Happy fifth!! On this special edition of "Axelbank Reports History and Today," we are thrilled to chat with HW Brands to celebrate this show's fifth anniversary. Over the last five years, we have published 180 episodes and profiled books and authors of many stripes. We have done our best to make history relevant to today, and to give our listeners the information they need to get along in their communities and to make informed decisions about protecting American democracy. Thank you for being along for the ride!

Professor Brands joined us to celebrate and to talk about his career in history. He is writing his 31st book - on George Washington, to be titled "American Patriarch" and released in 2026 - and publishes a Substack multiple times a week called, "A User's Guide to History."

HW Brands' substack can be found at https://hwbrands.substack.com/

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From the publisher:

"In 1664, England decided to invade the Dutch-controlled city of New Amsterdam on Manhattan Island. Charles II and his brother, the Duke of York, had dreams of empire, and their archrivals, the Dutch, were in the way. But Richard Nicolls, the military officer who led the English flotilla bent on destruction, changed his strategy once he encountered Peter Stuyvesant, New Netherland’s canny director general.

Bristling with vibrant characters, Taking Manhattan reveals the founding of New York to be an invention, the result of creative negotiations that would blend the multiethnic, capitalistic society of New Amsterdam with the power of the rising English empire. But the birth of what might be termed the first modern city is also a story of the brutal dispossession of Native Americans and of the roots of American slavery...

Taking Manhattan tells the riveting story of the birth of New York City as a center of capitalism and pluralism, a foundation from which America would rise. It also shows how the paradox of New York’s origins—boundless opportunity coupled with subjugation and displacement—reflects America’s promise and failure to this day."

Russell Shorto's website can be found at https://www.russellshorto.com/

Information on his book can be found at https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393881172

Support our show at https://patreon.com/axelbankhistory

Axelbank Reports History and Today" can be found on social media at

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Harriet Tubman is well-known for being a conductor of the Underground Railroad. She helped dozens of people escape the slave-owning south through her bravery, wisdom and skill. But as Edda Fields-Black discovered, she also helped Union troops raid rice plantations in South Carolina and free hundreds of people who were living in some of the worst conditions imaginable. On this episode, we talk with this newly-minted Pulitzer Prize winner about how she wrote "Combee" and how her own family's history is tied to Harriet Tubman.

Edda Fields-Black's website can be found at https://eddafieldsblack.com/

Information on her book from Oxford University Press can be found at https://global.oup.com/academic/product/combee-9780197552797?cc=us&lang=en&

Axelbank Reports History and Today" can be found on social media at

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