Cambridge American History Seminar Podcast

When we think about the founding documents of the United States, two likely come to mind: the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. But perhaps not the third — the Treaty of Paris (1783), the agreement that ended the Revolutionary War and formally recognized American independence. Our guest this week, Professor Eliga H. Gould, argues that this largely forgotten founding document is essential for understanding how the United States actually came into being. Far from a clean moment of national birth, the treaty emerged from the aftermath of a brutal civil war, triggering mass displacement, contested borders, and fragile diplomatic compromises within and beyond British North America.  Eliga H. Gould is the (2025-26) Harold Vyvyan Harmsworth Professor of American History at University of Oxford and (for 30+ years) the Professor of History at the University of New Hampshire.   Gould’s new book project, Peace and Independence: The Turbulent History of the United States’ Founding Treaty, examines the social, economic, and constitutional consequences of the 1783 Paris Treaty.  The three themes guiding this research project are the making, unmaking, and remaking of the American Union; the uncertain fate of the “new order” many believed the Revolution had inaugurated; and the enduring theme of partition.  Along the way, we also reflect on what treaties actually do. Gould argues that treaties rarely produce clean independence; instead, they bind nations into global systems of diplomacy, commerce, and compromise — a lesson with enduring implications for American foreign policy. “Exiting the world has never been a viable option.” Co-hosts (PhD Candidates) Shea Hendry's research examines the children of Loyalist refugees who embodied both American citizenship and British subjecthood — concurrently and consecutively — throughout the Early National period. Megan Renoir looks at the history of U.S. land institutions, nineteenth- and twentieth-century federal Indian policy, and violence against the NCRNT. She aims to expanding our understanding of the relationships between federalism, Western property institutions, and intractable land conflicts.  Editing, production, and cover art by Daisy Semmler, Cantab American History MPhil Graduate.  

“In 2024…the number of children and teachers killed in school shootings surpassed not only military, but active police duty deaths. So our entire carceral and military apparatus had fewer fatalities than children and teachers in schools. And we’ve gone up since then. We’re on a steady inflection up.”Our guest academic this week, Dr Kathleen Belew, is a historian of the present. She defines the current period in the United States as an “Age of Mass Violence” that begins in 1999 with Columbine — not because it was the first school shooting, but because it marked the start of treating school shootings as a “normal part” of American life.“Thoughts and prayers,” Belew explains, “is a phrase that comes out of that moment. We can historicize it precisely to Columbine… At the time, ‘thoughts and prayers’ was sort of the deepest, most compassionate social response that we could come up with to the slaughter of children.” Thoughts and Prayers is also the chilling title of her current research project — and the starting point for one of her central questions: why did this refrain come to stand in for political action?In this conversation, we dissect how fear and suburban isolation have normalised gun violence, and why children have come to occupy a tragic central place in America’s culture of mass shootings. Belew reflects on the relationship between private violence and state power, the spiritual framing of mass violence, and the possibilities for reimagining community safety in an era defined by fear and fragmentation.Throughout, we consider what it means to write a history of the present — and how historical thinking might help open pathways toward collective responsibility, hope, and change.Kathleen Belew is Associate Professor of American Studies at Northwestern University. She is also an expert on the white power movement and the author of Bring the War Home: The White Power Movement and Paramilitary America (Harvard, 2019).Co-hosts:Dr Hugh Wood recently completed his PhD at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge. His research examines the relationship between private violence and American state building in the second half of the nineteenth century.Megan Renoir is a PhD Candidate at Homerton College, Cambridge. She studies the relationship between Western property institutions, state development, and violence against minorities, including Indigenous dispossession.Editing, production, and cover art:by Daisy Semmler, American History MPhil Graduate from Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge.

‘Why do people look at Black people the way they do?’ This is the central provocation of our guest scholar's work. Dr Brenna Greer is an African Americanist and Associate Professor of History at Wellesley College. Her work traverses the histories of culture, race, gender, and, more recently, citizenship in the United States. We discuss her paper, “African Americans and the Photographic Seat of Honour,” which emerges from her ongoing project examining self-portraits created by African Americans, particularly in the nineteenth century.Questions of historical process and causality drive her research: How did these portraits shape ideals and images of Blackness? And how might they help teach students and wider publics about the Black past—Black freedom, activism, and protest?Co-hosts: Megan Renoir (PhD Candidate) researches Indigenous sovereignty and land conflict. Megan’s recent publication looked at“Recognition as Resilience: How an Unrecognized Indigenous Nation is Using Visibility as a Pathway Toward Restorative Justice". Sam Lanevi (PhD Candidate) researches World War II fraternization and war bride policy with a particular focus on German and Japanese war brides.Editing, production and cover art by Daisy Semmler (Cantab MPhil Graduate).Thanks for listening.This episode was recorded on 26/5/2025.

Dr Kaeten Mistry discusses his current research on the history of secrecy and the tensions it raises between civil liberties and national security. This draws from Chapter 2 of his current book project, The Secrecy Regime (working title), which traces U.S. state secrecy from its early twentieth-century origins to the present.Dr Mistry is a scholar of the United States and the world, specialising in foreign relations, the international and transnational history of the Cold War, and more recently, cultures of secrecy and intelligence. He has also worked on aspects of modern European history, in particular: Italy.This was recorded on 19/5/2025. Co-hosts: Megan Renoir (PhD Candidate) researches Indigenous sovereignty and land conflict. Megan’s recent publication looked at“Recognition as Resilience: How an Unrecognized Indigenous Nation is Using Visibility as a Pathway Toward Restorative Justice,”. Mary Foster (Megan's sister) is a third-year undergraduate student at McGill University, majoring in History with a minor in medieval studies.Editing, production and cover art by Daisy Semmler (Cantab MPhil graduate).Thanks for listening.

Please note that this episode contains discussion of sexual violence.This week, PhD candidates Sam Lanevi and Megan Renoir sit down with Dr. Kaisha Esty to discuss her current research project.Dr. Esty is Assistant Professor of History, African American Studies, and Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Wesleyan University in Connecticut. She’s on sabbatical this year as an AAUW postdoctoral fellow and resident fellow at the Rothermere American Institute.Her work explores the lives of African American women in the nineteenth century, during the transition from slavery to emancipation. She focuses on the strategies and values that shaped their intimate lives and sense of self, situating these within the broader context of U.S. nation building and westward expansion.The article Kaisha refers to is linked here: Kaisha Esty, ““I Told Him to Let Me Alone, That He Hurt Me”: Black Women and Girls and the Battle over Labor and Sexual Consent in Union-Occupied Territory,” Labor (2022) 19 (1): 32–51. https://doi.org/10.1215/15476715-9475702Co-hosts: Megan Renoir (PhD Candidate) researches the history of US land institutions, 19th and 20th century federal Indian policy, and violence against the NCRNT, with the aim of informing and expanding our understanding of the relationships between federalism, Western property institutions and intractable land conflicts.Sam Lanevi (PhD Candidate) researches World War II fraternization and war bride policy with a particular focus on German and Japanese war brides.Editing, production and cover art by Daisy Semmler (Cambridge MPhil Graduand).