Revolution 250 Podcast

2024 marks the bicentennial of the return of the Marquis de Lafayette to the United States. In 1824, President James Monroe invited Lafayette, the last surviving Major General of the Revolution,  to be the guest of the nation as a way to celebrate the nation’s 50th anniversary. Lafayette's arrival in New York inspired four days and nights of continuous celebration—a response replicated throug...

Since 1889 the Sons of the American Revolution have been working to preserve the memories of those who fought and supported the American Revolution.  While the national headquarters is in Louisville, Kentucky, there are over 550 chapters world-wide, dedicated to commemorating the service and sacrifice of the men and women who fought to establish an independent United States of America.  Join Revol...

In the summer of 1787, 55 delegates assembled at Philadelphia to write a new Constitution for the new United States of America.  The document that was finally agreed upon on September 15, 1787 was not without controversy.  The completed document was filled with compromises, particularly around how representation would be calculated, and lacked a Bill of Rights.  Join Professor Robert Allison &...

Agents, double-agents, spies, secret messages, codes, cyphers are the words that evoke the world of intelligence gathering, a necessary tool for the success of any army.  George Washington knew better than anyone the value of knowing what your enemy's plans were and to prevent them, if at all possible, from learning your  own plans.  Amazingly there are still many sites associated with the Cu...

"Listen my children, and you shall hear, of the midnight ride of Paul Revere."  With this one line, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow ensured the legacy of 18th-century Boston silversmith, mechanic and entrepreneur, Paul Revere.  The poem, published in January of 1861 in the Atlantic Monthly magazine was simply entitled "Paul Revere's Ride," and purports to detail the ride of Pau...

The "Whiskey Rebellion," as Alexander Hamilton called it, was the first major test of the new government's power to control its territory.  The Whiskey Tax of 1791 taxed smaller producers of whiskey, and required all stills to be registered.  The response of farmers in the west--many of them veterans of the Revolution--was at times violent, and President Washington responded by lead...

We see him as the artist who gave us the iconic imagery of our nation's founding.  He saw himself as a historian.  John Trumbull, soldier, spy, and artist was the son of a Connecticut Governor, a scion of the first-families of New England.  Join Professor Robert Allison in conversation with award-winning author Richard Brookhiser on his book Glorious Lessons; John Trumbull, the Painter of the...

Mount Vernon's historical status was secured by George Washington's ownership, but its full history cannot be told without examining the other people who lived here. Sarah Johnson, first living enslaved at Mount Vernon and later emancipated, saw the change in Mount Vernon from family home to national treasure.  We discuss this story with Scott E. Casper, author of  Sarah Johnson's M...

Ben and William Frank became part of the Second Rhode Island Regiment in 1777.  AFter figinting in the Battle of Rhode Island, Ben switched sides, joined with the British, and wound up in Nova Scotia after the war.  His descendant Shirley Green, a Toledo police officer and now director of the Toledo Police Museum , wrote about the Frank Brothers in her terrific book,   Revolutionary Blacks: Discov...

As we approach our 200th episode we talk with Gordon Wood on his first book, The Creation of the American Republic, 1776 - 1787 which ranks among the most important books ever written about the American Revolutionary period and the formation of the American Republic.  Join us as to hear about what the founders got right, what they got wrong, and how it continues to influence and evolve in America...

June 2024 marks the 250th Anniversary of General & Governor Thomas Gage's attempt to move the Massachusetts government to Salem. Join us as we learn how this important seaport town reacted to 2 regiments of Redcoats moving into town.  Join us as we speak with Emily Murphy of the Salem Maritime National Historic Sit e on the impact of Gage's plan to run Massachusetts from Salem and ho...

The Revolution 250 tag line is that these Revolutionary moments in America are "Moments that Changed the World."  Within two generations of the end of the French and Indian wars, social and political hierarchies lay in ruins across the Americas and Europe and new republics rose up to take their place. Join us as we converse with award-winning author Nathan Perl-Rosentha l, Professor of H...

