Cambridge American History Seminar Podcast

Professor Mario Del Pero, Professor of International History, Institut d’études politiques at Sciences Po, Paris, speaks about his paper 'In the Shadow of the Vatican' with PhD student Christopher Schaefer. The pair discuss the missionary efforts of a small group of evangelical Christians, members of the 'Church of Christ', who moved from Lubbock, Texas to Castelli Romani, Italy, in 1948. They explore the history of Pentecostalism and the Waldensian movement in Italy, concerns about the pressures of the Vatican on the Italian state, and the constant spectre of communism that loomed over debates regarding religious practice and the growing American presence in Europe in the years following the Second World War. They also discuss the promises and perils of microhistory for historians of modern Europe. As mentioned during the introduction, after this week all seminars until the end of term have been cancelled on account of scheduled industrial action. That means that unless something drastically changes, you won't hear from us again until the end of April. If you have any questions, suggestions or feedback, get in touch via @camericanist on Twitter or ltd27@cam.ac.uk. Spread the word, and thanks for listening!

Back to our normal format this week. Emma Teitelman, Mellon Research Fellow in American History at the University of Cambridge, talks to Lewis Defrates about her paper ‘Class and State in America’s Greater Reconstruction’ Dr Teitelman’s paper discusses the efforts of groups of north-eastern capitalists in the years following the Civil War to work with the federal government to engender new forms of social organization based around free labour capitalism in the ‘peripheries’, i.e. the American south and west. The project looks at the developing relationship between the state and private capital in transforming the United States in the decades following the rupture of the Civil War Here, Dr Teitelman talks largely about the work of two public-private groups, the Southern Famine Relief Commission and the Board of Indian Commissioners, in the years between 1865-1874. We also discuss the broader project, what these new ‘social relations’ looked like, and perhaps the most anticipated ‘favourite album’ answer yet. If you have any questions, suggestions or feedback, get in touch via @camericanist on Twitter or ltd27@cam.ac.uk. Spread the word, and thanks for listening! (NB: there’s one moment in this interview where I ‘punch in’ a rerecording of a question I asked, as the original recording was unusable due to the flow of conversation. This might be noticeable to listeners - it certainly is to me - but the wording is almost identical to what was asked at the time, promise!)

This is a special episode of the CAHS podcast, as Pitt Professor of American History and Institutions Heather Ann Thompson delivers her inaugural lecture on 'American Prison Uprisings and Why They Matter Today', with introductory comments from Professor Gary Gerstle. Apologies for the quasi-'field recording' style of the audio here. Video of the lecture will be uploaded to the Cambridge History YouTube channel in the coming days. If you have any questions, suggestions or feedback, get in touch via @camericanist on Twitter or ltd27@cam.ac.uk. Spread the word, and thanks for listening!

We're back after a long winter break. The dust has been blown off, our legs have been stretched, and the Cambridge American History Seminar is up and running again! This week Peter Mancall, Harmsworth Visiting Professor of American History at the University of Oxford for the academic year 2019-2020 and the Andrew W. Mellon Professor of the Humanities, Professor of History and Anthropology at the University of Southern California, talks to Lewis Defrates about his paper ‘The Origins of the American Economy’. The pair discuss about the four case studies used in the paper and the themes he explores to demonstrate the existing economies in North America, both indigenous and those generated through imperial encounters, prior to the foundation of Jamestown by English settlers in 1607. Professor Mancall also discusses the need to think about economic behaviour and structures outside that which is easily quantifiable, the historic importance of cumulative experience in the production of a ‘grammar of colonization’ on the part of European colonizers, and three of the most incredible archival experiences you’re likely to hear about any time soon. If you have any questions, suggestions or feedback, get in touch via @camericanist on Twitter or ltd27@cam.ac.uk. Spread the word, and thanks for listening!

