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Worlds Turned Upside Down
Worlds Turned Upside Down

Worlds Turned Upside Down

Worlds Turned Upside Down tells the story of the American Revolution as a transatlantic crisis and imperial civil war through the lives of people who experienced it. For many modern citizens of the United States, “the cause of America” that gave birth to a new nation in 1776 and the heroic stories we tell ourselves about its founding remains “in great measure the cause of all mankind.” But for the people who lived through it, the revolutionary era upended their lives in ways they could have never imagined. The crisis that engulfed the Atlantic world in the late eighteenth century inspired British Americans, Indigenous nations, enslaved Africans and African Americans, Europeans, and other peoples to question their loyalties, challenge authority, seek freedom, and resist revolutionary change. Worlds Turned Upside Down is narrated and written by Jim Ambuske. It is a production of R2 Studios at George Mason University.

Available Episodes 10

With the Stamp Act defeated, the Sons of Liberty in New York City celebrate by raising a Liberty Pole in tribute to George III, William Pitt, and Liberty, provoking a violent confrontation with British soldiers quartered in the city barracks, who see the wooden mast as a monument to mob rule and a symbol of sedition. 

Featuring: Wendy Bellion, Shira Lurie, Jon Kukla, Patrick Griffin, Brad Jones, Christopher Minty, and John McCurdy

Voice Actors: Adam Smith, Melissa Gismondi, Mills Kelly, Nate Sleeter, Anne Fertig, and Dan Howlett.

Narrated by Jim Ambuske.

Music by Artlist.io

Find the official transcript here.

Worlds Turned Upside Down is a production of R2 Studios at the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media at George Mason University.

In the mid-1760s, British fears that a new war with France was only a matter of time leads King George III and his ministers to draw up plans for a permanent army in North America, and a Stamp Tax on the colonies to pay for it, sparking massive protests in British America and beyond.  

Featuring: Jon Kukla, Patrick Griffin, Brad Jones, Abby Chandler, Alexandra Montgomery, Wendy Bellion, and Cassandra Britt Farrell.

Voice Actors: Adam Smith, Beau Robbins and Mills Kelly.

Narrated by Jim Ambuske.

Find the official transcript here.

Worlds Turned Upside Down is a production of R2 Studios at the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media at George Mason University.

In the 1760s, Jamaica and the islands of the British Caribbean were the crown jewels of Britain's American Empire. And as King George III's ministers searched for solutions to a vexing imperial puzzle and moved to counter a pernicious threat in the aftermath of the Seven Years' War, they looked west from London, to the islands of sugar.

Featuring: Trevor Burnard, Abby Chandler, Mary Draper, Jon Kukla, Andrew O’Shaughnessy, and Brooke Newman.

Voice Actors: Anne Fertig, Norman Rodger, Dan Howlett, Nate Sleeter, and Beau Robbins.

Narrated by Jim Ambuske

Find the official transcript here.

Worlds Turned Upside Down is a production of R2 Studios at the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media at George Mason University.

At the dawn of a new era after the Seven Years’ War, British officials envision commerce and colonies as the key to British independence and its rising glory, but trade in commodities and manufactured goods comes at an awful price.

Featuring: Emma Hart, Scott Miller, Ann Smart Martin, Hannah Knox Tucker, Hannah Farber, and Zara Anishanslin

Voice Actors: Anne Fertig and Adam Smith

Narrated by Jim Ambuske

Find the official transcript here.

Worlds Turned Upside Down is a production of R2 Studios at the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media at George Mason University.

With a blueprint in place for transforming British America into an empire of order, George III's goverment begins sending an army of cartographers to map North America, while diplomats in the colonies open negogiations with native nations to draw a boundary line between British and Indigenous America. 

Featuring: Max Edelson, Maeve Kane, and Alexandra Montgomery

Voice Actors: Amber Pelham, Nate Sleeter, James Craggs, Luke Jenson-Jones, and Beau Robbins

Narrated by Jim Ambuske.

Find the official transcript here.

This episode is made possible with support from the Virginia American Revolution 250 Commission.

Worlds Turned Upside Down is a production of R2 Studios at the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media at George Mason University.

Against the backdrop of Pontiac's War in North America, George III's ministers in London draw on lessons learned in colonial Nova Scotia to begin drafting a blueprint for transforming British America into an empire of order.

Featuring: Fred Anderson, Matthew Dziennik, Max Edelson, and Alexandra Montgomery

Voice Actors: Grace Mallon and Beau Robbins.

Narrated by Jim Ambuske.

Find the official transcript here.

This episode is made possible with support from the John Carter Brown Library, an independent research library located on the campus of Brown University. 

Worlds Turned Upside Down is a production of R2 Studios at the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media at George Mason University.

As the British began to assert control over North America in the wake of the Seven Years' War, the actions of British American settlers and the messages of a native prophet convinced some Indigenous peoples throughout the Ohio Country and beyond that resistance through force was the best way to preserve their sovereignty and usher in the revitalization of their communities.

Featuring: Fred Anderson, George Ironstrack, Maeve Kane, and Hayley Madl.

Voice Actors: Anne Fertig, Kathyrn Gehred,  David Mckenzie, Loren Moulds, Angel-Luke O’Donnell, Norman Rodger, and Brandon Tachco.

Narrated by Jim Ambuske.

Find the official transcript here.

Worlds Turned Upside Down is a production of R2 Studios at the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media at George Mason University.

Great Britain's conquest of New France in North America and its victory in the Seven Years' War inspired British subjects on both sides of the Atlantic to look forward to a future they could see but through a glass darkly, as they struggled to make sense of the world that lay ahead, and the cost of the war they had won.

Featuring: Fred Anderson, Christian Ayne Crouch, Max Edelson, Kathleen DuVal, Patrick Griffin, and Jon Kukla.

Voice Actors: Norman Roger, Anne Fertig, Nicholas Cole, Spencer McBride, and John Turner.

Narrated by Jim Ambuske.

Find the official transcript here.

Worlds Turned Upside Down is a production of R2 Studios at the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media at George Mason University.

Following three years of stinging defeats in the Seven Years' War, the British begin to turn the tide against the French in North America in no small measure because Indigenous peoples decided the war should end.

Featuring: Fred Anderson, Christian Ayne Crouch, Matthew Dziennik, Julie Flavell, John McCurdy, and Serena Zabin.

Voice Actors: Dan Howlett, Alexandre Rios-Bordes, Michael Newton, Brandon Tachco, and Emmanuel Dubois.

Narrated by Jim Ambuske.

Find the official transcript here.

Worlds Turned Upside Down is a production of R2 Studios at the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media at George Mason University.

Following the outbreak of the Seven Years' War in North America, the British and French begin mobilizing for war and appoint commanders-in-chief to lead the war effort, only to clash with colonists over how power, authority, and honor should be used in the colonies. Meanwhile, Indigenous peoples like the Haudenosaunee and the Delaware weigh their options as the fighting engulfs eastern North America. 

Featuring: Fred Anderson, Katherine Carté, Christian Ayne Crouch, Patrick Griffin, Hayley Madl, and John McCurdy 

Voice Actors: Alexandra Krebs, Grace Mallon, Spencer McBride, Norman Rodger, Alexandre Rios-Bordes, Nate Sleeter, and Emmanuel Dubois.

Narrated by Jim Ambuske.

Find the official transcript here.

Worlds Turned Upside Down is a production of R2 Studios at the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media at George Mason University.