Supporting scholarship and promoting popular understanding of the American Revolution is central to the work of the American Revolution Institute. The Institute welcomes distinguished scholars and authors to share their insights and discuss their latest research with the public at Anderson House through lectures, author's talks and panel discussions. The Institute also hosts a variety of other historical programs throughout the year, including our Lunch Bite object talks, battlefield tours, special Anderson House tour programs and other events. Many of the events we offer are free.
December 2025
Lecture—The Battle for the Fourteenth Colony: America’s War of Liberation in Canada, 1774-1776
To commemorate the 250th anniversary of the American campaign into Canada, historian Mark Anderson examines the American colonies’ efforts to bring Quebec into the Continental confederation and free Canadians from British “tyranny.” Drawing from his research, Anderson offers new insight into the key political and military factors that ultimately doomed America’s first foreign war of liberation and resulted in the Continental Army’s decisive expulsion from Canada on the eve of the Declaration of Independence. This program accompanies our current exhibition,…
Find out more »January 2026
Author’s Talk—The Home Front: Revolutionary Households, Military Occupation, and the Making of American Independence
Historian Lauren Duval of the University of Oklahoma discusses her new book that vividly captures daily life during the American Revolution through the eyes and ears of those who intimately experienced it. Prior to the conflict, the urban centers of colonial North America had little direct experience of war. With the outbreak of violence, British forces occupied every major city, invading the most private of spaces: the home. Drawing from the new book, this talk considers the dynamics of the…
Find out more »February 2026
Author’s Talk— Declaring Independence: Why 1776 Matters
Pulitzer-Prize winning historian Edward Larson discusses his new book that explores the ideas and battlefield sacrifices of 1776 to remind us why the year matters to all of us. At the beginning of 1776, virtually no one in the colonies was advocating independence. By the end of 1776, independence was on every patriot’s lips. The many tyrannies of a king had made an independent republic necessary. In this talk, Larson gives us a compact, insightful history of that pivotal year…
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