Robert A. Schneider, a historian of early modern France at Indiana University Bloomington, and the former long-standing editor of the American Historical Review, talks to Lewis Defrates about his paper 'The Rise and Fall of the “Resentment Paradigm” (ca 1935-1975). The paper discusses the work of postwar intellectuals such as Richard Hofstadter, Daniel Bell, Seymour Martin Lipsett and Talcott Parsons, reframing their shared interest in the 'resentment' in the subjects they studied. Rob discusses the tenets this school of thought was built on (modernization theory, psychoanalysis, and consensus liberalism), the way this was articulated through their intellectual work, the repudiation of this work from the 1970s onwards, and the resurgence of an interest in resentment in the past half-decade. The paper encourages to rethink both the history of emotion and the production of knowledge regarding the history of emotions, demonstrating what these intellectuals missed in their pursuit of resentment and how today's academics can avoid these mistakes. If you have any questions, suggestions or feedback, get in touch via @camericanist on Twitter or ltd27@cam.ac.uk. Spread the word, and thanks for listening! See you... soon?

After a week away, we're back with another episode and another exciting and thought-provoking seminar paper! Katherine Paugh, an Associate Professor in North American Women’s History at Corpus Christi College at the University of Oxford, talks to Lewis Defrates about her paper '‘Race and Venereal Disease in the Atlantic World'. The paper explores racialized understandings of venereal diseases (particularly 'Yaws' and 'The Great Pox') in the long eighteenth century in Europe and the Caribbean. Professor Paugh explains the shift in approach towards inoculation in the Caribbean both before and after the abolition of slavery, the drive on the part of white plantation managers to keep Afro-Caribbean in the labour force, and particularly the connection between these themes and her previous book, "The Politics of Reproduction: Race, Medicine and Fertility in the Age of Abolition”. If you have any questions, suggestions or feedback, get in touch via @camericanist on Twitter or ltd27@cam.ac.uk. 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

We have a special edition of the podcast and seminar this week as we celebrate the release of our esteemed colleague Dr Sarah M.S. Pearsall’s new book, ‘Polygamy: An Early American History’. Dr Pearsall is University Senior Lecturer in the History of Early America and the Atlantic World here at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow at Robinson College. Here, she talks about her new book, the themes and historical episodes it explores and its relationship with her prior work, with second year PhD student Evelyn Strope. They touch on the importance of understanding polygamy as a constant presence in Early America, the consequences this has for our assumptions about the primacy of heterosexual monogamy in American life, and writing history that complements or challenges that of your own dissertation supervisor! Polygamy: An Early American History is published by Yale University Press and is available to order here https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300226843/polygamy If you have any questions, suggestions or feedback, get in touch via @camericanist on Twitter or ltd27@cam.ac.uk. 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

It's that time of the week! Here's another top-notch interview discussing some new work with one of the most important and highly-acclaimed historians working today. On the podcast today we are joined by Heather Ann Thompson, a Professor History and of Afroamerican and African Studies at the University of Michigan AND this year's Pitt Professor of American History of Institutions here at the University of Cambridge. Professor Thompson talks to PhD student Richard Saich about her paper 'Lore and Logics: The Liberal State, the Carceral State, and the Limits of Justice and Inequality in Postwar America', its primary points, its potential consequences and relationship with her earlier work, including the Pulitzer and Bancroft prize winning book 'Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and Its Legacy'. The two also discuss, among other things. the relationship between academic scholarship and activism, the particularly prominent role of women in developing this scholarship and social action, and prisons in Finland. If you have any questions, suggestions or feedback, get in touch via @camericanist on Twitter or ltd27@cam.ac.uk. 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

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 ltd27@cam.ac.uk. 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

Final seminar and final podcast of the year! We might have some more content for you over the summer, but for now, what a way to close out the academic year! Brooke Blower, Associate Professor of History at Boston University and founding co-editor of the journal Modern American History, talks to Lewis Defrates about her paper 'Gibraltars of the Pacific', which explores the activities of one American export salesman (and former Olympian!), Frank Cuhel, in southeast Asia in the decades prior to the outbreak of World War 2. We discuss trans-colonial mobility, colony-metropole correspondence and how this paper fits into Professor Blower's ongoing work on the experiences of a small group of American overseas and their experiences prior to and during the war. This was a really enjoyable conversation, although the questions I asked her turned out to be miles away from the discussion that took part in the actual seminar, so apologies if the conversation is guided somewhat by my own research interests! We also talk very briefly about the modern relevance of the album format, which is something I have a lot of thoughts on that I did not articulate at all well here. If you want to talk more about it or if you have any other questions, suggestions or feedback, get in touch via @camericanist (or @lewisdefrates) on Twitter or ltd27@cam.ac.uk. Spread the word, and thanks for listening! See you soon (?)

