Historically Thinking

We believe that when people think historically, they are engaging in a disciplined way of thinking about the world and its past. We believe it gives thinkers a knack for recognizing nonsense; and that it cultivates not only intellectual curiosity and rigo

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Recent Episodes

Episode 294: Black Suffrage

Posted November 21, 202200:54:38

On April 11, 1865, Abraham Lincoln addressed a crowd gathered outside the White House. He spoke not of recent  victories, or those to come, but to...

Episode 293: Brilliant Commodity

Posted November 14, 202200:57:17

At the end of the 19th century, Amsterdam was home to nearly seventy diamond factories, in which were 7,500 steam-powered polishing mills. The workers...

Episode 292: Mutiny!

Posted November 7, 202201:02:57

It is perhaps the greatest scandal and sea-story of the first half of 19th Century America that nearly everyone has forgotten. It led to a court martial,...

Episode 291: True Blue

Posted October 31, 202201:04:26

In late November, 1864, David R. Snelling visited his uncle, who then lived in Baldwin County near Milledgeville, Georgia. As a boy, he had worked in...

Episode 290: Oh, Dakota!

Posted October 27, 202200:53:14

My guest today is Dr. Ben Jones, Director of the South Dakota State Historical Society and the South Dakota State Historian.  Ben Jones served for...