Cambridge American History Seminar Podcast

Lent term is whizzing by- here's the fourth episode of term! Dr Andrew Hartman, a professor of history at Illinois State University and the founding president of the Society for U.S. Intellectual History, talks to PhD student Richard Saich about his paper and broader work. Dr Hartman's paper, titled 'Karl Marx and the Cycles of American Capitalism', deals with the uses of Marxian thought in the American context from the nineteenth century to the present day. He and Richard discuss the uniquely American historical applications and debates surrounding Marx and his ideas, as well as the continuing relevance of Marxism in contemporary political debate on both sides of the Atlantic. They also touch on, among other things, American Exceptionalism, the role of historians in public life, and(finally!)the podcast's first metalhead. Be sure to listen to Andrew and Ray Haberski's fantastic podcast, Trotsky and the Wild Orchids. Their latest episode, on the work and legacies of Eric Hobsbawm is a real treat to listen to, but there's a lot of gems in the back catalogue too! Feel free to get in touch via @camericanist on Twitter or [email protected] if you have any questions, suggestions or feedback for the future. Spread the word, and thanks for listening! See you next week!

Guess who's back! It's the first Cambridge American History Seminar Podcast of 2019, and a great one to start the year with! Naomi Lamoreaux, the visiting Pitt Professor of American History and Institutions at the University of Cambridge, and the Stanley B. Resor Professor of Economics and History at Yale University, talks to Lewis Defrates about her paper 'Monopolies in U.S. History: From Standard Oil to Google'. Touching on historical debates going back to the 19th century, the paper explores the changing politics and policy around regulating monopolies and anticompetitive business practice in the United States right up to the current day. We talk about the role of 'innovation' in mediating antitrust behaviour, from the meatpacking industry to Google, and the impact of these authorities on the economy in the years since the days of Standard Oil. We also touched on answering different questions for economists and historians, being influenced Robert Post's work on the problem of prohibition in the Supreme Court, and jazz! Feel free to get in touch via @camericanist on Twitter or [email protected] if you have any questions, suggestions or feedback for the future. Spread the word, and thanks for listening!

In the sixth episode of the Cambridge American History Seminar Podcast, Sarah Knott of Indiana University and the Rothermere Institute, University of Oxford, speaks to Lewis Defrates about her paper 'Mother is a Verb: British and North American Histories Since the Seventeenth Century'. We discuss her use of personal and historical anecdote, the challenges of writing a longue durée history of motherhood that is 'bodily, not biological' and the connections between this project and her previous work on Sensibility in the American Revolution. We also briefly talk about historians memoirs and Swedish hip-hop. 'Mother is a Verb' will be published by Macmillan in the US and by Viking in the UK as 'Mother: An Unconventional History' in Spring 2019. Feel free to get in touch via @camericanist on Twitter or [email protected] if you have any questions, suggestions or feedback for the future. Spread the word, and thanks for listening!

Fourth episode of the Cambridge American History Seminar podcast incoming! Lewis Defrates talks to Katherine Carté of Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. We talk about the paper Kate gave at CAHS, entitled 'Religion Transformed', and the paper's broader place in her ongoing project on transnational 'Imperial Protestant' networks both before and after the American Revolution. We also talk about fracture in the Atlantic World, historical uses of 'nation' and Peter Gabriel. Apologies about the intermittent vibrations on the audio- it won't happen again! Also sorry for the audio clipping that happens at some point- if you know more about these kind of things please get in touch as I'm still a novice when it comes to audio Feel free to get in touch via @camericanist on Twitter or [email protected] if you have any questions, suggestions or feedback for the future. Spread the word, and thanks for listening!

Back again after a long break, it's the podcast with the catchiest title and the freshest insights into some of the most exciting work in the field of American history. The Cambridge American History Seminar Podcast has returned for the 2019-20 academic year! In our first seminar of the year, Dr Noam Maggor (Queen Mary, University of London) and Professor Stefan Link (Dartmouth College) talk to Cambridge PhD student R.M Bates about their paper 'The United States as a Developing Nation: Revisiting the Peculiarities of American History'. They discuss the existing literature on the America's economic development in the second half and first half of the twentieth century, the importance of explaining the atypicality of this story without falling into exceptionalist potholes, and the usefulness of an existing literature on East Asian developmental states in reconfiguring our understanding of this period in American history. Of particular interest to the two is the emergence of the automobile industry in Southeast Michigan in the late nineteenth century. They also touch on the process of writing collaboratively, the influence of the 'New History of Capitalism', and the benefits of doing your research in what might be seen as less exciting places. If you have any questions, suggestions or feedback, get in touch via @camericanist on Twitter or [email protected]. Spread the word, and thanks for listening! See you next week! Schedule for the Cambridge American History Seminar- https://www.hist.cam.ac.uk/seminars/american-history-seminar