Drafting the Past

Kate Carpenter
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  • HISTORY
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Drafting the Past is a podcast devoted to the craft of writing history. Each episode features an interview with a historian about the joys and challenges of their work as a writer.

  1. 9H AGO

    From the Archive: Isabela Morales Protects the Writer's Spirit

    Note that bookshop.org links are affiliate links that generate a small commission to support the show if you purchase books using these links. Sign up for the Drafting the Past newsletter for updates on the show and more. Hi everybody! I'm taking this week off to work on some things behind the scenes, so I wanted to talk this chance to replay an episode from early in the podcast that I love. I know many of you are devoted listeners who have listened to every episode of the show, but in case you're newer to the podcast, here's a chance to revisit an earlier interview. Back in August 2022, I first released my interview with Dr. Isabela Morales. She had recently published her first book, Happy Dreams of Liberty, and she was working multiple jobs in public history. I particularly love this episode because Isabela speaks so poignantly about her commitment to narrative history and holding on to that writerly spirit in graduate school. I'm very pleased to report that after we spoke, Happy Dreams of Liberty went on to win multiple well-deserved book awards, including the prestigious Frederick Douglass Book Prize in 2023. I reached out to Isabela for an update on what she's working on these days. At the end of 2025, she wrapped up her time at the Stoutsburg Sourland African American Museum, and is now working full-time on her second book. She hinted at that book at the end of this interview, and it's now under contract with Liveright for W. W. Norton and tentatively titled The Black Widow of Hazel Green. Here's what Isabela told me about that book: It is a biography of Elizabeth Dale, a wealthy white plantation mistress and enslaver in antebellum Alabama, who was married six times and to this day is rumored to have murdered some or all of her husbands. While I think six dead husbands is enough to pique most people's interest, I also find Elizabeth Dale interesting historically as an embodiment of white women's deep but often-overlooked complicity in the institution of slavery. Having read Happy Dream of Liberty, I am eagerly awaiting Isabela's new book. In the meantime, though, it's inspiring to revisit this conversation with her. Even if you're heard this one before, I think you'll be rejuvenated by another listen. And if it's your first time, you're in for a treat. I'll be back next week with another fantastic new episode. Until then, please enjoy this marvelous interview from the archive, with Dr. Isabela Morales. Original show notes: For this episode of Drafting the Past, I interviewed Dr. Isabela Morales, writer and public historian. She is the editor and project manager of  The Princeton & Slavery Project and the digital projects manager at the Stoutsburg Sourland African American Museum, central New Jersey's first Black history museum. ​Dr. Morales received her Ph.D. in history from Princeton University in 2019, specializing in the 19th-century United States, slavery, and emancipation. Her first book, Happy Dreams of Liberty: An American Family in Slavery and Freedom, was published earlier this year by Oxford University Press. We talked about how work as a public historian influences her writing, why guinea pigs are essential to her process, and the fiction she reads to learn how to evoke a place and time. MENTIONED IN THE SHOW: Find Isabela Morales on Twitter, @IsabelaWrites Evernote, the software Isabela uses for organizing her research Tiya Miles, Ties that Bind Martha Sandweiss, Passing Strange Erik Larson, The Devil in the White City Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall and A Place of Greater Safety Martha Hodes, The Sea Captain's Wife Daniel Sharfstein, The Invisible Line Suzanne Lebsock, A Murder in Virginia

    40 min

  2. FEB 3

    Heather Ann Thompson Evokes the Moment

    In this episode, host Kate Carpenter interviews historian Dr. Heather Ann Thompson. Heather is the author of three books. The first was Whose Detroit? Politics, Labor, and Race in a Modern American City, which was first published in 2002. Her second book, published in 2016, was the astonishing Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and Its Legacy. Blood in the Water won far more honors than I can list, most notably the Pulitzer Prize in History. And her newest book, which came out last week, is Fear and Fury: The Reagan Eighties, the Bernie Goetz Shootings, and the Rebirth of White Rage. It's already drawing lots of well-deserved praise, and in this episode we'll talk more about how Heather learned to bring gripping accounts of historical events to life. In case that wasn't enough, Heather is a professor at the University of Michigan, the co-editor of two books series, and regularly writes for public outlets. She served as the consultant for the Academy Award-nominated documentary ATTICA, and is a co-founder of History Studio, a consulting firm that aims to connect historians and the entertainment industry. Honestly, if I kept telling you all the cool things she has done we would never get to the interview, but you can see why I've been eager to learn more about her work. You're going to love hearing about it too. Mentioned in this episode: Heather Ann Thompson, Fear and Fury: The Reagan Eighties, the Bernie Goetz Shootings, and the Rebirth of White Rage Heather Ann Thompson, Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and Its Legacy Heather Ann Thompson, Whose Detroit? Politics, Labor, and Race in a Modern American City Evernote The Fear and Fury audiobook, narrated by Erin Bennett Heather Ann Thompson, "How the Bernie Goetz Shootings Explain the Trump Era," The Atlantic, January 26, 2026 Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness Elliot Williams, Five Bullets: The Story of Bernie Goetz, New York's Explosive '80s, and the Subway Vigilante Trial That Divided the Nation Isabelle Allende Arundhati Roy W. E. B. DuBois Kimberlé Crenshaw Elizabeth Hinton LaShawn Harris, Tell Her Story: Eleanor Bumpurs & the Police Killing That Galvanized New York City Bench Ansfield, Born in Flames: The Business of Arson and the Remaking of the American City Jonathan Mahler, The Gods of New York: Egotists, Idealists, Opportunists, and the Birth of the Modern City: 1986-1990 Note that bookshop.org links are affiliate links that generate a small commission to support the show if you purchase books using these links. For a complete transcript, visit draftingthepast.com. Sign up for the Drafting the Past newsletter for updates on the show and more.

