Events

At the time of the American Revolution, the British Empire had colonies in India, Africa, the Caribbean, the Pacific, Canada, Ireland and Scotland. The thirteen rebellious American colonies accounted for half of the total number of provinces in the British world after the Seven Years’ War. As much as the Revolution was an event in the history of the United States, the conflict was an imperial event produced by the upheavals of managing a far-flung set of imperial possessions during a turbulent period of reform. Drawing from his new book, co-authored with the late Trevor Burnard, historian Andrew O’Shaughnessy looks beyond the familiar borders of the Revolution by exploring colonies that did not rebel—Quebec, Nova Scotia, Bermuda, India, the British Caribbean, Senegal and Ireland—to provide a broader history that transcends what we think we know about the Revolution.

This author’s talk will be held at the Phillips Collection: 1600 21st St. NW, Washington, DC, 20009.

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

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About the Speaker

Andrew O’Shaughnessy is a professor of history at the University of Virginia. Between 2003 and 2023, he was vice president of Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello and the Saunders Director of the Robert H. Smith International Center for Jefferson Studies. He is the author of An Empire Divided: The American Revolution and the British Caribbean (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2000); The Men Who Lost America: British Leadership, the American Revolution, and the Fate of the Empire (Yale University Press, 2013); and The Illimitable Freedom of the Human Mind: Thomas Jefferson’s Idea of a University (University of Virginia Press, 2021).