Video Tag: Legacy of the Revolution

Image of three French officers who served in the American Revolution and wrote memoir accounts of their time in America.

French Memoirs from the War for American Independence

Ellen Clark, Normand Desmarais, Robert Selig and Andrew Woelflein
July 12, 2021

The American Revolution marked the beginning of an age of democratic revolutions that swept over France and challenged the old order throughout the Atlantic world. The French officers who served in the American War of Independence, whether as idealistic volunteers or resolute soldiers of their king, remembered the experience for the rest of their lives. […]

Robert P. Watson, author of George Washington's Final Battle, discusses his new book at Washington's role in the creation of the District of Columbia.

George Washington and the District of Columbia

Robert Watson
April 19, 2021

The first president is remembered for leading the Continental Army to victory, presiding over the Constitutional Convention and forging a new nation, but less well known is the story of his involvement in the establishment of a capital city and how it nearly tore the United States apart. In this video Robert P. Watson, professor of […]

The executive director of the American Revolution Institute argues that the American Revolution is properly understood as a people’s revolution—a social and cultural transformation driven by the desire of ordinary people for personal independence.

The Future of the American Revolution

Jack D. Warren, Jr.
February 23, 2021

What is the place of the American Revolution in the future we are making? In this lecture presented in the North Carolina Museum of History’s American Revolution Lecture Series (sponsored by the North Carolina Society of the Cincinnati), the executive director of the American Revolution Institute argues that the American Revolution is properly understood as […]

Image of "The Pensioner" used in the presentation on "America's First Veterans."

America’s First Veterans

Jack D. Warren, Jr.
January 13, 2021

Executive Director Jack Warren discusses America’s First Veterans, a book published by the American Revolution Institute of the Society of the Cincinnati. Using eighty-five manuscripts, rare books, prints, broadsides, paintings and other artifacts, America’s First Veterans introduces the stories of the men—and some women—who bore arms in the Revolutionary War. The book follows their fate in […]

Farar Ellliott, curator of the U.S. House of Representatives, discusses portraits of Revolutionary War in the U.S. Capitol in a lecture at the American Revolution Institute.

Revolutionary War Heroes in the Art of the U.S. Capitol

Farar Elliott
November 15, 2013

The Revolutionary War portraits that adorn the U.S. Capitol serve a purpose beyond artistic decoration. In the early nineteenth century, Americans searched for icons to unite them as a new nation, particularly ones that evoked civic virtue. The only symbols that the fractured and growing nation could agree on were Revolutionary War heroes. Learn how […]

From the Revolution to the Civil Rights Movement

James H. Hershman, Jr.
July 3, 2013

A powerful thread connects the American Revolution and the civil rights movement of the 1960s: the world-shaking proclamation of the Declaration of Independence “that all men are created equal” and have an undeniable right to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” It became the centerpiece of African American political thought for the next two […]