Since parting ways 250 years ago, the United States and the United Kingdom have spent the intervening centuries building one of the most enduring and supportive international relationships. On today's Revolution 250 Podcast, Professor Robert Allison (Suffolk University) is in conversation with the UK Consul-General for New England, David Clay, MBE. Join us as we discuss two and a half centuries of diplomacy between our two nations. Tell us what you think! Send us a text message!...
Jul 10, 2025•36 min•Season 5Ep. 27
Join us as we uncover the remarkable, complex life of John Laurens—soldier, diplomat, abolitionist, and one of the most passionate idealists of the American Revolution. Gregory D. Massey speaks with us about his acclaimed biography John Laurens and the American Revolution . Together we'll explore the fiery convictions and bold actions of a young South Carolinian who fought not only against British tyranny but also against the hypocrisy of slavery in a nation proclaiming liberty. Tell us what you...
Jul 01, 2025•42 min•Season 5Ep. 26
We just celebrated the 250th Anniversary of the Battle of Bunker Hill in which the men of Connecticut under Colonel Thomas Knowlton played a pivatol part. Today we investigate the life of another Connecticut patriot, Colonel John Durkee of Norwich, Connecticut. To help us learn more about Col. Durkee and his friends and neighbors in eastern Connecticut Professor Robert Allison (Suffolk University) is in conversation with Dayne E. Rugh, author of John Durkee; The Forgotten Story of Connecticut's ...
Jun 24, 2025•41 min•Season 5Ep. 25
If Joseph Warren had lived, Peter Oliver said, no one would have heard of Washington. This might be an exaggeration, but few patriot leaders were as important to the cause as Joseph Warren—Roxbury physician, chair of the Massachusetts Provincial Congress, chair of the Committee of Safety, Grand Master of the Masonic Lodge—he did not seek office, but his compatriots recognized his talents and put him to work. His death at the Battle of Bunker Hill, at the age of 34, deprived the cause of one of i...
Jun 17, 2025•55 min•Season 5Ep. 24
For our 250th Episode, Pulitzer-prize winning author Rick Atkinson joins us to talk about his best-selling new book, The Fate of the Day: From Ticonderoga to Charleston, which focuses on the War between the British capture of Ticonderoga in 1777 to the fall of Charleston in 1780. HIs book, and our conversation, plumb the depths of the American Revolution and the characters who shaped the war. This is the second volume of his Revolutionary War trilogy, and leaves us wanting to know more. Tell us ...
Jun 10, 2025•43 min•Season 5Ep. 23
Captain John Parker is famously supposed to have said on Lexington Green, "If they mean to have a war, let it begin here." Even if the attribution is true, did the British or the Provincials mean to have a war in April of 1775? Join Professor Robert Allison (Suffolk University) as he explores the aftermath of the events of April 19, 1775 through the end of the year. Tell us what you think! Send us a text message!...
Jun 03, 2025•39 min•Season 5Ep. 22
Jane McCrea’s death in 1777 became a powerful tool of Revolutionary propaganda, fueling anti-British sentiment across the colonies. Her murder by British-allied Native warriors was portrayed as savage and unjust, rallying support for the Patriot cause and highlighting the perceived brutality of British alliances. We talk with Blake Grindon about her book on the life, death, and legacy of Jane McCrea. Tell us what you think! Send us a text message!...
May 27, 2025•42 min•Season 5Ep. 21
2027 will be the 250th Anniversary of the Battle of Saratoga and the surrender of General John Burgoyne's forces to those of General Horatio Gates. Often called the "Turning Point of the Revolution" the victory over Burgoyne was instrumental in earning America its first European ally, France. Long a subject of legend and story, Burgoyne's expedition is now the subject of a new series of novels by Avellina Balestri titled All Ye That Pass By .Join Revolution 250 guest host Jonathan Lane as he dis...
May 20, 2025•53 min•Season 5Ep. 20
The monuments of Washington D.C. are among the most visited sites in our nation's capital. The legacies of Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and Franklin Roosevelt are carried through the generations by their stone memorials in D.C. Today, there is a national commission to investigate and plan for a new addition to those memorials, one dedicated to John Adams and the many notable members of his family, including Abigail, John Quincy, Louisa Catherine, Charles Francis and Henry Adams. We talk with ...
May 13, 2025•34 min•Season 5Ep. 19
What is a "turning point"? We talk with John Mass, whose new book From Trenton to Yorktown: Turning Points in the Revolutionary War looks at five episodes that changed the course of the war and lead toward the American victory. Which were the decisive moments? Listen to find out! Tell us what you think! Send us a text message!...
