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George Washington's greatest achievement was not winning the Revolutionary War.  It was surrendering power to the civilian government.  Richard Lim, host of the "This American President" podcast, joins us to talk about his new book, Refusing a Crown:  How George Washington Changed the World.  Washington's surrender of power—which he did in 1783, returning his commission to the Congress, and in 1796, when he chose not to run for another term—was partly rooted in his personal virtue.  But Lim argues that Washington's decision was also based on an understanding of power and its potential for abuse.  Washington set an example for future leaders, and became the standard against whom all are measured.  Tell us what you think! Send us a text message!

The American Revolution was fought with muskets and cannon, but it was also waged with words, images, symbols, and stories. Long before the Patriots secured independence on the battlefield, they were winning the battle for public opinion. In this episode of the Revolution 250 Podcast, Professor Robert Allison welcomes Julie Hall, President of the Charlestown Historical Society, veteran communications strategist, and author of Revolutionary Spin: How PR Shaped the American Revolution. Together, they explore how America's founders employed remarkably sophisticated public relations techniques to rally support, shape perceptions, create heroes and martyrs, and convince audiences on both sides of the Atlantic of the righteousness of their cause. From the power of political messaging to the careful cultivation of a revolutionary identity, Hall reveals how the struggle for American independence became one of history's most successful campaigns of persuasion. Discover how the Patriots mastered the art of telling their story, and why the lessons of their revolutionary communications strategy remain strikingly relevant 250 years later. Tell us what you think! Send us a text message!

Boston, 1765. Eleven years before the Declaration. Tax collectors, mobs, fire in the streets, and the first sons of a revolution nobody saw coming. The decade your teachers skipped. If you like your history hard, your men flawed, and your stakes real, this one's for you. Join us for a conversation with Joe Wearmouth, who tells the story of this tumultuous time through the eyes of unforgettable characters--some we know--John and Abigail Adams, John Hancock, Joseph Warren, Crispus Attucks, Joyce Junior--and others he has created--Tom Bradford and his unbearable cousin Richard, Benjamin Wilson, and more. Rising Sons is the novel about why the Revolution began in Boston, and how it felt to those creating it.  Tell us what you think! Send us a text message!

Winning independence was only the beginning. How did George Washington turn a divided country into a nation? On this episode of Revolution 250, Professor Robert Allison welcomes Nathaniel Philbrick to discuss Travels with George: In Search of Washington and His Legacy. Retracing Washington’s presidential journeys with his wife, Melissa, and their dog, Dora, Philbrick uncovers stories of local pride, political division, and the enduring contradictions of liberty and slavery. Join us for a lively conversation about the people who preserve our past—and why Washington’s struggle to hold America together still matters. Tell us what you think! Send us a text message!

What is the American experiment?  Johann Neem explores this question in books and essays, beginning with his Creating a Nation of Joiners:  Democracy and Civil Society in Early National Massachusetts, which showed how Americans created a civil society which fostered their independence.  He explored how newly-independent Americans created a system of public education to sustain the republic, in Democracy's Schools: The Rise of Public Education in America, and he continues to explore these questions of American identity and civic culture.  A Professor of History at Western Washington University, Neem has also written of the role of colleges today, and on the state of k-12 education in preparing citizens for the next 250 years.  Tell us what you think! Send us a text message!

Digging in his Jersey City backyard in 2007, Chris Bray uncovered a 12-pound iron sphere.  This was a mystery.  What was it?  How did it get there?  Doing more digging in archives, he found that his neighborhood was the site of the Paulus Hook fort the rebels held in the summer of 1776, and the iron ball had been fired from a British cannon as the Royal Navy stormed up the Hudson River.  The cannonball now sits in the City Hall in Jersey City, next to Frank Hague's desk, a reminder that the Revolution is still all around us.  Tell us what you think! Send us a text message!

John Lowe of the University of Louisville joins us to talk about his new book, “Benevolence & Bondage”: Jonathan Edwards, Slavery, Race, and the Paradox of Spiritual Equality. Jonathan Edwards is remembered as one of colonial America’s most influential theologians—a preacher who taught that all souls stood equally before God. Yet Edwards was also an enslaver who lived and preached within a society shaped by racial bondage. Lowe examines the profound tension between Edwards’s theology of Christian benevolence and spiritual equality and his participation in slavery, and Edwards' long influence on American religious thought.  Tell us what you think! Send us a text message!

The Declaration of Independence is the United States' most radical idea, and its most enduring paradox.  Byron Williams, renowned public intellectual, theologian, columnist, explores this paradox in his new book, Liberty and Equality in America:  Examining the Radical and Paradoxical Legacy of the Declaration of Independence.  Williams asks: What does it mean for a nation officially committed to liberty and equality, while unofficially hamstrung by paradox to achieve its central tenets? Refusing simplistic celebration or cynical dismissal, Williams explores America's founding through the enduring tension between its highest ideals and its deepest contradictions. Tell us what you think! Send us a text message!

