Events

Independent historian Eric Jay Dolin explores American privateers during the American Revolution. The heroic story of the founding of the U.S. Navy during the Revolution has been told before, yet missing from most maritime histories of the war is the ragtag fleet of private vessels that truly revealed the new nation’s character―above all, its ambition and entrepreneurial ethos. Drawing from his research, Dolin corrects that significant omission and contends that privateers, though often seen as profiteers at best and pirates at worst, were in fact critical to the Revolution’s outcome. This program accompanies our exhibition Voices of Revolution, on view from February 28, 2026, through January 10, 2027.

Registration is requested. To attend the lecture in-person, or to watch virtually, please use the appropriate links below.

Register to Attend the Lecture at Anderson House

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About the Speaker

Eric Jay Dolin is an independent historian and the author of seventeen books, including Leviathan: The History of Whaling in America (W.W. Norton & Company, 2008); Black Flags, Blue Waters: The Epic History of America’s Most Notorious Pirates (Liveright, 2019); and A Furious Sky: The Five-Hundred-Year History of America’s Hurricanes (Liveright, 2021). His books have won many awards including the John Lyman Award for U.S. Maritime History, Fraunces Tavern Museum Book Award, National Society Daughters of the American Revolution Excellence in American History Book Award for Adult Nonfiction, Samuel Eliot Morison Book Award for Naval Literature, James P. Hanlan Book Award and the Outdoor Writers Association of America Book Award. Many of his books have been chosen as “must reads” by the Massachusetts Center for the Book. Other honors include being chosen as a finalist for the Kirkus Prize and as one of the best books of the year by The Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe, The Washington Post, Kirkus Reviews, the Library Journal and Booklist.