Hello and welcome to a history of the United States.

Episode 76. Can we get back to politics, please?

We've spent our last 15 episodes going through a history of the native peoples of the United States,

bringing them from their arrival in the continent through to the time of European arrival.

It certainly adds a new dimension to the narrative I've been creating over the last 20 months or so.

But now is the time to get on with the narrative. Today, we turn back towards where it all began, Virginia, as we start to

bring all the various players up to the seven years war and ultimately the American Revolution.

It's going to be one hell of a journey. These will be the episodes when we really get into the

substance of the colonial era after the first 60 episodes worth of introduction.

I'm really looking forward to it.

I enjoyed making the Native American episodes.

They were certainly interesting to research, but I felt like such an outsider talking about the topic.

This probably made itself abundantly clear

in my pronunciation of every single tribal name over the 15 episodes. It was important

information to cover, but I wasn't comfortable about it in the same way I am when we have

more documentation and an actual narrative rather than it in the same way I am when we have more documentation and an actual narrative

rather than piecing together archaeology. So I'm really excited to be talking to you about

something more in my comfort zone. And when we can have a slightly lighter side to the episodes rather than me obsessively trying to not offend anyone.

This is why when I realised that today's episode would be getting back to Virginia, the first thing that came to mind was the musical Hamilton,

which I'm 427 days away from seeing at the time of writing. Not that I'm counting or anything. I won't give spoilers, but a number of songs in the second act of the musical focus on Hamilton's personal life, which, you know, is fine. Then Thomas Jefferson and James Madison

edge onto the stage, and we get...

The election of 1800. Can we get back to politics? Please. Yo, Every action has its equal opposite reaction.

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