Revolution is often celebrated as a glorious cause, as the period when 13 colonies defied an oppressive empire, declared independence, and created a new nation. In many retellings, the revolution is a local tale of aggrieved colonists who became disenchanted with the greedy Parliament and felt betrayed by their tyrannical king.

But what about the rest of that empire? Of the colonies in North America and the Caribbean that remained loyal to the crown, of places like Ireland, Senegal, and India that were woven into the fabric of an empire that some Americans eventually rejected.

If we take a global view of the American Revolution, do some truths become less self-evident? In this episode, Dr. Jim Ambuske is joined by Dr. Andrew O'Shaughnessy to discuss his recent book, Republic and Empire: Crisis, Revolution, and America's Early Independence.

Hosted by Dr. Jim Ambuske. Executive producers are Dr. Lynn Price Robbins, Jeanette Patrick, and Patrick Long. Audio and video editing by Patrick Long. Revolutions in Retrospect is a joint production of Primary Source Media and Revolutionary Histories.

Five women—two wives, two enslaved women, and one indentured servant—were bound by their connection to the powerful Barbados politician John Peers. Between them, Hester, Susannah, Elizabeth, Dorothy, and Frances bore at least twenty children, many conceived through coercion and violence. Yet even in a world that denied them autonomy over their own bodies, these women carved out remarkable lives for themselves and their children in both Barbados and England.

This transatlantic story explores how family and colonial power were inseparable in a world shaped by race, patriarchy, and unfreedom—and the central role women played in building an empire. While their story survives through an unusually rich archive, these women's experiences echo those of thousands of families across the early modern Atlantic world, revealing both the intimacy and the brutality at the heart of colonial society.

Dr. Lynn Price Robbins is joined by Dr. Jenny Shaw to discuss her book, The Women of Rendezvous: A Transatlantic Story of Family and Slavery.

Hosted by Dr. Lynn Price Robbins. Executive producers are Dr. Jim Ambuske, Jeanette Patrick, and Patrick Long. Audio and video editing by Patrick Long. Revolutions in Retrospect is a joint production of Primary Source Media and Revolutionary Histories.