July 20, 2009

Drive-Time History, With a Dry Sense of Humor

Drive-Time History, With a Dry Sense of Humor 1

Tom Cogill for The Chronicle

Three professors known as "the history guys" (clockwise from left), Brian Balogh, Edward L. Ayers, and Peter S. Onuf, record an episode of their radio show.

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Tom Cogill for The Chronicle

Three professors known as "the history guys" (clockwise from left), Brian Balogh, Edward L. Ayers, and Peter S. Onuf, record an episode of their radio show.

By Jeffrey R. Young

Charlottesville, Va.

Three history professors spent a recent Sunday afternoon leaning into microphones in a small studio near the University of Virginia, trying to become radio stars—and attempting to invent a new model of educational programming in the process.

When they don their bulky headphones, they become "the American history guys," hosts of the monthly public-radio show BackStory. Peter S. Onuf, a UVa history professor known for his work on the American Revolution, gives his