Supporting scholarship and promoting popular understanding of the American Revolution is central to the work of the American Revolution Institute. The Institute welcomes distinguished scholars and authors to share their insights and discuss their latest research with the public at Anderson House through lectures, author's talks and panel discussions. The Institute also hosts a variety of other historical programs throughout the year, including our Lunch Bite object talks, battlefield tours, special Anderson House tour programs and other events. Many of the events we offer are free.
October 2018
Livestream – The American Revolution on the Spanish Borderlands
Lexington, Valley Forge and Yorktown are familiar, but few Americans have ever heard of the capture of Mobile or the Siege of Pensacola—events that were critical to the outcome of the Revolutionary War, the future of the American South and the lives of the people of the Gulf Coast. In the 2018 George Rogers Clark Lecture, Professor Kathleen DuVal draws on more than a decade of research to illuminate the American Revolution on the Spanish borderlands, where Spanish and British…
Find out more »October 2019
Livestream – Louis XVI and the War of American Independence
Watch live online as Professor John Hardman presents the 2019 George Rogers Clark lecture on King Louis XVI's decision to support the American War for Independence. Louis, he argues, was a highly educated ruler who, though indecisive, possessed sharp political insight and a talent for foreign policy. Why did the king choose war? Could France have taken another path? Presented annually since 1975, the George Rogers Clark Lecture recognizes the scholarship of leading historians of the American Revolution. Recent Clark Lecturers include…
Find out more »January 2021
Virtual Author’s Talk – America’s First Veterans
Executive Director Jack Warren discusses America’s First Veterans, the new book from the American Revolution Institute of the Society of the Cincinnati. Using eighty-five manuscripts, rare books, prints, broadsides, paintings and other artifacts, America’s First Veterans introduces the stories of the men—and some women—who bore arms in the Revolutionary War. The book follows their fate in the seventy years after the war’s end and traces the development of public sentiment that led to the first comprehensive military pensions in our history.…
Find out more »February 2021
Virtual Author’s Talk – The Cabinet: Washington and the Creation of an American Institution
Lindsay M. Chervinsky discusses The Cabinet: Washington and the Creation of an American Institution, an examination of the extralegal creation of the president’s advisory body in response to the threats facing George Washington and the first administration. The book also demonstrates the importance of Washington’s military experience to the formation of the presidency and the federal government. Faced with diplomatic crises, domestic insurrections and constitutional challenges—and finding congressional help lacking—George Washington decided he needed a group of advisors. Washington modeled his new cabinet on…
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