BFW Revisited: Age of Revolutions

Ben Franklin's World

Liz Covart

History, Society & Culture

4.4 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 14 April 2026

⏱️ 79 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Between 1763 and 1848, revolutions swept across four continents. We tend to remember three of them — the American, the French, and the Haitian Revolutions. But what about all the rest? And what connected them to each other? In this episode, we're bringing back our conversation with Janet Polasky, Presidential Professor of History Emerita at the University of New Hampshire and author of Revolutions Without Borders: The Call to Liberty in the Atlantic World, and Paul Mapp, Associate Professor of History at William & Mary, who helps us understand why historians are increasingly looking at the American Revolution through an international lens.Together, they reveal why the Age of Revolutions happened when it did, how the American Revolution fit within this larger Atlantic-wide moment of upheaval, and how revolutionary ideas traveled across borders through people, print, and rumor. Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/165 RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODES🎧 Episode 161: Smuggling and the American Revolution🎧 Episode 428: Canal Dreamers🎧 Episode 432: How France & Spain Helped Win American Independence🎧 Episode 433: Haiti, France, and the American War for Independence🎧 Episode 438: The American Revolution and the Fate of the WorldSUPPORT OUR WORK🎁 Make a Donation to Ben Franklin’s WorldREQUEST A TOPIC📨 Topic Request Form📫 liz@benfranklinsworld.comWHEN YOU'RE READY🗞️ BFW Gazette Newsletter 👩‍💻 Join the BFW Listener Community🌍 Join the History Explorers ClubTAKE THE QUIZ🧭 Discover How You Explore History (under 2 minutes)👉 https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/quizLISTEN 🎧🍎 Apple Podcasts 💚 Spotify 🎶 Amazon Music🛜 PandoraCONNECT🦋 Liz on Bluesky👩‍💻 Liz on LinkedIn🛜 Liz’s WebsiteSAY THANKS💜 Leave a review on Apple Podcasts💚 Leave a rating on Spotify*Book links are affiliate links. Every purchase supports the podcast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to true spies.
0:02.0	The podcast that takes you deep inside the greatest secret missions of all time.
0:08.0	Suddenly out of the dark that's appear in London.
0:10.0	You'll meet the people who live life undercover.
0:13.0	What do they know? What are their skills?
0:16.0	And what would you do in their position?
0:18.0	Vengeance felt good.
0:20.0	Seeing these people pay for what they'd done felt righteous.
0:24.6	True spies from Spyscape Studios, wherever you get your podcasts.
0:30.8	You're listening to an Airwave Media podcast.
0:34.8	Ben Franklin's World is a production of Clio Digital Media. And support for this episode
0:39.1	comes from the Massachusetts Historical Society, the first historical society founded in the United
0:44.2	States in 1791. Hello and welcome to Ben Franklin's World Revisited,
0:57.9	a series of classic episodes that bring fresh perspective to our latest episodes
1:01.8	and add deeper connections to our understanding of early American history.
1:06.0	And I'm your host, Liz Covart.
1:08.8	In our last episode, episode 438, historian Rick Bell asked us to reframe the Declaration
1:14.2	of Independence as a declaration of interdependence. Rick argued that the revolutionaries who
1:19.8	gathered in Philadelphia in 1776, they knew from the very start that they could not win their
1:25.0	war for independence alone. Independence required alliances.
1:29.4	It required ships, gunpowder, Spanish silver, and French naval support. So when the American
1:34.8	Revolution did end and the United States won its independence, that victory sent shockwaves
	...

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