BackStory; The BackStory Prize: Our Choice for the Best Public History Project in America

major funding for backstory provided by anonymous donor the national down for the canaries and josephine robert cornell memorial foundation this is bad well the back story the show that explains the history behind today's headlines and there's a number of bell for years always the time for looking back as wells looking forward yet you know it's hard to believe given how young we looked at the cafe but into fascinating backstory marked its tenth anniversary on the air about so in this special show we take a brief look back at a major look for ellen baxter again it wasn't even called backstory brian our friend yonatan our anderson i know it's a dead the history guys the history guys is a production of the updates radio at the essential support of the college of arts and sciences at the university of virginia is that is that a guy is

create the history guys and then i'm crying and i'm eager gives a call folks at seven seven four five one five oh nine eight which i doubt lots of different theme music some of it worked in it some of the not so much in those early days we took calls from listeners who had historical queries for us to answer that's right but remember to ask us about us history call us about something we actually know at least we think we know over the years on backstory somethings have fallen by the wayside and been replaced by new sex when peter olive retired ann and i were joined by two wonderful new colleagues join freeman and nathan conley but even the backstory has evolved one thing has remained

constant our devotion to the discipline of history and on the way kids are bad jokes well i can't global's i can't skate i can't swim but i can do is true is it us not know the answer to what did you gotta be kidding kidding around when history that is what is your fondest memory from the early days of backstory well i remember the supernova they gave birth to backstory andrew windham who was our godfather for the four years of the pre really imagined it and who help to succeed him out to me and said hey do you guys ever thought of doing a radio show about history kauai car talk and peter said no there's two problems with that one history's not bernie and two we're not fighting then we immediately said we did do that we got to have our friend brian need someone else who isn't funny

is exactly as that is we are which is a lower standard than remember coming into this very studio and looking each other and making hay ok now what we do where a speaking of funny as i recall that way than to pitch this idea to you know both you guys just laughed it's the most ridiculous thing in it remember you pitching it to me and asked if i join you and i just left and we both said who would want to listen to a bunch of historians for an hour special if we were talking really about mufflers and great jobs you know things like that olive there's another members we were in not allowed i know to mention that show very popular on public radio a ballots automobile so it really was bad it was forbidden as was the word historiography in years and i can say whenever you know we were like yeah

you're right because it was seen as rude to class aa and also deep compared to disadvantaged at versailles were most popular shows on radio at the time it didn't take long for us to realize this is not going to be a lot of car talk we do have a kind of expertise people might be curious about your shirt that's what was in common and you're not related but we were good friends and decided we would mark on this adventure on our own and just take you were everywhere and one thing i do remember about the early days is that camaraderie seemed to come through to our listeners if i can use wood choral effect the fed fed i'm sure all our spouses you talked about collins remind us is that we are richly and radio show imus a hotline was what it was and the fact that you know it was very heartening early on some radio stations in virginia particular serve take a leap of faith with a special remembered it mr a and hear some burden in the shenandoah valley is desperate to well run it and people liked it

well and to get ready for the big time we auditioned with live radio and you remember that the five transfers is ethically they were on a call in show i think was a norfolk radio station and a color called in with a very understandable question you wanted to know if william and mary the university was founded on a pirate's booty and all three of us are sitting around the table ej pointing at the other person to answer so you never did answer that question only to come up with another question what would be a better organizing principle for radio show and we decided that okay you've already working to come up with a theme each week actually ridgely was each month because it was too much work to imagine doing this in an alienated half weeks into the swirling invented several years ago and the idea was you know okay if we did have a famed what would hold it

together the people but remember this cause and i mention it to me last week people often say hey i really liked you on the radio and as odd that older listeners who don't really know the podcast i can wander where we went and one said you know i really love your show a lot that we needed to different centuries mean the original idea was that peter was eighteen and seventy the sixteenth centuries i was it a guy exactly and that was the the idea we were brothers but we were dividing things up by all fought over the twenty for such yeah that's right and we you know pretended to ease have the true answer is american history which invariably play in order for soldiers with that we quickly discovered it always was in the nineties century but prosperity unless you got the photons is on things never die so you know i think that that actually worked for quite a few years and it built in some narrative tension into the show right in a hacker we claimed to have been the pivotal moment you're