    47 min

  3. JAN 27

    Fahad Bishara Tells the Story of a World in Motion

    In this episode of Drafting the Past, host Kate Carpenter is joined by Dr. Fahad Bishara. Fahad is an associate professor at the University of Virginia, but he is currently on leave and teaching at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies. His first book, A Sea of Debt: Law and Economic Life in the Western Indian Ocean, 1780-1950, won multiple awards. His second book, which came out in 2025, is Monsoon Voyagers: An Indian Ocean History. In it, he follows one year of the voyages of a single dhow, a type of sailing ship, and its captain and crew as it travels around the Persian Gulf and Western Indian Ocean. Working at multiple scales, from the details of daily ship life to the circulation of goods and ideas across the Gulf, Fahad gives us a new, ocean-based perspective on Middle Eastern history. It's also a beautifully written book, and I was eager to talk with Fahad about his inventive structure, how he organized his materials, and more. You're going to get a lot out of this conversation with Dr. Fahad Bishara.   Note that bookshop.org links are affiliate links that generate a small commission to support the show if you purchase books using these links. Sign up for the Drafting the Past newsletter for updates on the show and more. Mentioned in this episode: A Sea of Debt: Law and Economic Life in the Western Indian Ocean, 1780-1950 Monsoon Voyagers: An Indian Ocean History OneNote DevonThink Jack Hart, Storycraft: The Complete Guide to Writing Narrative Nonfiction Robert Harms, The Diligent: A Voyage Through the Worlds of the Slave Trade Greeking Out podcast Nicholas Thomas, Discoveries: The Voyages of Captain Cook In Episode 18 of Drafting the Past, Adam Sowards talked about trying to get three senses into a description Whichever episode someone talks about senses Greg Dening, Islands and Beaches: Discourses on a Silent Land: Marquesas, 1774-1880 Laila Lalami, The Moor's Account Brinkley Messick Engseng Ho This American Life Planet Money and the episode with their formula for storytelling, Episode 1000 The Indicator

    55 min

  4. JAN 20

    Shaun Richman Wants to Know Who the Rats Were

    In this episode, host Kate Carpenter interviews labor historian Dr. Shaun Richman. Shaun is a program director at SUNY Empire State College, and he recently completed his PhD in American Studies. But before that, he spent more than a decade as a union organizer and representative. That experience inspires much of his writing, including two books, magazine articles, and op-eds in numerous outlets. His first book was Tell the Bosses We're Coming: A New Action Plan for Workers in the Twenty-First Century. His second book, which came out in 2025, is We Always Had a Union: The New York Hotel Workers' Union, 1912-1953. In addition to being an enthusiastic labor historian, Shaun has a personal connection to this history, as a onetime member of one of the union's featured in the narrative. We talked about how that perspective shapes his work, how he found his way to writing history after years as a labor organizer, and why he's determined to write books that other labor organizers will want to read. Note that bookshop.org links are affiliate links that generate a small commission to support the show if you purchase books using these links. For links to the books we talked about and a complete transcript, visit draftingthepast.com. Sign up for the Drafting the Past newsletter for updates on the show and more. Mentioned in this episode: ·       Shaun's website: https://shaunrichman.com/ ·       Shaun Richman, Tell the Bosses We're Coming: A New Action Plan for Workers in the Twenty-First Century ·       Shaun Richman, We Always Had a Union: The New York Hotel Workers' Union, 1912-1953 ·       Nick Salvatore, Eugene V. Debs: Citizen and Socialist ·       Ray Ginger, The Bending Cross: A Biography of Eugene V. Debs ·       George Orwell, A Collection of Essays ·       Michael Harrington ·       Ahmed White, The Last Great Strike: Little Steel, the CIO, and the Struggle for Labor Rights in New Deal America and Under the Iron Heel: The Wobblies and the Capitalist War on Radical Workers