Here's the penultimate seminar interview of the academic year, and our first time in actual recording studio! We hope your ears will thank us. Ari Kelman, Chancellor’s Leadership Professor of History at the University of California, Davis, talks to Lewis Defrates about his paper 'From Manassas to Mankato: How the Civil Wars Bled into the Indian Wars' and its place within his ongoing project exploring the connections between the Civil War and the conflicts between white settlers and Native Americans in the west. Ari also discusses the importance of understanding the Dakota people as constituting a sovereign nation in grappling with this period of history, his own strategies for writing analytical narrative history and the lessons he learnt from collaboratively writing Battles Lines, a graphic history of the Civil War. Also, what an album to pick! If you have any questions, suggestions or feedback, get in touch via @camericanist on Twitter or ltd27@cam.ac.uk. Spread the word, and thanks for listening! See you next week!

Here's the second episode of Easter Term, which marks the midway point of our Easter seminars! Dr Michelle Chresfield, a lecturer in United States History at the University of Birmingham talks to Lewis Defrates about her paper 'It's in the Blood: Physical Anthropology, Genetics, and the Making of America's Triracial Isolates' and broader research on the role of social science, genetics and eugenics in the ongoing struggle regarding the recognition of triracial isolate communities in the eastern part of the United States of America. Dr Chresfield talks about the complicated relationship between triracial native people and the researchers who visited their communities, the ongoing utilisation of the results of this social research (which often used categories and methodologies that may seem outdated) in attempts to enshrine their status as native, and the work that historians have to undertake in grappling with the unfinished nature of topics such as these. All in all it's a fascinating area of research, and I feel that really comes across in the conversation here! Note: I have to apologise for the lack of reaction/awkward moment following the favourite album question- I had a bit of a coughing fit, and what you hear here is the result of my shoddy editing skills trying to cut it out of the recording! I'd like to state here, while i have the chance, that Songs in the Key of Life is an incredible album, and I meant no disrespect to Mr Wonder! If you have any questions, suggestions or feedback, get in touch via @camericanist on Twitter or ltd27@cam.ac.uk. Spread the word, and thanks for listening! See you next week!

We're back, with four episodes to close out the academic year! Professor Beverly Gage, Professor of History and American Studies and the Director Brady-Johnson Program in Grand Strategy at Yale University, talks to a recently-returned-from-a-research-trip Lewis Defrates about her paper and upcoming biography 'G-Man: J. Edgar Hoover and the American Century'. Professor Gage talks about the longtime director of the FBI and his role in American politics and life for nearly fifty years, from his opposition to the left in all its iterations to his development of surveillance techniques. She explores Hoover's dual position as both a Conservative champion of a small state and as one of the key state-builders of the twentieth century. We also talk about the historical status of the FBI as 'nonpartisan' and changing public opinions of Hoover, from his skilful use of public relations mid-century to his largely reviled status today. If you have any questions, suggestions or feedback, get in touch via @camericanist on Twitter or ltd27@cam.ac.uk. Spread the word, and thanks for listening! See you next week!

Here is the last episode of term, and it’s a big one in every sense! Professor David Blight, the Class of 1954 Professor of American History, and Director of the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance and Abolition, Yale University, speaks to Cambridge PhD student Yasmin Dualeh about his new book ‘Frederick Douglas: Prophet of Freedom‘. Due to the richness of the book and the depth of conversation, this episode is significantly longer than our usual podcasts, but I’m sure you’ll agree that it’s absolutely worth a listen! Among the countless topics covered here, including a recap of several significant moments in Douglass’ life, Professor Blight touches on self-making through autobiography, the importance of public oratory as performance and work, and some of the interesting ways biographers have attempted to connect with their subjects. The book is widely available online and most likely in your local book store now. As of last week it is also the recipient of the Bancroft prize (for the years best books on diplomacy and the history of the Americas, which happens to be Professor Blight’s second), so you don’t have to just take my word for it when I say it is a truly incredible book. Thank you for listening this week and for the rest of Lent term. We’ll return for the final handful of seminars of the academic year beginning in late April. If you have any questions, suggestions or feedback, get in touch via @camericanist on Twitter or ltd27@cam.ac.uk. Spread the word, and thanks for listening!

