The Pursuit of History: Rebellion in New England
Presenters + Recommended Reading

J.L. Bell is the director for this program and other Pursuit of History Weekends inspired by the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution. He is the author of The Road to Concord: How Four Stolen Cannon Ignited the Revolutionary War and shares daily articles on his Boston 1775 website. Bell will review what led up to April 19 and show us important sites like the Lexington Common and Concord’s North Bridge. He will also reveal how the two sides vied to gather, conceal, and spread information through spies, scouts, couriers, and propaganda both before and after April 19.

Robert J. Allison, PhD (robertallisonhistory.com ), is a Professor of History at Suffolk University in Boston. He chairs Revolution 250 (revolution250.org), a consortium of organizations and individuals exploring the history of the American Revolution and the ways that this story still resonates in society two and a half centuries later. Bob is also the President of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts. His books include short histories of the American Revolution, Boston, the Boston Massacre, the Boston Tea Party, and the debates over the U.S. Constitution, as well as longer books on Stephen Decatur and Olaudah Equiano and The Crescent Obscured: The United States and the Muslim World 1776–1815 (University of Chicago Press ). Bob’s lecture series on the Age of Franklin and on Colonial America are available through the Great Courses.

Brooke Barbier, PhD, is a public historian who received her PhD in American history from Boston College for her research on Boston’s social and cultural life during and after the American Revolution. While earning her graduate degree, she taught history at Boston College and Stonehill College. ​

She is the author of two books about revolutionary Boston, King Hancock: The Radical Influence of a Moderate Founding Father (Harvard University Press, 2023) and Boston in the American Revolution: A Town Versus an Empire (Arcadia Publishing, 2017), and has been interviewed by the New York Times, Boston Globe, Boston Herald, and Boston.com, among others. In 2013 Brooke founded Ye Olde Tavern Tours, which offers tours of Boston’s historic sites and taverns. Originally from San Diego, she has lived in Boston for many years.

We recommend reading King Hancock in advance.

Chris Beneke, PhD, is the author of Beyond Toleration: The Religious Origins of American Pluralism (Oxford, 2006). Co-editor of The First Prejudice: Religious Tolerance and Intolerance in Early America (UPenn, 2011), Profane: Sacrilegious Expression in a Multicultural Age (University of California, 2014), and The Lively Experiment: Religious Toleration in America from Roger Williams to the Present (Rowman & Littlefield, 2015). Current research focuses on the history of the First Amendment’s religious clauses, integration in public education, and Deadball-era baseball. His current book, Free Exercise, is under contract with Oxford University Press. He has written essays on politics, religion, and sports for The New Republic, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, The Chronicle of Higher Education, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Huffington Post, and The Christian Century, and is the co-editor of a Lexington book series on religion and American history.

Caitlin G. DeAngelis, PhD (caitlindeangelis.com ), served as the head Research Associate for the Harvard and Slavery Project and as a Lecturer in History and Literature at Harvard University. She has published articles about individuals from eighteenth-century Boston in Atlas Obscura, Commonplace, Notches, and other outlets. Caitlin has a special interest in cemeteries, and earlier this year she published The Caretakers: War Graves Gardeners and The Secret Battle to Rescue Allied Airmen in World War II (Rowman & Littlefield ).

Dr. Samuel A. Forman, MD, MBA, MPH, (illfatedfrontier.com, DrJosephWarren.com, @DrSamForman) is Harvard University faculty member and an independent historian of non-fiction, writing compelling stories of national import on a base of authoritative and new scholarship. In 2012, Dr. Forman published the award-winning biography Dr. Joseph Warren: The Boston Tea Party, Bunker Hill, and the Birth of American Liberty (Pelican) and Twenty One Heroes (Pelican). His most recent book is Ill-Fated Frontier: Peril and Possibilities in the Early American West.

Dr. Forman is a Founding Board Member of The Pursuit of History.

We recommend reading Dr. Joseph Warren in advance. It is out of print, but can often be found on used book sites.

Eric Hanson Plass, MPH, is a Lead Park Ranger for the National Parks of Boston. He has fifteen years of experience as a public historian—leading tours for all ages, researching and speaking on little-known historical figures, contributing to exhibits, and most recently helping to develop online resources. Eric earned a master’s degree in Public History from the University of Massachusetts Boston with a thesis on communities of color in eighteenth-century Boston.

(Photo by Joe Tacynec, The Pursuit of History: Rebellion in New England.)

James Hollister has been a ranger at Minute Man National Historical Park for more than twenty years, serving at different times as lead interpreter, education coordinator, and historical weapons supervisor. He contributed to Honored Places, the National Park Service teacher’s guide to the American Revolution. Jim is the principal organizer of Minute Man’s annual Patriots’ Day reenactments and tactical demonstrations, helping hundreds of volunteers recreate the past to “Battle Road standards,” the highest level of historical authenticity. In 2022, the Concord Museum awarded Jim its Robert Gross Award in recognition of his service to local history.

(Photo by Joe Tacynec, The Pursuit of History: Rebellion in New England.)

Joan Laxson, PhD, has been a ranger at Minute Man National Historical Park and a professor of anthropology. Despite having detested American history in school, she is active in the Revolutionary reenacting community, researching and portraying the lives of women caught on both sides of the conflict that led to American independence.

(Photo by Joe Tacynec at The Pursuit of History: Rebellion in New England.)

Sarah Martin, MLIS, is Harvard’s Associate University Archivist for Community Engagement, helping to share the documents of the university administration, faculty, and students over nearly four centuries.

John Overholt is the Curator of the Donald and Mary Hyde Collection of Dr. Samuel Johnson and Early Books and Manuscripts at Houghton Library, part of the Harvard University library system.