Jon Kukla, Ph.D.

Jon Kukla, Ph.D. Profile Photo

Historian and Author

After completing my PhD residence in the 1970s my day jobs involved executive leadership in libraries, publishing, archives, and museums - but after defending my dissertation in 1980 I continued to publish scholarship and reviews in the major history journals like my contemporaries in degree-granting institutions.

I've been interested in Early American and British history since college. I'm passionate about seeing things fresh from extensive research in primary sources - as a result many of my articles and books have, as they say, broken new ground.

Oct. 22, 2024

Episode 11: The Resistance

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 …
Guests: Shira Lurie, Ph.D. , Wendy Bellion, Ph.D. , Patrick Griffin, Ph.D. , Jon Kukla, Ph.D. , John McCurdy, Ph.D. , Nate Sleeter, Ph.D. , Daniel Howlett , Anne Fertig, Ph.D. , Brad A. Jones, Ph.D. , Adam Smith, Ph.D. , Mills Kelly, Ph.D. , Christopher Minty, Ph.D. , Melissa Gismondi, Ph.D.
Sept. 13, 2024

Episode 10: The Stamp

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 …
Guests: Alexandra Montgomery, Ph.D. , Wendy Bellion, Ph.D. , Patrick Griffin, Ph.D. , Jon Kukla, Ph.D. , Beau Robbins , Abby Chandler, Ph.D. , Brad A. Jones, Ph.D. , Adam Smith, Ph.D. , Mills Kelly, Ph.D.
Dec. 12, 2023

Episode 4: The Empire

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, a…
Guests: Fred Anderson, Ph.D. , Kathleen DuVal, Ph.D. , S. Max Edelson, Ph.D. , Patrick Griffin, Ph.D. , Jon Kukla, Ph.D. , Christian Ayne Crouch, Ph.D. , Norman Rodger , Spencer McBride, Ph.D. , Nicholas Cole, Ph.D. , John Turner, Ph.D. , Anne Fertig, Ph.D.
Sept. 12, 2023

Season One Trailer: The Crisis

Season One of Worlds Turned Upside Down, "The Crisis," follows the stories of American colonists, Indigenous peoples, and Europeans as they grappled with the revolutionary consequences of Great Britain's victory in the Seven…
Guests: Serena Zabin, Ph.D. , Julie Flavell, Ph.D. , Shira Lurie, Ph.D. , Wendy Bellion, Ph.D. , Fred Anderson, Ph.D. , Patrick Griffin, Ph.D. , Jon Kukla, Ph.D. , Christian Ayne Crouch, Ph.D. , Mary Beth Norton, Ph.D. , Maeve Kane, Ph.D.