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Join Hilary and Geoff as they discuss the origin of Thanksgiving, how it has changed over the last 400 years, and how it has be reconfigured as a secular/public holiday in the United States. We also delve into how the idea of Thanksgiving can over-simplify and white-wash Anglo-Indian relations in the 17th century. PS – We also discuss out favorite Thanksgiving dishes.

How did the Women’s Suffrage movement emerge in the United States? Why did it take decades to ratify the 19th Amendment? Join us this week to find out!

Join us as we continue discussing the American West! Here are some of the books we’ve mentioned in the two-part overview: Patricia Limerick – Legacy of ConquestRichard White – The Middle GroundWilliam Cronon – Changes in the LandAnne Hyde – Empires, Nations, and FamiliesPekka Hämäläinen – Comanche Empire and Lakota America

Hilary and Geoff begin a two-part series on major issues in the history of the “American West.” What does that term mean? How has the west been imagined and conceived, both in the past and in the contemporary ways we discuss it? Who gets included and who gets left out of that history?  This is only part one of our discussion. Join us next time as we move into late-nineteenth and twentieth century ideas about the west.

This week we continue our survey of American History by discussing the period often referred to as Jim Crow America. We cover how to periodize the era of “separate but equal,” and we discuss when introducing the harsh reality of Jim Crow, including lynching, should be introduced to younger students of history.

We’re back! This week we return and we’re trying something a bit different. We are aiming at broader topics. Our goal is to make the podcast useful for parents who now find themselves in charge of their children’s education at home. Don’t get us wrong, we’ll continue to have the same level of historical discussion and debate you’ve grown used to, but we’ll wrap it all in larger chronological chunks. This episode cover Reconstruction, the period from 1865-1877, we talk about constitutional amendments, the Freemen’s Bureau, the rise of the KKK, the introduction of Black Codes, and the labor situation in the South following the Civil War.

This week on An Incomplete History, we discuss the development of the primary system in the United States. When and how did the two major political parties decide to hold primaries before their conventions and the subsequent presidential elections? What’s the difference between a primary and a caucus? Why do Iowa and New Hampshire go first? Is the primary system constitutionally mandated? Hilary and Geoff discuss all those things and more this week.

February 14th isn’t just about flowers, candy, and dinner with your sweetheart. It is also the anniversary of one of the bloodiest gangland confrontations in US history. On February 14, 1929 seven men were shot in a north Chicago garage. This wasn’t just the ratcheting up of Prohibition-era violence in Chicago, a city seemingly out-of-control. It was also a key moment in the expansion of the Federal Government’s powers to override local control. In our discussion of the massacre we also cover the valorization of crime, issues surrounding the racialization of criminals, and the legacy of gangs and men like Al Capone on US pop culture.

This week on An Incomplete History Hilary and Geoff discuss the implementation and long-term effects of the 18th Amendment, that’s prohibition, on the United States. Where did the idea for a nation-wide ban on alcohol come from? What did advocates hope to accomplish? Can we really blame prohibition for a rise in organized crime? And how does the 18th Amendment, nullified decades ago, still affect your life today? Join us this week to find out.

This week Hilary and Geoff provide a little context for the often-torturous relationship between the United States and Iran. Join us as we discuss the beginnings of diplomatic contact between the countries in the nineteenth century, the rise of US involvement in the post-World War 2 Middle East, the first peace-time coup engineered by US intelligence, the Hostage Crisis, and more.

Join Hilary and Geoff as they discuss the legacy of Pearl Harbor. Elements of the Japanese Navy attacked the naval base at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 and FDR delivered one of the most famous speeches in presidential history on the 8th. How should we remember Pearl Harbor? Was is really a surprise or had the US and Japan been involved in a simmering conflict for some time? To learn more join us for this special episode of An Incomplete History. This episode was originally record in December 2019.

Hilary and Geoff are back to discuss the Second Amendment (that’s the one about guns). Join us as we trace the antecedents to the Second Amendment. How did English common law and the 1689 Bill of Rights influence its conceptualization? How formative were the state constitutions of 1776/77? How have major Supreme Court decisions influenced out own views? We even discuss a major historical work first celebrated then vilified for its take on America's gun culture.

This week Hilary and Geoff start a new series of episodes devoted to the Bill of Rights. We're starting at the beginning and doing a deep dive into the First Amendment. Along the way we'll discuss Prince John and the Magna Carta, the English Civil War, John Locke, the Glorious Revolution, and even the Virginia Declaration of Rights issued a month before the Declaration of Independence!

Join us this week as we discuss how prevalent alcohol consumption was in the British Colonial period and the Early Republic. Hint: it was a lot! Rum, beer, whiskey, Madeira wine, each served important economic, social, and political roles in the early US history. How did early Americans function when alcohol was so widely available? Were there early critics of alcohol? How did early drinking patterns influence social reform movements? Find out on this week's episode.

1919 may be the most important year in American history! Labor unrest, mail bombs, Anarchist plots, industrial accidents, mass deportations, rising racial tensions, and a government spying on its own citizens. The headlines from 1919 bear a striking resemblance to the present.  Prohibition began, women's suffrage came one step closer to being a reality, and the nation was wracked with some of the worst racial violence since the Civil War. Join Hilary and Geoff for a discussion of the year that marked the end of the Progressive Era.