All Episodes
The Way of Improvement Leads Home: American History, Religion, Politics, and Academic life. — 140 episodes
BONUS EPISODE: American Evangelicals: A History Podcast
Episode 136: America's Greatest Post-President
Episode 135: The Suburbanization of American Catholicism
Episode 134: Non-Boring History
Episode 133: Thinking as Pilgrimage
Episode 132: Why Do People Hate White Liberals?
Episode 131: Karl Marx in America
Episode 130: Hamilton vs. Jefferson in History and Memory
Episode 129: The American Revolution as a World War
Episode 128: Beecherism
Episode 127: Phillis Wheatley: A Black Evangelical Poet in Revolutionary America
Episode 126: Christianity and Big Time Sports in Modern America
Episode 125: Black Evangelicals in American History
Episode 124: Christian Capitalism in Early America
Episode 123: Drew Gilpin Faust on Growing-Up at Midcentury
Episode 122: The Metropolitan Sound of the American Century
Episode 121: Reagan's Evangelical Vision for America
Episode 120: Popular Historians in Post-War America
Episode 119: How the Social Gospel Undermined Social Democracy
Episode 118: Evangelicals and the Environment
Episode 117: The Idea of Fraternity in America
Episode 116: Historical Thinking for a Democracy
Episode 115: Evangelicalism: Its Metaphors and Stories
Episode 114: How Slavery Helped Grow the American Catholic Church
Episode 113: The "Jesus Revolution"
Episode 112: The Search for God in a New York Publishing House
Episode 111: The Evangelical Battle Over the End Times
Episode 110: "How Black Ball Saved the Soul of the NBA"
Episode 109: The Voice and Faith of Sojourner Truth
Episode 108: The Life and Legacy of C. Vann Woodward
Episode 107: The Politics of Smallpox in Revolutionary America
Episode 106: Bruce Springsteen's "Long Walk Home"
Episode 105: "Heathenism" in America
Episode 104: The Roots of American Public Education
Episode 103: Spiritual Socialists
Episode 102: The Ghosts of Colonial Williamsburg
Episode 101: "Exhibiting Evangelicalism"
Episode 100: Christian Historians as Activists?
Episode 99: Historicizing the Search for Roots
Episode 98: Conversions: Spiritual and Political
Episode 97: In Search of George Washington's Hair
Episode 96: Thinking Historically about the Russian Invasion of Ukraine
Episode 95: The Lost Promise of American Universities
Episode 94: Gettysburg, 1963
Episode 93: A Story of Faith and Conspiracy in Revolutionary America
Episode 92: Original Sin and the History of American Democracy
Episode 91: Providential History and the Pacific Northwest
Episode 90: "The Gospel According to Charles Lindbergh"
Episode 89: The Heretical John C. Calhoun
Episode 88: History Education on the Great Plains
Episode 87: Religion and the American Revolution
Episode 86: A Conversation with Eric Miller, Editor of Current
Episode 85: Reckoning with Confederate Monuments
Episode 84: "How 'Biblical Womanhood' Became Gospel Truth'"
Episode 83: Celebrity in the Early American Republic
Episode 82: The Fastest Game in the World
Episode 81: God's Law and Order
Episode 80: How Alternative Media Broke Our Democracy
Episode 79: John Foster Dulles and the Cold War Protestant Left
Episode 78: "How a 1630 Sermon Shaped American Exceptionalism"
Episode 77: The Art of Living
Episode 76: Howard Thurman: Theologian, Mystic, Activist
Episode 75: The Jefferson Bible
Episode 74: An Independent Woman in Revolutionary America
Episode 73: Cowboy Evangelicalism
Episode 72: Andrew Jackson, Donald Trump, and the Upending of SHEAR
Episode 71: Writing History for Young Readers
Episode 70: Systemic Racism
Episode 69: Be Like Mike?
Episode 68: The History of the Presidential Cabinet
Episode 67: Exploring the History of Childhood and Play Through 50 Historic Treasures
Episode 66: The Boston Massacre
Episode 65: "What Would Lasch Say?"
Episode 64: Protestants and American Conservatism
Episode 63: The 1619 Project
Episode 62: Drew's Farewell
Episode 61 - Impeachment 101
Episode 60 - Springsteen's Hometown
Episode 59: Miss America's God
Episode 58: The Reverse Underground Railroad
Episode 57: Not Your Father's Military History
Episode 56: Evangelicals and Oil
Episode 55: The History of "Free Enterprise"
Episode 54: Why College?
Episode 53: When Musicians Study American History
Episode 52: History for the iPhone Generation
Episode 51: Temples of the Marketplace
Episode 50: The Religious Beliefs of the Adams Family
Episode 49: Why is America So Divided?
Episode 48: The Color of Compromise
Episode 47: Reacting to the Past
Episode 46: Elizabeth Warren and American Indian Identity
Episode 45: A City Upon a Hill
Episode 44: History for Gamers
Episode 43: Reconciling the Church and Slavery
Episode 42: An American Saint
Episode 41: Populism
Episode 40: Sportianity
Episode 39: Returning to Charlottesville
Bonus Episode: *Believe Me* Book Launch
Bonus Episode: Live at Messiah College Educator's Day
Episode 38: Jesus Is the Rock That Rolls My Blues Away
Episode 37: Should You Go to Grad School?
Episode 36: The 18th-Century Atlantic World
Episode 35: Global Hockey
Episode 34: Twitterstorians
Episode 33: The Power of Sport
Episode 32: The Politics of Sex
Episode 31: Searching for Christian America in a Boston High School
Episode 30: The Evangelicals
Episode 29: Libertarianism and Democracy
Episode 28: That Memphis Sound
Episode 27: From Mount Vernon to Mar-a-Lago
Episode 26: The Way of Improvement Returns to the Classroom
Episode 25: Thinking Historically About Charlottesville
Episode 24: The Way of Improvement Leads to Ben Franklin’s World
Episode 23: Giving in America
Episode 22: The History of American Healthcare
Episode 21: Why We Need More Historians in the Silicon Valley
Episode 20: La Vida Baseball
Episode 19: American Prophets
Episode 18: The Way of Improvement Leads Abroad?
Episode 17: The Way of Improvement Leads to Mount Vernon
Episode 16: Abolitionism
Episode 15: The Civil War
Episode 14: 107 Years in the Making
Episode 13: Finally, it’s Election Day
Episode 12: How to be a Historian in Public
Episode 11: Biography: an Appraisal
Episode 10: On Historical Reenacting
Episode 9: Baby, We Were Born to Run (Home)
Episode 8: All Things Jefferson
Episode 7: The Way of Improvement Leads to the Ballpark
Episode 6: Narrating the Past
Episode 5: Encountering the Past
Episode 4: Teaching History (K-12 Edition)
Episode 3: Thinking Politically Historically
Episode 2: The Culture Wars
Episode 1: Everything has a History
Episode 0: An Introduction