Revolution 250 Podcast

Manufacturing Independence: Forging a Nation in the Crucible of War What did it really take to turn rebellion into a revolution—and ideals into a functioning nation? In this episode of the Revolution 250 Podcast, host Professor Robert Allison welcomes Professor Robert Smith of the Valley Forge Military College , author of Manufacturing Independence:  Industrial Innovation in the American Revolutio...

In this episode of the Revolution 250 Podcast, host Robert Allison of Suffolk University speaks with Independent Historian Bob Hyldburg, who is leading the effort to erect a public statue honoring Sarah Bradlee Fulton in Medford. Sarah Bradlee Fulton emerges as a figure woven through some of the most dramatic moments of the Revolution in Massachusetts. She took part in the Boston Tea Party, helpin...

Few figures of the American Revolution wielded words as powerfully as Thomas Paine . In this episode of the Revolution 250 Podcast , host Professor Robert Allison is joined by historian and journalist Jack Kelly , author of Tom Paine’s War , for a wide-ranging conversation about Paine’s outsized influence on the Revolutionary cause. Kelly explores how Paine’s pamphlet Common Sense transformed colo...

Pulitzer Prize–winning historian Joseph J. Ellis joins host Professor Robert Allison to talk about his new book, The Great Contradiction: The Tragic side of the American Founding.  Drawing on decades of scholarship, Ellis reflects on the ideas, personalities, and hard choices that shaped independence and the early republic. Together, Allison and Ellis explore what made the Revolution truly revolut...

In this episode of the Revolution 250 Podcast, host Professor Robert Allison is joined by Reese Holmes, National President of the Children of the American Revolution , for a lively conversation about one of the nation’s oldest and most forward-looking patriotic youth organizations. Together, they explore the origins of the Children of the American Revolution , founded in 1895 by Concord author Har...

In this episode, our host Professor Robert Allison welcomes historian and educator Sean Heuvel, Director of Graduate and Professional Enrollment at Christopher Newport University, for a spirited exploration of the newly edited Revolutionary War Memoirs of General William Heath . Together they stroll through Heath’s vivid accounts of the Siege of Boston, the New York campaign, the intrigues of comm...

 Join host Professor Robert Allison for a dynamic conversation with historian Ronald Angelo Johnson , author of Entangled Alliances: Racialized Freedom and Atlantic Diplomacy During the American Revolution . T ogether they explore how the American Revolution unfolded within a vibrant and contested Atlantic world shaped by Black leadership, Caribbean revolutions, and international diplomacy. Johnso...

Host Professor Robert Allison welcomes historian Paul D. Lockhart to discuss Lockhart’s acclaimed book The Drillmaster of Valley Forge: The Baron de Steuben and the Making of the American Army . Together they explore the remarkable life and career of Baron de Steuben , the Prussian-born officer whose training, discipline, and organizational genius helped transform Washington’s ragged Continental A...

In this episode of the Revolution 250 Podcast, host Professor Robert Allison welcomes historian Dr. Cynthia Hatch for a timely and eye-opening conversation about her forthcoming book, Enablers of Rebellion: The Colonial Court and the Road to the American Revolution , to be published by Savas Beatie in the spring of 2026. Hatch reveals a dimension of the Revolution that is often overlooked: the piv...

This week t Professor Robert Allison welcomes Dr. Matthew Keagle, Curator at Fort Ticonderoga , for a vivid exploration of one of the most audacious logistical feats of the American Revolution: Henry Knox’s Noble Train of Artillery. Together they trace Knox’s remarkable mid-winter journey of 1775–1776—300 miles across frozen rivers and lakes, treacherous terrain, and sometimes snow-choked roads—to...

In T he American Revolution and the Fate of the World , historian Richard Bell explores how the struggle for American independence reverberated far beyond the thirteen colonies—reshaping politics, empires, and ideas of liberty around the globe. Bell reveals how revolutionaries from Boston to Bengal, Paris to Port-au-Prince, drew inspiration and warning from the events of 1776. The American Revolut...

Host Professor Robert Allison welcomes Dr. Kathryn P. Viens, public historian and scholar, to explore how local histories have shaped Americans’ understanding of patriotism and the Revolution from the nineteenth century to today. Drawing from her essay “Mobs or the Martial Ideal? The Mutable Definition of Patriotism in Local Historical Narratives,” published in the online journal Remembering the A...