May 06, 2025•40 min•Season 5Ep. 18
Don Troiani's magnificently detailed battle paintings and meticulously-researched uniforms bring to life early-American military history. He has collaborated with historian John Rees on a visual and artistic look at Black soldiers from the Seven Years War to the Civil War, in this richly-illustrated Don Troiani's Black Soldiers in America's Wars 1754-1865. Historian John Rees, whose previous book, They Were Good Soldiers , told the story of African-Americans in the Revolutionary War, tells us ab...
Apr 29, 2025•44 min•Season 5Ep. 17
After World War II, book publishers and film makers worked to identify American heroes that they could promote to the world. Frequently these heroes were self-made men who used specialized knowledge or skills to defeat an overwhelming enemy. One such character was Francis Marion, a South Carolina plantation owner who utlized his knowledge of the countryside to prey upon British garrisons and foraging parties. We talk with John Oller , author of The Swamp Fox: How Francis Marion Saved the America...
Apr 22, 2025•39 min•Season 5Ep. 16
As we get close to Patriots Day, let us remember that the fighting along "Battle Road" and the entire siege of Boston involved thousands of men from hundreds of communities. On April 19, 1775 as the "Lexington Alarm" spread throughout the region, towns mustered their militia and they marched towards the fight. Needham sent 185 men to fight the Redcoats that day, losing five men in the process. Join Gloria Greis of the Needham History Center & Museum in conversation with Professor Robert Alli...
Apr 15, 2025•38 min•Season 5Ep. 15
On the afternoon of April 19, as the people of Plymouth and Barnstable counties heard of the battles at Lexington and Concord, they mustered their militia and sent them. .. to Marshfield. We talk with Patrick Browne of the Plymouth Antiquarian Society about the "almost battle of Marshfield," the only town outside of Boston that had a detachment of Redcoats. We hear about why the British were in Marshfield, and what the militia did to force them, and Marshfield's many loyalists out. We also hear ...
Apr 08, 2025•39 min•Season 5Ep. 14
For 50 years the Scottish Rite Masonic Museum and Library in Lexington has been telling the story of America and the Masonic traditions that are interwoven with that narrative. The museum has a collection of more than 17,000 objects and manages another 11,000 objects belonging to the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts. Objects from that collection and pieces from their world-class library are being used to launch a new exhibit on April 13, 2025 entitled Protest & Promise: The American Revolution i...
Apr 02, 2025•37 min•Season 5Ep. 13
Loyalty and Patriotism in the American Revolution: Which side are you one? Are "loyalist" and "patriot" useful terms in deciphering the sides to the American Revolution? A conversation with Robert A. Gross, author of The Minutemen and their World, about the changing meanings of loyalty and patriotism in the era of the American Revolution. Tell us what you think! Send us a text message!...
Mar 25, 2025•44 min•Season 5Ep. 12
Christina Carrick, an editor at the Papers of Thomas Jefferson , formerly an editor at the Robert Treat Paine Papers , joins us to talk about Jefferson and Paine. She also talks about the loyalist family networks she has studied--New England merchants sent into exile who maintained connections with home. She also discusses editorial projects, and how to become part of these important projects through organizations like the Association for Documentary Editing . Tell us what you think! Send us a t...
Mar 18, 2025•41 min•Season 5Ep. 11
Some of the bloodiest fighting on April 19, 1775 happened in the village of Menotomy, the community lay along the main road from Cambridge to Concord. It had numerous mills, taverns and a meetinghouse and burial ground along this road, some of which still show scars from that day. We talk with Matthew Beres, Executive Director of the Arlington Historical Society, based in the Jason Russell House, about the fighting there and in the rest of Arlington, and the town's commemorations of those events...
Mar 11, 2025•41 min•Season 5Ep. 10
There is a lot of focus on the events of April 19, 1775, events that set in motion America's call for Independence from Great Britain. Securing our independence took 8 long years of war. What is the impact of the war for American independence on a community? Beth van Duzer of the Concord 250 Subcommittee on History and Education tell us about the community of Concord's project to gather up Revolutionary war stories of the people who lived and died in that town. Tell us what you think! Send us a ...
Mar 04, 2025•35 min•Season 5Ep. 9
"Place is of very little consequence," Mary Sewall of Marblehead wrote to her sister in Nova Scotia in 1799," except as it brings you near to those whom by nature you are most nearly allied." The Sewall sisters had been separated by war, yet family ties endured and complicated their relationships in the post-Revolutionary world. Patrick O'Brien of the University of Tampa, writing about the divided families of Marblehead, joins us to talk about the ties sundered by the Revolution and those that r...
