Video Podcasts

The Bizarre Plot That Armed the American Revolution

Image of Adel Aali (program host) and his guest, Prof. Joel Richard Paul, superimposed on the Betsy Ross flag, along with images of Silas Deane (the shopkeeper), Pierre-Augustin de Beaumarchais (the playwright), and Chevalière d'Éon (the spy). Visit AARevolution.net for more images of the American Revolution and for interviews of scholars with Adel Aali.

Introduction In this interview: “What he doesn’t realize is that Bancroft is getting two salaries… one from Deane… and one from the British.” Watch this segment in the video below (00:24:59) Why did Benjamin Franklin send a Connecticut shopkeeper who spoke no French and had hardly traveled outside of Connecticut to France? How and why […]

Why France Backed the American Revolution (And Got Nothing in Return)

The featured image brings together images of Dr. Rafe Blaufarb and Adel Aali from the interview, superimposed on the Betsy Ross flag, alongside John Trumbull's iconic painting titled Surrender of Lord Cornwallis, which now hangs in the rotunda of the U.S. Congress. Click here to learn about Trumbull's life, the painting's backstory, and an important person who is surprisingly missing from this painting.

Introduction In this interview: “Well, here’s the mindset of the French government. Coming out of the defeat, the humiliating, crushing defeat of the Seven Years’ War, the dominant mood in the French government among, really, the movers and shakers of that country is, really simple, revenge, revenge, revenge on England…. And the United States, North […]