there i think the thing that's made the show so interesting for us are the guests that we've had to show its hundreds of people now have joined us and they had shown their faith in us that we will asked the question is it will reveal the really interesting stuff that they had discovered and you know i would imagine there's that many people who've explored this mini topics american who they have to confess there is one thing i miss very much more hasn't even though it requested ever so briefly yeah that is a segment that i invented him did the research for called hear from our ideas come back to me ah the sound of the harps and also now they realize that ryan are known twentieth century historian persistent hatching puzzles to humiliate us on now you mean it's here from history here is that what that ophir don't worry man you with your eighteenth century rationalism and me with the nineties a tremendous isn't or more than a match

for our modernist friend a well ok so they lack of death you'll recall that last week i describe not just one but two pieces of gear we actually had a double gear a bubble year wouldn't that would better i'm not car talk yet i don't hear from yesteryear did that theater and one item replace the other now i want you to know not to put you on the spot guys literally dozens of listeners wrote in saying yes they thought it was easy ok but i'm glad you kept the faith in your earlier idea that's the funny thing about backstory we don't really fixate on the pasture and we talk about history but we're pretty forward looking relic and one thing thats remain constant is it will try different strategies to connect with his brought an audience possible for this history possible and amazingly there are

other people trying to do that in their own way and exactly the side issue that we would get the backstory prize for public history i'm here with our executive editor david statehouse and our researcher michael blair i am it's a rare opportunity to dig into wee wee all the behind the scenes the backstory of backstory of david also with you we managed to survive for almost ten years without a backstory prize why a backstory prize in the first place budgeting to show this year in and buy store his tenth year which is a big achievement for shelter to start off as a politician to make a successful transition to podcast and so one of things i did was i sat down with my colleagues and producers to say headley markets what do we do with a lot of conversations are the best

way to mark ten years and what we concluded at that meeting was what advice do you do well they will buy sodas great history and we communicate that with a big audience and so then the idea came why don't we set up a prize to recognize the people who are doing the same kind of great work that we try to do you were doing great research new discoveries helping focus out to white audiences idea caught a recent on the stress economy communicated a what well and so it was a short short little jump to come up with the idea that we should create the banks doing price tomorrow great public history that reaches a wider audience had to get down well i think that was the challenge you know and monica does wonderful message for us initially by week and so it was a time that i kind of passed on to have said i would you like you to come up with a long list and you can always a great moments i'm in a hundred a single mom yeah just over a hundred he's looking at you monica though i'm monica ali researcher here

at backstory and what i do is a lot of the research before the shows come out to i write you a long ten page perhaps about the directions that history is moving on a particular subject and this was really a dude kind of prepped for me and that i wasn't just thinking about the history of a particular subject boasting about the history of public history how to weave put history out into the world and we make it seen and known and certainly i think back story itself is an effort this to try and move what we learn and no outside of the classroom into people's cars and houses than gm loses they were doubtless and whether they're trapped yet whenever wherever they're trapped in elevators up that also wasn't too and so what i really did for this is i started thinking about what is public history were kind of forms kennett take and so certainly podcasts were on my list but i also thought ouch movies museum exhibit that's play is also to different kinds of ways of

reaching the public in in ways that i really engaging and novel and so then once i had a broad list of categories i started really digging into things that have been produced in the last year in that particular mode so for instance with museum exhibit aisle i started out thinking about some big names right the smithsonian exhibits museums in california in chicago in big cities but also tried to capture some of the smaller more grassroots work as well and some of the hughes exhibits get a lot of press so they get reviewed an academic journals of public history or they get reviewed in the new york times or the washington post that so these smaller exhibits i don't necessarily get back on a price but i think that both levels do really important work on the ground and in the world at large for enhancing our understanding of history and of our world today some it you gotta close will get roughly a hundred projects gets a sense of the range in which ones

