Events

Sarah M. S. Pearsall, Ph.D., of Johns Hopkins University discusses her new book that argues that the American Founding Fathers did not have a unique claim on the revolutionary spirit. Drawing from the book, Pearsall plucks a keyword from the Declaration of Independence—security, happiness, respect—and finds its spark in a far-flung place. In an Edinburgh […]

  Award-winning historian Denver Brunsman, Ph.D., discusses his new book that provides a compelling, fresh portrait of George Washington. Enslaver and revolutionary, destroyer of Native American communities and father of American liberty, Washington filled numerous roles in the Founding Era. Rather than shy from these contradictions, Brunsman embraces them in explaining Washington to a twenty-first […]

Independent historian Jennifer London, Ph.D., discusses her new book that explores seven extraordinary men— Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay—whose vision, leadership and perseverance shaped the Constitution and the framework of the American Republic. Drawing from the book, this talk highlights the motivations and unique contributions […]

Historian Robert Selig discusses the experiences of the French soldiers who fought for the under the Comte de Rochambeau during the American Revolution. Arriving in Newport in July 1780, Rochambeau’s soldiers stepped into a brave new world whose societal norms and modes of social interaction differed radically from their own. Rochambeau’s soldiers knew almost nothing […]