Feb 25, 2025•41 min•Season 5Ep. 8
As word spread of the British march to Lexington and Concord, communities from all over Massachusetts and greater New England responded. Historian Alan Foulds tells us about the Lynn End (now Lynnfield) militia, who were warned by medical student Martin Herrick, and their march to Menotomy, where they fought the British at the Jason Russell House. The Lynnfield Historical Society has told these stories in a series of video s, and will re-enact these events, and will put on a play, "Shadows of 17...
Feb 18, 2025•36 min•Season 5Ep. 7
Acting on intelligence that the Provincial militia had cannon in a Salem blacksmith shop, Beneral Thomas Gage sent Lt. Colonel Alexander Leslie and the 64th Regiment of Foot to Marblehead and then to Salem to find the weapons. We talk with Charlie Newhall and Jonathan Streff about this expedition, known as " Leslie's Retreat ," which is re-enacted in Salem every February. Leslie did not get the cannon, but he and the people of Salem avoided war. Tell us what you think! Send us a text message!...
Feb 11, 2025•39 min•Season 5Ep. 6
The Boston Town Watch kept order on the streets of Boston, particularly at night. When soldiers of the Crown arrived in 1768 their overlapping authorities came into conflict, which deepened as Crown and colony careened towards war. We talk with Nicole Breault of the University of Texas, El Paso, who is writing a book on the Boston Town Watch. Tell us what you think! Send us a text message!...
Feb 04, 2025•45 min•Season 5Ep. 5
Few things shocked American patriots as the betrayal of General Benedict Arnold. After attempting to surrender West Point to the British, Arnold led a series of raids, first in Virginia, and then in his native state of Connecticut. Matthew E. Reardon has written a new account of Arnold's raid on New London and attack on Fort Griswold, The Traitor's Homecoming; Benedict Arnold's Raid on New London September 4-13, 1781 . Tell us what you think! Send us a text message!...
Jan 28, 2025•35 min•Season 5Ep. 4
The first engagement against the Crown forces that involved soldiers from multiple provinces operating under a unified command. The first use of field artillery by the Provincial forces. The destruction of the HMS Diana , whose mainmast was to be used to hoist the "Grand Union Flag" atop Prospect Hill on January 1, 1776. Few engagements can boast so much, and yet the engagement that has become known locally as "The Battle of Chelsea Creek" has all of those stories and so much more. We talk with ...
Jan 21, 2025•39 min•Season 5Ep. 3
Few men were as highly esteemed and just a decade later despised beyond measure as Timothy Ruggles. Ruggles was a hero of the French & Indian War, a delegate to the Stamp Act Congress from Massachusetts, a land owner, legislator and community leader who had a large and prosperous family. His daughter Bathsheba married a Boston man, Joshua Spooner, and their marriage was once described as "inharmonious." Imagine then the country gossip when Joshua was found in March 1778 beaten and murdered a...
Jan 14, 2025•37 min•Season 5Ep. 2
Founded in 1923 through the gift of William Lawrence Clements, the William L. Clements Library at the University of Michigan is a fount of historical manuscripts, maps and rare books, particularly on the American Revolution . Their collections include the papers of General Thomas Gage , and General Henry Clinton , two of the leading British military leaders during the American Revolution, as well as Lord George Germain, a cabinet minister and Hessian General von Jungkenn. The Clements library is...
Jan 07, 2025•45 min•Season 5Ep. 1
We are now deep into the Semiquincentennial commemoration of the events that led to American Independence. 2025 represents a watershed year as we commemorate the Battles of Lexington & Concord, Chelsea Creek and Bunker Hill. Just in time to help us remember these events, and why we are commemorating the 250th, Professor Abby Chandler of UMass Lowell, has launched a new journal, Remembering the American Revolution at 250 . Professor Chandler joins us to talk about this new project, along with...
Dec 31, 2024•37 min•Season 4Ep. 52
After a stint in the Navy and forty years teaching history, Larry Kidder was curios about the lives of ordinary people in Hunterdon County, New Jersey. He could not find a good book on the subject, so he started writing , and how he has told stories of the Revolution from the vantage point of New Jersey's militia. On Christmas Eve he joins us to share the epic story of General Washington crossing the Delaware, and introduces us to the Revolutionary World of Jacob Francis, a Free Black man from N...
Dec 24, 2024•44 min•Season 4Ep. 51
John Dickinson burst onto the scene with his "Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania" published in a Philadelphia newspaper in 1767 and 1768. He wrote "The Liberty Song," sung all over America, including at the 1769 Sons of Liberty dinner in Dorchester, Massachusetts, and the Continental Congress's Olive Branch Petition and with Jefferson the "Declaration on the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms." While he opposed the Declaration of Independence, he drafted the Articles of Confederation, and...
Dec 18, 2024•43 min•Season 4Ep. 50