How well do we know George Washington, the man—and why have we created so many myths about him? We talk with Edward G. Lengel, award-winning author and teacher, and long-time editor-in-chief of the Washington Papers Project, about this well-known but enigmatic character. Ed Lengel has written about Washington the General, General George Washington:  A Military Lif e,  and about Washington the Firs...

Matthew Skic from the Museum of the American Revolution and I talk about their exhibit Black Founders:  The Forten Family of Philadelphia .  9-year old James Forten heard the Declaration of Independence read in July of 1776, and never forgot its promise of liberty and equality.  At the age of 14 he signed aboard a privateer, was captured, taken to New York where a British officer offered to releas...

A successful military campaign requires the collection of information and the denial of like information to your enemy. George Washington at the head of a nascent army, without such skills, relied heavily upon many clever and entrepreneurial men. To help us shine a light on the murky world of secret communications, Damien Cregeau , scholar and frequent contributor to the Journal of the American Re...

Do you think partisan intrigue and accusations of foreign meddling are new things? We talk with Tyson Reeder, author of Serpent in Eden: Foreign Meddling and Partisan Politics in James Madison's America,  about how threat of foreign influence propelled Madison's thoughts on forming a stronger union, and how Federalists and Republicans tried to secure their own advantage by accusing  each...

A story from the 19th century told that British soldiers marched off the surrender ground  at Yorktown  to the tune of "The World Turned Upside Down."  Whether true or not is beside the point.  The world may indeed have seemed upside down.  To help us come to grips with the myriad of ways in which life in the British Atlantic world changed, we talk with historian  J ames Patrick Ambuske,...

Birthplace of American Independence--Ipswich, Massachusetts?  In 1687, when King James II tried to take away the power of people in Massachusetts towns to govern themselves, Reverend John Wise of Ipswich lead the town into resistance--leading to his arrest, and the arrest of town leaders.  But they stood together--and in an unrelated development, Parliament sent King James packing off to France. ...

Congress has bestowed on National Mall Liberty Fund DC the honor of establishing a memorial in Washington’s Monumental Core to tens of thousands of African American solders, sailors, marines, patriots and liberty seekers of the Revolutionary War.  In preparation for the design and construction of such a memorial, the National Mall Liberty Fund has been working to document the histories and stories...

November 5, 1774, at Fort Gowe r on the Ohio River, Virginia militiamen vowed that their" Love of Liberty, and Attachment to the real Interests and just Rights of America outweigh every other Consideration," and resolved to use  "every Power within us for the Defence of American Liberty, and for the Support of her just Rights and Privileges; not in any precipitate, riotous, or tumul...

South Carolina's impact on the outcome of the war as well as the founding of the new nation cannot be overstated.  We turn to Walter Edgar , retired George Washington Distinguished Professor of History at the University of South Carolina,  host of the popular podcast, “ South Carolina from A to Z .” and author of the must-read volume Partisans and Redcoats: The Southern Campaign that Turned t...

Did you know that the generation that declared independence from Great Britain were closer to the Mayflower generation than we are to the Independence generation?  150 years after the landing of the Mayflower with 102 passengers on the tip of Cape Cod, their descendants were leading 13 Colonies in a spirited and armed defense of the rights and liberties of mankind. Now, 250 years later we talk wit...

George Rogers Clark conquered the Northwest. Or did he? We talk with Larry Nelson, historian of Ohio, co-author (with David Curtis Skaggs) of The Sixty Years War for the Great Lakes 1754-1814 , about the Northwest Territory in the Revolution, and a book about Alexander McKee . This area, larger than the existing 13 colonies, was contested by the Native People who lived in it, the British, Spanish,...

She was a wife, mother, confidant, and a social and political advisor during one of the most tumultuous periods of American history. Despite never being elected to an office, in recognition of her power of influence and sagacity her portrait now hangs permanently in the Senate Chamber of the Massachusetts General Court. Few women in the period of the American Revolution and early Republic left beh...

Richard Brookhiser has been writing about American politics for half a century, though he has refreshed himself by writing a dozen books about the founding period, beginning with Founding Father: Rediscovering George Washington ,  with additional books on Gouverneur Morri s, James Madison , the Adamses , Alexander Hamilton , and Abraham Lincoln, "the Founders' Son." We talk with him...