Omohundro Institute of Early American History & Culture

Uncommon Sense—the blog

A Record of Colonialism’s Paradoxes

· February 28th, 2023 · No Comments

by Erin Kramer (Trinity University) Erin Kramer is the author of “Coraler’s House: Diplomatic Spaces, Lineages, and Memory in the New York Borderlands” (William and Mary Quarterly, October 2022) In the acknowledgements to my recent WMQ article, I thanked a long list of scholars who were kind enough to read drafts of my essay as… Read More »

2026 and Insurance: A Conversation with Hannah Farber

· December 12th, 2022 · No Comments

In this installment of interviews with OI Book authors about the Semiquincentennial, Hannah Farber discusses marine insurance—a topic that seems below the surface but that nonetheless had a significant impact on the Revolution and American independence. Her 2021 book, Underwriters of the United States: How Insurance Shaped the American Founding, navigates a cast of financial… Read More »

Change and Continuity

· September 27th, 2022 · No Comments

by Catherine E. Kelly Historians are notorious for sussing out the relationship between change and continuity, trying to gauge which is predominant at any given moment. In fact, both are typically in play. Certainly, that’s the case with new transitions for the OI’s staff.  From one perspective, we have change, and an awful lot of… Read More »

2026 and Religion: A Conversation with Katherine Carté

· September 7th, 2022 · No Comments

With this post, Uncommon Sense inaugurates a planned series of conversations with OI book authors about how their work relates to the American Revolution. It is one of the ways in which the OI is contributing to the Semiquincentennial, the commemoration of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence in 2026. In its eight… Read More »

BFW: Experiences of Revolution, Part 2: Disruptions in Yorktown

· July 5th, 2022 · 1 Comment

Each year, the Ben Franklin’s World team produces a special episode for the Fourth of July holiday. This year, we’re going even further, sharing two themed episodes that explore how ordinary Americans experienced the Revolutionary War. On Tuesday, July 5, the second of those episodes—“Experiences of Revolution, Part 2: Disruptions in Yorktown,” episode 333—debuts wherever… Read More »

BFW: Experiences of Revolution, Part 1: Occupied Philadelphia

· June 28th, 2022 · 1 Comment

Each year, the Ben Franklin’s World team produces a special episode for the Fourth of July holiday. This year, we’re going even further, sharing two themed episodes that explore how ordinary Americans experienced the Revolutionary War. On Tuesday, June 28, the first of those episodes—“Experiences of Revolution, Part 1: Occupied Philadelphia,” episode 332—debuts wherever you… Read More »