History: Beyond the Textbook
History: Beyond the Textbook examines American history through the experiences of those who lived it! Each 12-episode season, high school history teacher Alex Mattke covers a separate era of American history and features perspectives on well-known events and lesser-known experiences of famous historical figures. Season Three, covering "America's Crucial Years," returns on October 8 with new episodes every Tuesday up until the finale on December 24! Catch up on Seasons One (America's Colonial Era) and Two (America's Revolution) wherever you listen to podcasts. Feel free to contact us with feedback and other questions at: hbttpodcast@gmail.com.
Episodes
Every four years, the United States holds a presidential election, and the Electoral College selects the next president. 1800 was no different, although the result certainly was different than the previous three: for the first time, an individual who did not hold Federalist leanings would assume the role of Chief Executive. Of the principal players in this electoral rematch, we’ve already covered the winner, Thoma...
There are a few moments in American history where it appeared at the time, and even more so in hindsight, where laws were passed that stunted individual American rights in the name of national security. The first of these laws were the Alien and Sedition Acts, passed in the late 1790’s as a response to the supposed threat that French and Irish immigrants, and potential spies, posed to the infant United States. Cur...
As John Adams claimed the presidency, “France” was the nation that lay on the minds of most Americans, and these problems would lead to hostile actions towards American shipping and an event known as the “XYZ Affair.” Two contrasting techniques were ultimately used to solve this problem, though both appear similar on the surface: negotiations were to be the order of the day, one set sanctioned by the federal govern...
The idea of immediately ending slavery was viewed as unconstitutional since it was never explicitly mentioned in the document that came out of the Philadelphia Convention, and the legal ramifications extended to compensation since, by law, these humans were the equivalent of property and slaveowners would need fair and just compensation. The time frame of this season presents two contrasting methods for ending slav...
Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin in the 1790’s, and the previously laborious process of separating cotton seeds by hand was now mechanized, and thus, more efficient. Admittedly, the previous statement is a bit of an oversimplification…but who actually invented the cotton gin? Why did the perceived need for more slaves come about due to this innovation? And how does this staple of the agrarian South, and frankl...
Yellow fever devastated the nation’s capital of Philadelphia in 1793…hardly a center known for its tropical climate, but the disease nevertheless proved deadly. Our focus today is placed on one individual, and one group: one was a Founding Father who was certain that he was correct about how to treat the disease, and the other was a society not yet one decade old whose members were tasked with assisting with the af...
The struggles of Haiti go back talking hundreds of years, from when French colonization and their participation in the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade reshaped the fabric of the western half of the island on which Haiti is located. The brutality that accompanied this system led to the most successful slave rebellion in human history: the Haitian Revolution. The institution of slavery, let alone any revolts by enslaved ...
Unfortunately, in your typical U.S History course, Hawai’i probably enters the narrative during a unit on imperialism, where Queen Lili’uokalani was forced into surrendering the throne and James Dole’s company established a fruit empire. Pearl Harbor was bombed and prompted U.S. entry into World War II…Pearl Harbor is in Hawai’i. Beyond these mentions, I would wager that not much of the rich history of Hawai’i see...
Conflict between Indigenous tribes and nations and European, and later, American, settlers, is a consistent theme throughout American history, and we’ve certainly covered our fair share on the podcast. The aftermath of St. Clair's defeat is what we are focused on today: the response of the U.S. Army, the proposed follow-up by Indigenous forces, and the battle that led to a treaty ending large-scale Indigenous ...
One was the preeminent politician of his time who helped shape that America we have today, well-versed in history, philosophy, and political theory. The other is mainly known as a painter, but an influential one at that. So what do they have in common, along with their status as Americans? Well, for our purposes, they each played a role in the stage surrounding one of the most controversial pieces of diplomacy of...
It was an event that we as a nation helped inspire and was seen as an extension, maybe even a culmination, of the application of Enlightenment ideals to an entire nation. But while the American Revolution centered on a colonial break from their mother country, the French Revolution sought to undue centuries of political, social, and economic entrenchment in a matter of years. From its earliest stages, it became ab...
Borrowing a host of ideas from his elder financier Robert Morris, Alexander Hamilton would accept the position of Secretary of the Treasury and metaphorically hit the ground running. He issued four reports on the state of the American economy with accompanying suggestions on how to fix these issues, with two of these solutions being internal excise taxes, meaning a tax on something specific, and the creation of the...
It was a decision that came about during a dinner party…allegedly. Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson invited Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton, along with Congressman James Madison, to his quarters in New York City for an evening of food, drink, and conversation, the end result of which was the decision to place the nation’s capital in the geographic south on the Potomac River. This scenario has becom...
Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello was his home, his castle, and in a way, his personal fiefdom: he had legal control over the happenings at this place, over the lives of its inhabitants. This included the hundreds of individuals who were held in bondage during Jefferson’s lifetime, although one particular family name stands out as being more prominent than others. Historically, the Hemings family and the Jefferson fam...
“Culture.” It’s a word that means something different depending on who you ask; to some, it means an element that is “popular” and can serve as a common frame of reference for a large group of people. To others, “culture” refers to how an individual lives their life based on a specific belief system that is similar to a larger group. Both are correct, and both get to the heart of today’s episode as we explore the...
3.9: Mercy Otis Warren and Patrick Henry: Anti-Federalist Antagonists of Constitutional Ratification
It’s tough to say what most history classrooms emphasize when they cover Constitutional ratification, but our focus will be on its opponents...those individuals who heard about, and often read the results, of what happened in Philadelphia in summer 1787 and were displeased with what they saw. Keep in mind that the document that emerged from Philadelphia still needed the blessing of the states, hence the process of ...
The first formal meeting to reassess the Articles of Confederation was held in Annapolis, Maryland in September 1786, at about the same time as Shays’ Rebellion. Only five states bothered to send any delegates, and there was really only one thing that was accomplished: they decided to try again the following May in Philadelphia. That one would enjoy better attendance, and produce a much different result: the U.S. ...
What became known as “Shays' Rebellion” was put down by force, but it opened the eyes of many to the reality that the current government was not working, and it has been used as an anecdote for why the Articles of Confederation were such an inadequate government. Our task will be to unmask the man behind the protest, as well as the general tasked with putting it down, and ascertain what the true legacy of the ...
We’ll focus on the American Midwest with this episode: specifically, the areas affected by the Northwest Ordinance of 1787. These fertile lands north of the Ohio River and east of the Mississippi River were considered ripe for American settlement…unless you and your kin were already living there and had done so for generations. In this episode of History: Beyond the Textbook, our last in our arc of looking at “The...
The Peace of Paris would certainly anger and frustrate the many nations who held the lands that were supposedly now in American possession, and one of the most prominent was the Creek. The Creek stand out due to the efforts of their de facto leader, Alexander McGillivray, to negotiate a treaty with the young U.S. government, and his successes, and failures, set the tone moving forward for official U.S. government p...
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