Drafting the Past

Host Kate Carpenter is joined by drug historian Dr. Emily Dufton to talk about researching and writing Emily's newest book, Addiction, Inc.: Medication-Assisted Treatment and America's Forgotten War on Drugs.

Emily holds a PhD in American studies and works full-time as a writer. Her first book was Grass Roots: The Rise and Fall and Rise of Marijuana in America. Thanks to her expertise in drug history, she regularly serves as a commentator on cannabis history and news, and she also writes essays and op eds for public outlets.

Addiction, Inc. tells the history of medication-assisted treatment for illicit drug addiction, beginning with its emergence during President Richard Nixon's war on drugs in the 1970s as a radical approach to public health. From there she traces the controversies, missed opportunities, and privatization that have scrambled access to what is considered the gold standard of addiction treatment, even as America wrestles with an opioid overdose epidemic. Emily is the recipient of multiple awards that supported the book's creation, including a J. Anthony Lukas Works-in-Progress Award, a Robert B. Silvers Grant, and a Whiting Creative Nonfiction Grant.

We spoke about the process of applying for those awards and why writers should try for grants, the home disaster that derailed the beginnings of this project, and how she balances feedback with her own vision for her book—even when there is A LOT of feedback. You'll also hear about whether she finds it lonely to write outside of an institution, and why she suggests that more historians pick up the phone and call their sources.
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Mentioned in this episode

Emily Dufton's website
Emily Dufton, Addiction, Inc: Medication-Assisted Treatment and America's Forgotten War on Drugs
Emily Dufton, Grass Roots: The Rise and Fall and Rise of Marijuana in America
J. Anthony Lukas Prize
Robert B. Silvers Foundation Works-in-Progress grants
Whiting Creative Nonfiction Grant Pauline Kael's work at the New Yorker

In this episode, host Kate Carpenter is joined by Dr. Daniel Neep to talk about his new book, Syria: A Modern History.
Daniel is a non-resident fellow at the Crown Center for Middle East Studies at Brandeis University and is currently senior editor at the Arab Center Washington DC, a think tank focused on the relationship between the Arab world and the US. Previously, he has worked as a faculty member, researcher, and leader at universities, NGOs, and research centers as he seeks to bridge academic work and institution building. He is the author of a previous book on Syria, as well as many articles and analyses in a wide variety of venues. His new book tells the history of Syria from the 1800s through the fall of the Assad regime in December 2024, focusing on how the Syrian people themselves have understood and advocated for their country's politics, economic relationships and social structures.
Kate and Daniel talked about how his many years steeped in research about the Arab world and Syria went into this book, and how he thought about its structure and purpose. We also talked about some of the quirks of publishing a book in both the US and the UK, including how this one book has two slightly different titles, and about what it's like to be writing and revising a book when the ending is changing in real time.
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Mentioned in this episode:
Daniel Neep's website
Daniel Neep, Syria: A Modern History (US version)
Daniel Neep, A Modern History of Syria (UK version)
Daniel Neep, Occupying Syria Under the French Mandate
Arab Center Washington D.C.
Timothy Mitchell, Colonizing Egypt
Timothy Mitchell, Rule of Experts: Egypt, Techno-Politics, Modernity
Michael Mann, The Sources of Social Power, Vol. 1

In this episode, Kate is joined by Dr. John Garrison Marks, whose new book is Thy Will Be Done: George Washington's Legacy of Slavery and the Fight for American Memory. This is a fantastic book that takes a careful, and often surprising look, at how generations of Americans have remembered and forgotten George Washington's relationship to slavery and used that memory to bolster their own arguments.

John Garrison Marks is the vice president of research and engagement at the American Association for State and Local History, so he is steeped in the role of public history across the country. He is the author of a previous book, Black Freedom in the Age of Slavery, and co-editor of an anthology. John has written essays and op-eds for outlets including TIME and Smithsonian Magazine. Recently, his expertise on the memory of Washington's relationship to slavery became particularly relevant when the National Park Service removed an exhibit about the history of slavery at the President's House in Philadelphia, and John was ready to jump into the fray and offer vital historical context. I asked John about the relationship between his work with public historians and how he thinks about writing history, as well as how he manages to write while having a busy day job and a young family.

