Upcoming Episodes!

Episode 302 "The Colonies" (coming June 10!): Did the Pilgrims leave England to flee religious oppression, or to find a place where they could be the oppressors? These and other questions arise as Blake reviews the foundation of each of the 13 colonies and explores the role — if any — of religious belief in establishing each of them. Some of the colonies were founded strictly as commercial enterprises, others for religious reasons, and the discussion ranges from the Anglicans in Virginia to the Quakers in Pennsylvania to the Catholics in Maryland to the Pilgrims in Massachusetts — as well those who fled Massachusetts to form Rhode Island because the Puritans were too strict and those who fled Massachusetts to form Connecticut because the Puritans restricted suffrage too much.

Episode 303 "The Founders" (coming June 22!): What were the personal religious beliefs of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and their fellow Founding Fathers, and what role did they see for religion in the United States? Blake leads a discussion of what selected Founding Fathers held as their religious beliefs, what they thought about the role of religion in personal morality and civic society, how they sought to achieve civic tranquility through religious freedom, and how that played in role in forging the disunited colonies into the United States.

Episode 304 "The Awakening" (coming July 8!) The Second Great Awakening took place in North America from the 1790s through the 1830s as the early American republic evolved. It was a religious movement that rejected the skepticism, deism, Unitarianism, and rationalism of the American Enlightenment — which had provided much of the basis for the Founding Fathers' views of religion and its proper role in America — and fostered a more emotional approach to religion than that of the Founders.  Blake leads Marshall and Mike in a discussion of how the evolution of Christianity in the early United States led to the development of modern evangelical and fundamentalist Christianity in America — and even the concept of "The Rapture" — with a lasting effect on American politics and society. We conclude with a wrap-up of what we have learned about how "Christian" America really is — and was meant to be.

New Series: "The American System" -- Episode 401 "Internal Improvements" (coming July 22): In the 1820s, Henry Clay proposed an activist role for the United States Government in envisioning, funding, and overseeing improvements in America's infrastructure and in taking action to ensure economic stability in the United States. He called it the "American System." But opposition to such activism arose — based on the observation that the Constitution does not explicitly permit it — and continues in some form to this day. This series explores America's choices in giving government a role in building things and in addressing economic challenges. In Episode 401 ("Internal Improvements"), Marshall explains how John Quincy Adams proposed a program of "Internal Improvements" to American infrastructure but was stymied by populist Democrats —  exemplified by Andrew Jackson — who feared that a government empowered to do such things also would gain the power to abolish slavery. It would take a civil war to tip the balance in favor of government activism.

Episode 402 "Enter Lincoln" (coming August 5!) -- For obvious reasons, Abraham Lincoln's presidency is best remembered for his emancipation of America's slaves, determination to preserve the Union in the face of Southern secession, and leadership in the American Civil War. But an often-overlooked aspect of his administration was its promotion of the United States Government as an active, positive actor in such matters as infrastructure improvement and economic affairs. In this conclusion to the series, Marshall leads our discussion of how the first four years of Lincoln’s presidency in the 1860s were among the most consequential in U.S. history for civic infrastructure and economic reform, rivaling the achievements of Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal of the 1930s and Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society of the 1960s.