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.

In the 1760s, the Atlantic world teetered on the edge of Revolution. In the years after the Seven Years' War, a global conflict that transformed Europe, West Africa, and the Americas in ways that many intended and many did not, the very fabric of that world began to unravel. First the American, then the French, followed by the Haitian, and then rebellions in South America frayed, twisted, and in some cases broke long-standing connections between peoples and nations on both sides of the ocean.

An Atlantic system that had taken centuries to build came undone, leaving in its wake monuments to a world turned upside down. This was the Age of Atlantic Revolution. In this episode, Dr. Jim Ambuske is joined by Dr. Patrick Griffin to discuss his recent book, The Age of Atlantic Revolution: The Fall and Rise of a Connected 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.

If you go to a tavern today, you are most likely looking for a meal and perhaps an alcoholic beverage. However, taverns functioned more broadly between the 1780s and the 1850s. Following the Revolutionary War in the new United States, taverns were legally mandated to offer lodging along with spirits. These establishments were vital hubs of travel, commerce, politics, and sociability. From stagecoach stops to informal train stations, taverns anchored the infrastructure of a growing nation.

Taverns also served as a microcosm of American society, both shaping and reflecting the cultural tensions of the era. Reform movements, economic negotiations, and the evolving ideas of citizenship transformed these simple buildings from within, revealing everyday ways people claimed belonging in the young and rapidly changing nation.

Dr. Lynn Price Robbins is joined by Dr. Kirsten E. Wood to discuss her new book, Accommodating the Republic: Taverns 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.

In 1796, workmen discovered ghosts in the Tower of London. As they stripped away wooden paneling from the walls, they found messages from the past carved deep into stone that lay below. Poems, elaborate coats of arms, simple initials, and Christian symbols all paid tribute to the final days of just some of the many people who met their end within the castle's walls.
The forgotten graffiti in the Tower of London was an astonishing discovery, but not an uncommon one. Throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, London women and men left their marks above doors, on walls, and in the strangest places, offering us brief glimpses into moments of utter farce and the most horrible of crimes.

At some point in our lives, we all must face the writing on the wall, but in some cases, what others have left behind can reveal to us how they lived. In this episode, Dr. Jim Ambuske talks with historian Madeleine Pelling, Ph.D. about her recent book Writing on the Wall: Graffiti & Rebellion in Eighteenth-Century Britain.

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.

Death was a constant presence in early America, but grief extended far beyond the loss of loved ones. Everyday hardships—such as chronic illness, property dispossession, reproductive trauma, and bodily injury—made loss a near-constant companion. Together, these experiences of suffering produced a dense and often overlooked emotional landscape, one that shaped individual lives and the social worlds they inhabited.

In this episode, Dr. Lynn Price Robbins talks with historian Mary Eyring, Ph.D., about people's experiences with grief in Early America and her new book Saltwater: Grief in Early America.

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.

On January 1, 1804, Jean Jacque Dessalines and his followers announced to their countrymen and to the rest of the world that their home was no longer the French colony of San Domingue. It was now the nation of Haiti. After years of revolutionary civil war, the abolition of slavery and fears of slavery's return, Dessalines asked the citizens of Haiti "to let us swear to fight to our last breath and for the independence of our country." That nation was the world's first black republic.

In this episode, Dr. Jim Ambuske talks with historian Julia Gaffield, Ph.D., about what we can learn from Jean-Jacques Dessalines. A man born enslaved on a San Domingo coffee plantation, who died emperor of Haiti, a man who boasted, "I have avenged America."

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.

The American Revolution ushered in a bold new system of government—one that depended on an informed and educated citizenry. Once the privilege of the elite, literacy and learning suddenly became essential for ordinary Americans. But who would build the institutions to educate the public, and what should they teach? Who had the authority to produce new knowledge, and how could its accuracy be trusted?

From the creation of the Library of Congress to proposals for a national university and the founding of the Smithsonian Institution, early Americans wrestled with who should control the creation and dissemination of knowledge. These debates shaped the nation's intellectual foundations—and they echo powerfully today, as modern society once again struggles to assess credibility, expertise, and trust amid an overwhelming chorus of voices.

Dr. Lynn Price Robbins is joined by Dr. George Oberle to discuss his new book Creating an Informed Citizenry: Contested Knowledge in the Early American Republic.

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.