really stood out to you well the range was quite large and so with films you have things like mud bound for a podcast you have nikki hammers a twelve which spoke to me in a really personal level being from charlottesville uva in terms of exhibits of course we highlighted big national projects but i also really loved a project by the students at the university of missouri kansas they had a public history class that made a project on the making of lgbt q history in kansas city and i thought this was a wonderful example of the way that students themselves can also be producers of really great public yesterday it was set in a day sure pulled off a professional product they really did and they had a traveling exhibit and a great web site you can check out some earlier this year all of us backstory host sat

down with all along and i mean long list that monica had created for a morning long judging meeting here in charlottesville who chaired by executive editor david steinhaus and joined by two special guests who have both fans of backstory chris jackson most famous is george washington in the musical hamilton mr billy shetterly the author of the best selling history book hidden figures before we sat down i grabbed a word with him i'm delighted to be here with my version only increased jackson who was thanks for serving on our panel of judges that asked both of you why you listen you crazy along i mean you know i was really intrigued by this idea of a prize that is dedicated to public history so often we think of his reading of history books textbooks classrooms and let history public history in history something that's relevant to all of us as part of our daily lives you know we'd we don't necessarily know

how it's shaping that they think pulling on a curtain back online history and really telling the public this is something that you need to now i think that's a unique proposition so i was really excited to purchase that well or so ago it democrats want to get entangled in this everywhere huge hurry if he is living in reading and as we do so i already is urging zardari signs mr sassoon so they move through the space and an end and that was our relationships in a way that that creates new history by acknowledging where he'd been the hole that has laws and houses continues the conversation forward oh for their understanding and engines are today and i think that sometimes there were ten years of invincibility is that they're fearless

flawless on the work that he's also world we've asked you to make your way through dozens of entries for this prize phones ms zeman exhibitions websites hiatus box it till it was a strategy one of the things that are recognized as bad press and eyes and why are depending on whether they are imaginary a reason reid says wilkinson things that i didn't know i was like why is there is a backstory it is and so that's what's most ingenious work and as as a really are good businesses getting enough material

last minute here well well intent that was used to what is by the way oh i you know mice races and whether or not their eyes analyst i immediately recognized it is really curious about that once they did that once they hand hurt out on that were you know on a list that that for some reason have been selected as important public history so i resent that at netflix queue and you know musicians visit from now until you know twenty twenty or whenever i don't know that that was a very exciting thing i think that's really one of the wonderful things about the back story about this warrick is the sense of discovery but was time for the meeting to begin floating village of oprah marched thank you so much for us it isn't time to go through this list is the restaurant with us and i think it's a great way to mark fox a recent research one advisory does the wealth was a great history what are some quotes that i cut she

was so i hold today we have with and they greet one man who will represent the best kind of aspects of us and some amazing meals are a sort of history majors a big big audience and of course because they are multi disciplinary is going to make to challenge because we'll get your eyes even though the protests have been so what proposed to do is you rent a table and ask you whether you could let me know just a headline for a future mars what you were told three or four or five ones a few hours away he suggests this tower and horatio for all for those three hundred an intrinsic

essence in and civic value is that they seem to think about form more than seventy others which are relatively straightforward patients are actually running it wages he's justice and will differ but that simply because it really i need deeds have a podcast in a discussion i have long been a huge fan of the bbc broadcast witness yes he says a lot of these diseases they are kind of a

ritual or wire money so it was the section on that as the nazis were the rally i was bored round website designer who has worked on both sides of the charges and they know where he did yesterday the way to the president oh good job do you know yet in me grant immunity

we're just in trouble ed lee one month does the meanderings and i mean it really shows you the power of public television talk weezer otters in contemporary moment in our brains you know very close to the present in a way that i said you know i was like yes i hear you