In listening to James Otis, Jr.'s arguments against the Writs of Assistance in 1761, John Adams remarked that it was there that American Independence was born.  There is no question of Otis' erudition or passion for liberty, but while he fought for the rights of his country, he was also fighting a personal battle for his mental health.  We talk with Gerald Holland, aurhor of a new biogra...

What does it cost to stay loyal when a world is breaking apart? Historian Greg Brooking  explores the life and legacy of Sir James Wright, Georgia’s last royal governor, and the turbulent path from Crown colony to revolutionary state in his new book, From Empire to Revolution:  Sir James Wright and the Price of Loyalty in Georgia . In this conversation he digs into loyalty and dissent, political p...

Emily Sneff, author of When the Declaration of Independence Was News explores how the Declaration spread across the colonies and the wider world—not as a sacred founding text, but as breaking news.  Her book traces how printers, sailors, and town criers turned Congress’s resolution into headlines that shaped the very idea of independence.   Historian of the Declaration of Independence, Emily Sneff...

Join host Professor Robert Allison as he speaks with historian and author Edward Andrews about his new book, Newport Gardner’s Anthem: A Story of Slavery, Struggle, and Survival in Revolutionary America . Together, they explore the remarkable life of Newport Gardner—born Occramer Marycoo in Africa, enslaved in Newport, and later freed to become a composer, community leader, and founder of one of A...

 Donna Curtin, Executive Director of Pilgrim Hall Museum , the oldest continuously operating public museum in America, tells us about the surprising links between Plymouth’s Pilgrims and the Revolution. They spotlight the bold voices of James and Mercy Otis Warren, and explore Pilgrim Hall’s Revolutionary collections that connect 17th-century ideals to the fight for independence. On October 11, th...

We are just months away from the 250th Anniversary of Henry Knox's Noble Train.  Join Professor Robert Allison in conversation with Revolution 250 Executive Director Jonathan Lane as we review the history of the Knox Trail and discuss plans for the coming commemorations. Tell us what you think! Send us a text message!

Due to a technical difficulty this morning we are offering a "Revolution 250 Re-Podcast."  Today's podcast will be from December 7, 2021 on the epic biography of King George III by Andrew Roberts, the Bonnie and Tom McCloskey Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.  In this podcast, Professor Allison and Professor Roberts discuss the many rema...

Johnson Hall , designed in 1763 by noted colonial architect Peter Harrison, was the grand estate of Sir William Johnson, the influential British Superintendent of Indian Affairs in New York. From this stately home, Johnson shaped alliances that helped keep many Indigenous nations aligned with the Crown during the struggle for American independence. Today, the Johnson Hal l is preserved as a New Yo...

Host Robert Allison talks with Ron Peterson and David Martin about dramatic and little-known stories from Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard, and Nantucket during the Revolution. From the fierce 1779 Battle of Falmouth to Nantucket’s divided loyalties, British shipwrecks, and the vital roles of African American and Native American patriots, this episode reveals how the Cape and Islands were anything but...

It is easy to see the Franklin stove as just an invention to improve the lives of colonial Americans. The stove, like many of Franklin's inventions, went through a series of improvements as he explored the science of heat convection and thermal dynamics.  Other changes and considerations came about as Franklin changed the fuel from wood to coal. This is just one aspect of the impact of Frankl...

From Lucifer’s rebellion to Adam and Eve’s expulsion, from Lancelot’s betrayal to Macbeth’s downfall, stories of greatness undone have gripped audiences for centuries. For America’s Revolutionaries, the cautionary examples of Julius Caesar and Oliver Cromwell warned of leaders who turned against the people. No figure embodies this tragic arc in American history more than General Benedict Arnold. O...

  July 4, 2026 the United States of America will celebrate the 250th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.  There will be thousands of commemorations across the nation, but the national effort is being led by America 250, the Semiquincentennial Commission with its mission to Educate, Engage, and Unite for our national celebration.  We had a chance to speak with Rosie Rios , Chair of Amer...

What a story about the American incursion into Canada, 1774-1776!  Mark R. Anderson learned about this episode in a military history class--and then, as an officer in the United States Air Force during the Iraq and Afghanistan campaigns earlier in this century, he recalled what he had learned, and wanted to find a good book on the Canadian campaign. Finding none, he wrote T he Battle for the Fourt...