The episodes keep coming! In episode six of Lent Term, Susan Carruthers, Professor of American Studies at Warwick University, talks to PhD student Clemency Anderson about her work and experiences as a historian. At the centre of discussion is Professor Carruthers' fascinating paper "Inventing the 'Dear John': Romance, Rupture, and Recuperation in World War II America", which focuses on the discourses surrounding women ending relationships with male soldiers by mail during World War 2. Subjects also touched on include the fragmentary nature of the archive, its relationship to feeling in wartime, and tropes of veterans' own modes of storytelling. If you have any questions, suggestions or feedback, get in touch via @camericanist on Twitter or ltd27@cam.ac.uk. Spread the word, and thanks for listening! See you next week!

Another week and another episode! This week Professor Kate Masur, associate professor of history at Northwestern University, speaks to Cambridge PhD student Jeanine Quené about her paper "State Sovereignty and Migration Before Reconstruction" and its place within her wider work. Professor Masur discusses the relationship between poor laws and both African-American and immigrant populations in the United States, conceptions of region in debates over states rights, and the importance of analysing the Antebellum period in order to better understand the significance of Reconstruction. If that somehow isn't enough for you, we also hear about the history of Ohio, the midwestern anti-slavery movement, and the second best Rock Opera of the 1970's. If you want to know what the first best Rock Opera of the 1970's is, or if you have any questions, suggestions or feedback, get in touch via @camericanist on Twitter or ltd27@cam.ac.uk. Spread the word, and thanks for listening! See you next week!

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 ltd27@cam.ac.uk if you have any questions, suggestions or feedback for the future. Spread the word, and thanks for listening! See you next week!

It's the third episode of Lent 2019, and a fascinating (and timely) conversation to boot! Karine Walther, Associate Professor at Georgetown University in Qatar speaks to recently submitted (congratulations!)Cambridge PhD student Tom Smith about her paper 'Spreading the Faith: American Missionaries, ARAMCO and the Birth of the US-Saudi Special Relationship, 1889-1955'. Professor Walther looks at the work of American Missionaries both on the ground in Arabia and back in the United States, and their role in shaping American approaches to the Middle East. Building on her previous project, which ended its focus 1921, this paper(and the upcoming book)explores the complicated relationship between the formation of the Arabian American Oil Company(ARAMCO)and American missionary activity and ideology. The conversation also touches on (among other things) the meaning and consequences of the US-Saudi 'special relationship', the new perspectives gained by working on the Gulf region from Qatar, and a rather unique archival problem! Feel free to get in touch via @camericanist on Twitter or ltd27@cam.ac.uk if you have any questions, suggestions or feedback for the future. Spread the word, and thanks for listening! See you next week!

Back after a week’s sabbatical, here is the second episode of Lent term, and the first episode featuring a guest host! Barbara Savage, the Geraldine R. Segal Professor of American Social Thought and Professor of Africana Studies at the University of Pennsylvania and the 2018-19 Harold Vyvyan Harmsworth Visiting Professor of American History, University of Oxford, speaks to PhD student Arvin Alaigh about her work. This discussion focuses on Prof Savage’s paper ‘Beyond Illusions: War, Imperialism, and Race in Merze Tate’s International Thought’, as well as her wider study of Merze Tate’s intellectual life and place within Africana studies. Also touched on (among many other topics!) are historical discussions of race both within and outside national parameters, modern British approaches to African-American studies, and the first time an answer to one of our ‘standard questions’ has come up more than once! Feel free to get in touch via @camericanist on Twitter or ltd27@cam.ac.uk 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 ltd27@cam.ac.uk if you have any questions, suggestions or feedback for the future. Spread the word, and thanks for listening!

Here's the 8th and final Cambridge American History Seminar podcast of the Michaelmas term. Jane Dinwoodie, a Junior Research Follow at Jesus College, University of Cambridge, speaks to Lewis Defrates about her paper "Evading Indian Removal in the American South, 1812-1850". We talk about her work on evasive native groups in the American south, with particular focus on the 'strategies of evasion' employed and what their presence means for how we think about the State during the period. We also chat about fruitless hours in microfilm rooms, turning a PhD into a book and the joys of funk music while writing. Feel free to get in touch via @camericanist on Twitter or ltd27@cam.ac.uk if you have any questions, suggestions or feedback for the future. Spread the word, and thanks for listening! See you in two months!

