How historic ideas of 'democracy' reverberate in American politics today
Peabody Award-nominated podcast revisits the origins of democracy in America
* Originally published on Nov. 7, 2022.
As Americans vote in the 2022 midterm elections, U.S. President Joe Biden warns democracy is at risk.
In a speech less than a week before voting day, Biden blamed false claims that the 2020 election was fraudulent for eroding trust in U.S. democracy.
"American democracy is under attack because the defeated former president of the United States refused to accept the results of the 2020 election."
Biden made a similar speech at the start of the campaign at Independence Hall, where the country's Declaration of Independence was announced in 1776. He invoked the opening words of that document, as a rallying cry.
"We, the people, have burning inside each of us the flame of liberty that was lit here at Independence Hall. That sacred flame still burns now in our time as we build an America that is more prosperous, free, and just."
According to journalist and documentarian John Biewen, American democracy has always been in crisis, right from the moment the country achieved independence. He says that while the American Revolution is often taught as a victory of the common people over tyranny, the reality is much different.
"A lot of revolutions down through history have been class-based, bottom-up affairs. The American Revolution was really not that."
Biewen is the host of the podcast Scene on Radio, and audio program director at Duke University's Center for Documentary Studies. In his audio documentary series, The Land That Never Has Been Yet — a title borrowed from the Langston Hughes poem, Let America Be America Again — he revisits American history.
Travelling to historic locations like George Washington's plantation and early cotton mills in Rhode Island, Biewen speaks with historians to unravel the myths of the origins of American democracy, and how past debates over liberty and equality play into the state of the union today.
IDEAS presents a portion of the series over two episodes but you can listen to the full podcast series through Scene on Radio — A Podcast from the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University.
Guests in episode 1:
Rob Shenk is senior vice-president for visitor engagement at George Washington's Mount Vernon.
Woody Holton is a professor of history at University of South Carolina.
Bruce Klotz is a volunteer with the Pelham Historical Association.
Daniel Bullen is the author of Daniel Shays' Honorable Rebellion.
Price Thomas is director of marketing and communications at James Madison's Montpelier.
Michael Dickens is a historian at James Madison's Montpelier.
Guests in episode 2:
Chenjerai Kumanyika is an assistant professor of journalism at New York University.
Robin Alario is an interpreter with the Slater Mill Historic Site in Pawtucket, Rhode Island.
Edward Baptist is a professor of history at Cornell University and the author of The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism.
Kidada Williams is an associate professor of history at Wayne State University in Detroit.
Keri Leigh Merritt is a historian and the author of Masterless Men: Poor Whites and Slavery in the Antebellum South.
Victoria Smalls is director of history, art, and culture at Penn Center in South Carolina.
Brent Morris is a professor of history at Clemson University.
Eric Foner is a professor emeritus of history and Columbia University and the author of The Second Founding: How the Civil War and Reconstruction Remade the Constitution.
Bobby Donaldson is a professor of history at the University of South Carolina.
*This episode was adapted for IDEAS by Matthew Lazin-Ryder.
