“George the Third is supposed to be our father, that’s what a sovereign is, he’s supposed to protect us,” rumbles Peter Onuf, raising the pitch of his gravely baritone. “How do you feel protected when you’ve got your dad out there sending mercenaries to Boston to kill your countrymen?”
“O.K., O.K., slow down, Peter,” commands Brian Balogh. “Why don’t you give some of us who live in the 21st century a little more context. Set the scene for us.”
Onuf does, and even though this hour-long episode of BackStory, a radio program launched in June, is nominally about explaining why we celebrate July 4, “The American History Guys”—professors Onuf, Balogh and Ed Ayers—cover everything from clam diggers to the Abolitionists, working in references to The Beatles, mattress sales and Barack Obama’s flagpin (or lack thereof).
 Can Ed Ayers, Brian Balogh and Peter Onuf do for American history what Click and Clack did for automechanics? |
“I used to say this was history for history haters,” says Andrew Wyndham, director of media programs for the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities at UVA and the show’s executive producer. “These guys go for meaning of events, connecting events, trying and working to shed light on where we are now.”
Each professor specializes in a different century. Both Onuf and Balogh are UVA history professors, and Ayers was the University’s dean of Arts & Sciences until last year, when he became president of the University of Richmond.
Even though the show comes off as an effortless application of history’s lessons to present day topics (albeit with a touch of professorial geekiness), Wyndham’s team spent almost two years drumming up interest for the show, creating a pilot, bringing the demo to focus groups, obtaining funding and testing it with public radio stations. From the process, the team developed the focus on contemporary issues, which wasn’t originally part of their call-in concept.
“It took a lot longer to develop this than I thought it would,” says Balogh. “Once we got to that stage, things have moved along quite quickly, but for a long time, we had nothing to show for. It takes a lot of work.”
Five episodes in, the team hopes to bring the show to a national audience and Wyndham is in conversation with Public Radio International. Already the show is broadcast in Norfolk and Texas, in addition to its place on the local station Radio IQ.
“I frankly didn’t think it would be very interesting to listen to three professors sitting around and talking about history,” Balogh says. “It has proven to be more entertaining and engaging than I thought. At least that’s what folks tell me.”
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