    42 min

  5. JAN 13

    Renata Keller Makes Space for Herself Through Writing

    In this episode of Drafting the Past, you'll hear from a historian who had to figure out how to wrangle narratives from twenty different countries to tell a new history of the Cuban Missile Crisis. But keeping track of all those threads wasn't her only formidable challenge. In this episode, host Kate Carpenter is joined by historian Dr. Renata Keller. Dr. Keller is a professor at the University of Nevada and a historian of Modern Latin America. She is the author of two books, Mexico's Cold War: Cuba, the United States, and the Legacy of the Mexican Revolution, and The Fate of the Americas: The Cuban Missile Crisis and the Hemispheric Cold War. I was eager to talk with Renata about how she grappled with the wide-ranging source material for The Fate of the Americas, but I also wanted to talk with her about another challenge: writing a book while dealing with the isolation of new parenthood, the struggle of postpartum depression and anxiety, and the exhaustion of balancing parenthood and research. In this conversation, you'll hear how she made space for herself and her writing, both physically and mentally, while working on her book. Note that bookshop.org links are affiliate links that generate a small commission to support the show if you purchase books using these links. Sign up for the Drafting the Past newsletter for updates on the show and more.   Mentioned in this episode: Renata Keller, Mexico's Cold War: Cuba, the United States, and the Legacy of the Mexican Revolution Renata Keller, The Fate of the Americas: The Cuban Missile Crisis and the Hemispheric Cold War Zotero Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Velvet Was the Night Anne Rice, The Witching Hour Historias podcast, which includes the special series on the Cuban Missile Crisis that Renata co-produced Drafting the Past Episode 16: Abby Mullen Finds Focus

    41 min

  6. JAN 6

    Jeff Roche Knows Exactly Who His Reader Is

    This is the first episode of 2026, which means that we are at the beginning of the fifth season of this show. That's a lot of great conversations about writing history, and I want to thank you for being here for them. There are many more to come this year! First up, in this episode I'm talking with Dr. Jeff Roche, author of the new book The Conservative Frontier: Texas and the Origins of the New Right. Jeff is a professor of history at the College of Wooster in Ohio. Along with his new book, he is the author of Restructured Resistance: The Sibley Commission and the Politics of Desegregation in Georgia and the editor of two additional books. I'll confess to you that I wasn't entirely sure about this book when the press first reached out to tell me about it, but it blew me away. The history is fascinating, but even more, Jeff's writing is lively, smart, and often funny. I was excited to get to ask Jeff about how the book came together and how he has developed such an engaging writing voice. You'll even learn why he considered '90s hip-hop and Texas country music to be essential to his writing process. Note that bookshop.org links are affiliate links that generate a small commission to support the show if you purchase books using these links. For links to the books we talked about and a complete transcript, visit draftingthepast.com. Sign up for the Drafting the Past newsletter for updates on the show and more.

    39 min

  7. 12/30/2025

    The Best History Books You Read This Year

    Welcome back to Drafting the Past, and to the final episode of 2025. This  episode is all about you! I asked listeners to call in and share the best history books they read in 2025, and they delivered. We've got history books covering a huge range of subjects. Some were published recently, some as long as 90 years ago. Some are about huge subjects, others about tiny places. We even let one historical novel sneak into the mix. It's a reminder that the Drafting the Past community is awesome, full of thoughtful, smart listeners who love talking about great history writing just as much as I do. In this episode, you'll hear from some of those listeners, and, if you're anything like me, you'll add a bunch of new books to your reading list.   For links to the books we talked about and a complete transcript, visit draftingthepast.com. Sign up for the Drafting the Past newsletter for updates on the show and more.

    19 min

  8. 12/23/2025

    Amy Erdman Farrell Leaps Into Something New

    I have a soft spot for historians who follow their curiosity through a range of subjects that might, at first glance, seem unrelated. So I was especially delighted to get to interview this episode's guest, Dr. Amy Erdman Farrell. Amy is a professor and endowed chair of American Studies and Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies at Dickinson College. Her first book was Yours in Sisterhood: Ms. Magazine and the Promise of Popular Feminism. From there, she wrote a second book titled Fat Shame: Stigma and the Fat Body in American Culture, followed by an edited collection, The Contemporary Reader of Gender and Fat Studies. For her newest book, out earlier this year, she turned her focus to an American institution: the Girl Scouts. The book is called Intrepid Girls: The Complicated History of the Girl Scouts of the USA. I was eager to talk more with Amy about how she has come to each of her books, how her publishing career has unfolded, and especially her decision to sign with an agent to represent her most recent book. A little extra note for this episode: Amy followed up after we spoke to tell me that she forgot to add an additional important note about her organization and research process. Here's what she had to say: "The key for me is: my paper notebook! For both Fat Shame and Intrepid Girls I have always carried a paper notebook (turned out to be two for Intrepid Girls) in which I would take notes along the way, jotting down the date, where I was doing research, and perhaps more detailed notes depending upon the archive and the context. It was really fundamental to my process. I carried it everywhere. I referred to it constantly in doing my writing, revising, thinking, confirming footnotes, following leads. It's so important I can't believe I didn't mention it." An excellent idea for research--a project notebook! Note that bookshop.org links are affiliate links that generate a small commission to support the show if you purchase books using these links. For links to the books we talked about and a complete transcript, visit draftingthepast.com. Sign up for the Drafting the Past newsletter for updates on the show and more.

    47 min
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About

Drafting the Past is a podcast devoted to the craft of writing history. Each episode features an interview with a historian about the joys and challenges of their work as a writer.

Information

  • Creator
    Kate Carpenter
  • Years Active
    2022 - 2026
  • Episodes
    89
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2025
  • Show Website
    Drafting the Past

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