For a century after Independence, Americans believed that their Revolution was still in progress. Nowhere was this clearer than on the Fourth of July, when Americans gathered for speeches that, as one orator put it in 1834, aimed to “examine the present, and to look forward to the future.”  Nathan Perl-Rosenthal joins us to talk about this exploration, which he covers in his new book The Long Revolution: Creating a United States after 1776,, which mines thousands of Independence Day orations.  In the words of local notables and national celebrities, men and women, white and Black, Perl-Rosenthal identifies contrasting visions, intense anxieties, and radical power the Revolution evoked deep into the nineteenth century. He has also created a map, July Fourth Orations, which shows where these thousands of events took place. This is a history of the American founding for today’s fragmented and anxious political moment, helping us find a usable past to guide us toward our own uncertain future. Tell us what you think! Send us a text message!

When in 1774 General Thomas Gage arrived in the rebellious colony of Massachusetts, he brought with him the Massachusetts Government Act which moved the colonial government from Boston to Salem.  General Gage set up residence in the neighboring town of Danvers at the home of Robert Hooper, a noted merchant and royalist.  Join Professor Robert Allison in conversation with Bill Kossowan as they discuss the attempt to run the colonial government from Essex County in 1774. Tell us what you think! Send us a text message!

The American Revolution was fought on famous battlefields, but it was sustained in communities like Hingham, Massachusetts, where ordinary people faced extraordinary choices. In this episode of the Revolution 250 Podcast, Professor Robert Allison welcomes historian and author James Conroy to discuss his book Hingham in the Revolution; Not the Gift of Kings. Together, they explore how one New England town experienced the coming of independence, from political divisions and military service to the sacrifices made by families on the home front. Through the stories of Hingham’s residents, Conroy reveals the Revolution not simply as a series of battles and declarations, but as a deeply local struggle that transformed neighbors, families, and communities. It is a reminder that America’s Revolution was fought not only at Lexington, Concord, and Yorktown, but in towns across the new nation. Tell us what you think! Send us a text message!

The American Revolution was argued in meetinghouses, fought on battlefields, and plotted over more than a few bowls of punch. This week Professor Robert Allison raises a glass with historian Brooke Barbier, author of Cocked and Boozy: An Intoxicating History of the American Revolution, to explore the surprisingly boozy world of Revolutionary America. Rum, cider, beer, punch, flip, and other potent concoctions lubricated a society where taverns doubled as newsrooms, political clubs, business centers, and gathering places for revolutionaries. What did Americans drink? How much did they drink? And what happened when politics, patriotism, and punch all landed in the same bowl? Barbier takes us inside the taverns and drinking culture of the eighteenth century, where sharing a glass could seal a deal, win a vote, forge a friendship, or perhaps help start a revolution. So pull up a chair, charge your glass, get you a copper coil, and join us for a spirited look at the American Revolution. No powdered wig required. Get "Cocked and Boozy HERE! Tell us what you think! Send us a text message!

The Battle of Bunker Hill was one of the defining moments of the American Revolution. Although the British claimed the battlefield, the staggering cost of victory demonstrated that defeating the colonial rebellion would be far more difficult than anyone had expected. In this episode of the Revolution 250 Podcast, Professor Robert Allison is joined by historians Daniel T. Davis and Phillip S. Greenwalt to discuss their new book, A Dear-Bought Victory. Together they explore the Battle of Bunker Hill, the Siege of Boston, and how the opening campaign of the Revolution shaped the war that followed. From the decisions of British and American commanders to the enduring myths surrounding the battle, this conversation offers a fresh look at one of the most important military engagements in American history. Tell us what you think! Send us a text message!

James Wilson was a brilliant Philadelphia lawyer, signer of the Declaration of Independence, and a driving force behind the Constitution.  And yet in 1779 a Philadelphia mob attacked his home, and his forceful defense of ratifying the Constitution led to him being burned in effigy.  An Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, Wilson died in a North Carolina boarding house on the run from his many creditors.  Jesse Wegman recounts Wilson's fascinating and complicated life in his new book, The Lost Founder:  James Wilson and the Forgotten Fight for a People's Constitution.  Order the Book! Tell us what you think! Send us a text message!

Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais was a man about Paris—watch-maker, inventor, and playwright best known for light comedies like "The Marriage of Figaro." But as the Americans struggled to secure independence, he took on a greater role, managing to ship arms and supplies to the rebels despite French neutrality and the British fleet. Harlow Giles Unger brought Beaumarchais's story back to life in Improbable Patriot: The Secret History of Monsieur de Beaumarchais, the French Playwright who Saved the American Revolution. We talk about Beaumarchais with historian Iris de Rode, who has written an introduction to a new edition of Unger's book.  Tell us what you think! Send us a text message!