vietnam forty three now so i was dead twice roberts actually get through it and one thing that struck me was you know one that spanned so many years all my generation was the thought my parents were affected were related while they were having my generation on and i found that as you know in some way it was and so he's very plain words you know a us soldier in the backyard as i was struck by the fact that we were playing those warriors as you know the generals as a nation what are now airlines had no i didn't because what was so rash i don't always was cousin was the great

ray eyes or years and we spoke about how he wasn't i was it was the last time the world was fun but i have to say when i first saw the list of problem that i had was when treasury you so for example if there's you can hear or you know i was small the marathon to a fictional one is not actual history that represents history is in a hurry when i i think if we separated out it might be easier to buy her experience in a show band ellington not how i help people say well you know you had to cameron's there's isn't easy and nurses without it goes made that choice than he owes yeah well because of that sort of war war so if these

races are very low oh you know we're that's necessary for rent and that will be well now that taps into universal every easily visit its dependency of the black and white a serious right now there's a way for us all as we use our own backstory and some ways is the discovery of people and stories and perspectives that are not otherwise heard and if we were making a surprise you what's in the spirit of the teen years and work every day is a surprise and

reviews them for one hundred years in the end after a four hour that's for our meeting and it was the unanimous decision of the backstory prize jury that the winner of the first backstory prize should be the national memorial for peace and justice in montgomery alabama and you know bryan this is so immediately powerful so it's a monument to lynching to the hidden obscured history of men who were taken and illegally hang from trees and light poles and street lamps all these terrible things right and the monument evokes the horror of that in a symbolic way so for every lynching victim there is a heavy stone monolith hanging from the ceiling of the building with the name of the place where it happened it's cried like a tombstone on it and then outside of that building

they have the slabs with the same inscriptions laying on the ground awaiting people from those counties to come clean them to take them back home and to acknowledge their cameras complicity in these crimes you know that the project began by collecting dirt in jars from all the places where the lynchings had taken place and so not only were we impressed by the bravery of acknowledging this history which is deeply researched which hasn't you know years of historical examination behind it but also by the vision but record to be better by acknowledging this history yet it's that interactive nature ed that i was so struck by eighty eight it is a digital age this is a way of taking a concrete mingling it with our historical memory and pretty much shouting out to much of america you need to own this you need to

take responsibility for this you need to take these slabs back to your own community to remember them forever and you start seeing the impact of this hearing shots or really just a few hundred yards from were re record a lynching for onto a century was discovered and there's an effort here to acknowledge to memorialize the lynching so you know this is not really a monument that someone place that does the work of one place that radiates out across the country so it seems that as much as we admired all the other acts of history the slasher this one emerging in april of twenty eighteen seem to be sort of a landmark in the ways that we might think about parts of history that we thought could never be memorialized now we see that they can in fact dead a group of charlottesville visited the national memorial for peace and justice and two thousand eighteen while they were there

they heard from bryan stevenson the founder and executive director of the equal justice initiative while this work we all lost this is his original color i want to say so many americans

we're on top of that the articles just last what happens in a he wasn't just was there are many more the collar there is america and a standing ovation

made a sculpture oh yeah oh it really is it is mr lizza yeah what is it first of all they are genes and violence and terrorism that they

were lots and shop and all of the way it is that's bryan stevenson founder of the equal justice initiative and creator of the national memorial piece in chess winner of the first annual there are air on it that's going to do it for us if you're interested in looking at the long list for the backstory prized it's on our website extremely good at it you can keep the conversation going by sending an email to text message and a judge and you are us on

facebook and twitter that's true that whatever you just don't be a stranger funding for the deadly cave kellogg foundation it's not virginia he batted back story change the narrative of race in the nation backstory is produced at virginia humanity's major support is provided by anonymous donors the national endowment for the humanities joseph roberts cornell memorial foundation and the johns hopkins university's additional support provided by the tomato for cultivating fresh ideas in the arts and the humanities and the environment brian balogh is a professor of history at the university of virginia it is a professor of humanities and president emeritus of the university of richmond john freeman is a professor of history and american studies at yale university says nathan connolly is a bike route is associate professor of history at johns hopkins university to lose