At the For 2026: Revolutionary Legacies conference in October 2022, four scholars gathered to discuss the long-term impact of Benjamin Quarles’s scholarship: Adam X. McNeil (Rutgers University), Rebecca Brannon (James Madison University), Derrick Spires (Cornell University), and Michael Dickinson (Virginia Commonwealth University). They shared stories about their first encounters with The Negro in the American… Read More »
Our interest in commemorating the 250th anniversary of American independence involves a significant look backwards at the American past—and at some of the classics that the OI has published on Revolutionary America. This month, we feature Linda Kerber’s Women of the Republic: Intellect and Ideology in Revolutionary America, which first appeared in 1980. One of… Read More »
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 »
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 »
In 2026 the United States will mark the 250th anniversary of American independence—the Semiquincentennial. It would be the understatement of two-and-a-half centuries to suggest that it will likely be a busy year for the history profession across the nation and even internationally. Of course, history professionals are not the only people interested in how to… Read More »
By Karin Wulf, Executive Director of the Omohundro Institute If there is a year for blue sky thinking—aspirational, bold, and collaborative—this is it. In five years the United States will mark the semi-quincentennial—the 250th anniversary—of its Declaration of Independence. There will be fireworks, there will be speeches, and surely there will be hotdogs. There will… Read More »