loader from loading.io

220. Educating Early Americans with Drs. Mark Boonshoft and Andrew O'Shaughnessy

Conversations at the Washington Library

Release Date: 02/18/2022

NOW AVAILABLE: Inventing the Presidency show art NOW AVAILABLE: Inventing the Presidency

Conversations at the Washington Library

Now Available on all platforms! In this new podcast from the George Washington Presidential Library at Mount Vernon, we'll explore George Washington as both President and precedent. From the very origins of the US presidency at the Constitutional Convention to Washington’s final warnings in his Farewell Address, we will break down how one man shaped the Presidency—and the many times that it could have all fallen apart.

info_outline
229. A Final Conversation with Dr. James Ambuske  show art 229. A Final Conversation with Dr. James Ambuske

Conversations at the Washington Library

In this final episode of Conversations at the Washington Library, Drs. Anne Fertig and Alexandra Montgomery bid farewell to former Digital Historian and host, Dr. James Ambuske, through a retrospective of his time and work at the George Washington Podcast Network.

info_outline
228. Editing the Adams Family Papers with Dr. Sara Georgini show art 228. Editing the Adams Family Papers with Dr. Sara Georgini

Conversations at the Washington Library

The Adams Family is one of the more prominent families in American history. They were at the center of the American Revolution, they helped create a new republic, shaped the young nation’s foreign policy, and later were central to the development of the history profession.

info_outline
227. Welcoming a Deserving Brother with Mark Tabbert show art 227. Welcoming a Deserving Brother with Mark Tabbert

Conversations at the Washington Library

In 1752, George Washington joined the Masonic Lodge in Fredericksburg, Virginia. He was just twenty years old.

info_outline
226. Cross-examining Washington's Heir with Prof. Gerard Magliocca  show art 226. Cross-examining Washington's Heir with Prof. Gerard Magliocca

Conversations at the Washington Library

When George Washington wrote his final will in the months before he died in December 1799, he named Bushrod Washington as heir to his papers and to Mount Vernon. He took possession of his uncle’s Virginia plantation when Martha Washington passed away in 1802.

info_outline
225. Doing Public History with Dr. Anne Fertig show art 225. Doing Public History with Dr. Anne Fertig

Conversations at the Washington Library

Why is the way that we remember the past oftentimes different than historical reality? And how can we use public history to inform conversations in the present about events that took place centuries earlier?

info_outline
224. Unpacking the Slave Empire with Dr. Padraic Scanlan  show art 224. Unpacking the Slave Empire with Dr. Padraic Scanlan

Conversations at the Washington Library

In the early decades of the nineteenth century, the British Empire began dismantling the slave system that had helped to build it. Parliament banned the transatlantic slave trade in 1807, and in 1833 the government outlawed slavery itself, accomplishing through legislative action what the United States would later achieve in part by the horrors of civil war. Abolition has long been a cause célèbre in the British imagination, with men like William Wilberforce receiving credit for moving the empire to ri

info_outline
223. Attending a Lecture on Female Genius with Dr. Mary Sarah Bilder show art 223. Attending a Lecture on Female Genius with Dr. Mary Sarah Bilder

Conversations at the Washington Library

In May 1787, George Washington arrived in Philadelphia to attend the Constitutional Convention. One afternoon, as he waited for the other delegates to show up so the convention could begin, Washington accompanied some ladies to a public lecture at the University of Pennsylvania by a woman named Eliza Harriot Barons O’Conner. Eliza Harriot, as she signed her name, had led a transatlantic life steeped in revolutionary ideas. On that May afternoon she argued in favor of the radical notion of Female Genius

info_outline
Introducing Intertwined Stories: Finding Hercules Posey show art Introducing Intertwined Stories: Finding Hercules Posey

Conversations at the Washington Library

We're delighted to bring you one of the bonus episodes from our other podcast, Intertwined: The Enslaved Community at George Washington’s Mount Vernon.

info_outline
222. Winning a 222. Winning a "Compleat Victory" at Saratoga with Dr. Kevin Weddle

Conversations at the Washington Library

The Battle of Saratoga in September and October of 1777 was a decisive turning point in the American War for Independence. The American victory over the British in northern New York put a stopper to London’s dreams of a swift end to the war, and convinced the French to openly declare their support for the colonial rebels. It was, in the words of one American participant, a "Compleat Victory." 

info_outline
 
More Episodes
In eighteenth-century America,  you would’ve had little opportunity for formal schooling or an advanced education. Unless you were among the elite or at least of some means, your chances of attending a local academy or Harvard College weren’t great. But the American Revolution ushered in a new era of education in the United States that paved the way for the educational opportunities we take for granted today. Education became seen as central to the survival of the republic, with local communities, states, and the new federal government all interested in expanding educational opportunities for some Americans, though not as much for others. And in the 1820s, Thomas Jefferson would embark on last great project of his life – the founding of the University of Virginia – which he hoped would preserve the meaning of the Revolution as he understood it. On today’s show, we’re fortunate to have two old chums return to the program to talk about the crucial role of education in early America. Dr. Mark Boonshoft is the Executive Director of the American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies, and he is the author of Aristocratic Education and the Making of the American Republic, which was published by the University of North Carolina Press in 2020. We’re joined by Dr. Andrew O’Shaughnessy, the Saunders Director of the Robert H. Smith International Center for Jefferson Studies at Monticello, who recently authored The Illimitable Freedom of the Human Mind: Thomas Jefferson’s Idea of a University, published by the University of Virginia Press in 2021.