Here's the seventh episode of the Cambridge American History Seminar Podcast! Bobby Lee of Cambridge University and the Harvard Society of Fellows talks to Lewis Defrates about his paper 'Indian Boundaries, Settler Populations, and Demographic Origins of the Missouri Crisis'. We discuss Bobby's attention to Native American conflict and landclaims in the unique site of Boone's Lick, MO and its relation to the huge increase in white settlement there following an 1815 proclamation by William Clark. We also talk about using archival finds on microfilm, working in American History with the name 'Robert Lee', and probably the most creative avoidance of the favourite album question so far! Bobby's recent work is accessible in Volume 103 Issue 4 of the Journal of American History and for Slate at the following link www.slate.com/articles/news_and_…actually_cost.html I should note I misspoke at one point and called Keokuk 'Keotuk'. My mistake entirely, sorry! Feel free to get in touch via @camericanist on Twitter or ltd27@cam.ac.uk if you have any questions, suggestions or feedback for the future. Spread the word, and thanks for listening! (this podcast was previously uploaded in stereo, it's now in mono. sorry for the double upload!)

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 ltd27@cam.ac.uk if you have any questions, suggestions or feedback for the future. Spread the word, and thanks for listening!

We're keeping them coming! Here's the fifth episode of the Cambridge American History Seminar Podcast. Lewis Defrates talks to Corey Robin of Brooklyn College and the CUNY Graduate Center, and author of 'The Reactionary Mind: Conservatism from Edmund Burke to Donald Trump'. We talk about Corey's provocative paper 'The Invisible Man: The Black Nationalism of Clarence Thomas' and its place within his broader upcoming 'conceptual biography' of Thomas and his jurisprudence. We also touch on Thomas' 'non-colourblind' opposition to affirmative action, the theme of loss in Corey's broader work on Conservative thought, James Forman Jr's work, and the right way to say 'Birmingham'. Also thanks to Sam Defrates for the new artwork! We're getting more professional by the episode. Feel free to get in touch via @camericanist on Twitter or ltd27@cam.ac.uk 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 ltd27@cam.ac.uk if you have any questions, suggestions or feedback for the future. Spread the word, and thanks for listening!

Here's the third episode of the Cambridge American History Seminar podcast! Lewis Defrates talks to Cambridge legend Tony Badger, who is a Professor of American History at Northumbria University and the emeritus Paul Mellon Professor of American History at Cambridge AND the emeritus master of Clare College, Cambridge. We talk about his paper "Writing the Biography of Albert Gore Sr: Confessions of an Unlikely Biographer" and the lengthy process of writing a biography after a career in political history. We also discuss Gore's relationship with Armand Hammer, doing research in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, and a new-found respect for journalists. Albert Gore Sr: a Political Life, by Anthony J. Badger, will be out on University of Pennsylvania Press this November. Feel free to get in touch via @camericanist on Twitter or ltd27@cam.ac.uk if you have any questions, suggestions or feedback for the future. Spread the word, and thanks for listening!

In the second episode of the Cambridge American History Seminar Podcast, Lewis Defrates speaks to Dr Jennifer Luff, associate professor in Modern American History at Durham University. We talk about the paper Dr Luff gave to CAHS, "Secrets, Lies, and the 'Special Relationship' in the Early Cold War'", which touched on a particular episode in early-mid twentieth century surveillance and its potential impact on transatlantic relations, as well as more general questions regarding how historians deal with archival secrets and discoveries. We also discuss academic ethnography, attempts to access whips' papers, and "angry women's music". Enjoy! Feel free to get in touch via @camericanist on Twitter or ltd27@cam.ac.uk if you have any questions, suggestions or feedback for the future. Spread the word, and thanks for listening!

The is first of what we hope will become a series of weekly podcasts with presenters at the Cambridge American History Seminar. Dr Alex Goodall, senior lecturer in International History at University College London, sits down with Lewis Defrates to talk about his paper "Soot, Palm Trees, and Zinc: Modernization, Sensation and Hybridity in the American Tropical Port System During the First Age of Globalization", before moving on to discuss fiction, research in Nicaragua and Spotify algorithms! Feel free to get in touch via @camericanist on Twitter or ltd27@cam.ac.uk if you have any questions, suggestions or feedback for the future (I know I need to work on my 'podcast voice', so we'll consider that a work in progress!). Thanks for listening!