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Mentioned in this episode:

John Garrison Marks, Thy Will Be Done: George Washington's Legacy of Slavery and the Fight for American Memory
John Garrison Marks, Black Freedom in the Age of Slavery: Race, Status, and Identity in the Urban Americas
John's website
American Association for State and Local History (AASLH)
John Garrison Marks, "We've Never Agreed About George Washington and Slavery," TIME
Write Now with Scrivener Episode 60: John Garrison Marks, Historian
Mary V. Thompson, The Only Unavoidable Subject of Regret: George Washington, Slavery, and the Enslaved Community at Mount Vernon
Bill Hader's excellent writing advice
John Vaillant, Fire Weather: On the Front Lines of a Burning World
David Grann, The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder
Megan Greenwell, Bad Company: Private Equity and the Death of the American Dream Amanda Mull, "Do You Want a Boring Floor Lamp or an Ugly Floor Lamp?,"The Atlantic
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In this episode, Kate welcomes back episode 1 guest Dr. Megan Kate Nelson as the very first return guest on Drafting the Past! Megan is a historian and the author of five books, and a Pulitzer Prize finalist. In our first conversation, we talked about Megan's writing process, favorite writing advice, and more. But in this episode, we're going deeper! While we talk about Megan's new book, The Westerners: Mythmaking and Belonging on the American Frontier, she's sharing a look behind the scenes at the timeline of a trade press book, how she balances promoting one book and researching the next one, and even some of the behind-the-scenes drama. Plus, she let me take a look at the book's original proposal, and share FIVE failed proposals before she landed on a winner for her next book. This episode is a rare glimpse into the nitty gritty of publishing as a trade press historian, and you're going to get a ton out of it. Plus, stick around to the end—we have a little (okay, BIG) announcement to share!
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Mentioned in this episode:
Megan Kate Nelson, The Westerners: Mythmaking and Belonging on the American Frontier
 

Megan Kate Nelson, Saving Yellowstone: Exploration and Preservation in Reconstruction America
 

Megan Kate Nelson, The Three Cornered-War: The Union, the Confederacy, and Native Peoples in the Fight for the West
 

Megan Kate Nelson, Ruin Nation: Destruction and the American Civil War
 

Megan Kate Nelson, Trembling Earth: A Cultural History of the Okefenokee Swamp
 

Drafting the Past Episode 1: Megan Kate Nelson Experiments with Structure
 

Isabel Wilkerson, The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration

Before we get to the episode, I need a favor: Will you take a minute to fill out this survey about Drafting the Past, and let me know what is and isn't working for you about the show? It will help me bring even better episodes to you. Thanks in advance for your help!
In this episode, I'm happy to welcome historian of religion Dr. Matthew Avery Sutton. Matt's newest book is called Chosen Land: How Christianity Made America and Americans Remade Christianity, following the relationship between Christianity and the nation from the arrival of the first Europeans up to Donald Trump's second term in office. Matt is the author of three previous books, along with an edited collection and a documentary history, and he regularly writes about the history of Christianity in America for a general audience. We talked about how he thinks about all those different audiences and how he keeps writing so much despite many personal and professional responsibilities—including seven years as department chair.

Mentioned in this episode:

Matthew Avery Sutton, Chosen Land: How Christianity Made America and Americans Remade Christianity
Matthew Avery Sutton, Double Crossed: The Missionaries Who Spied for the United States During the Second World War
Matthew Avery Sutton, American Apocalypse: A History of Modern Evangelicalism
Matthew Avery Sutton, Aimee Semple McPherson and the Resurrection of Christian America
American Experience: Sister Aimee
Jane Sherron De Hart, Ruth Bader Ginsburg: A Life
Grant Wacker, Heaven Below: Early Pentecostals and American Culture
David Hollinger
Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
John le Carré
Jill Lepore, These Truths: A History of the United States
Matthew Avery Sutton, "The antichrist has long haunted American politics. Now it's rearing its head again," The Guardian
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