In February, we reached a major milestone: the American Revolution Institute’s new digital archive and library collections platform is now live. This launch matters because the Institute’s headquarters is home to one of the world’s greatest collections of books and manuscripts on the history of the Revolutionary War, as well as a research library on […]
Category: The Legacy of the Revolution
The American Revolution—A Film by Ken Burns, Sarah Botstein and David Schmidt
The epic new documentary series The American Revolution—a film by Ken Burns, Sarah Botstein and David Schmidt—premiers on PBS on November 16, 2025. This six-part series chronicles the story of the creation of the United States and its eight-year war for independence from Great Britain. Last month, the American Revolution Institute hosted a conversation with […]
The People’s Constitution
In 1787 Thomas Jefferson was in Paris, wasting his time as ambassador from a government that had so little authority that the French government could safely ignore it. Many of Jefferson’s American friends, including James Madison, were deeply concerned about violent unrest driven by high taxes and the burden of debts compounded by deflation. In […]
The People’s Revolution
How will we understand the American Revolution in the future we are making? For more than two hundred years the American Revolution defined our nation and the ideals to which it is dedicated. For most of that time the heroes of the American Revolution were the cherished heroes of our nation. But in the last […]
Our First Veterans
The American Revolution was the most deeply consequential event in our nation’s history. It secured our independence, established our republic, created our national identity, and expressed ideals of liberty, equality, natural and civil rights, and responsible citizenship that have defined our nation for nearly 250 years. The achievements of the Revolution were the work of […]