In celebration of the 250th anniversary of the Battles of Lexington and Concord, historians Rick Atkinson, author of The British Are Coming: The War for America, Lexington to Princeton, 1775-1777; Mary Beth Norton, author of 1774: The Long Year of Revolution; and Rosemarie Zagarri, author of Revolutionary Backlash: Women and Politics in the Early American Republic, explore the events leading to the first shots of the American Revolution, the battles themselves, and the colonists’ response to this pivotal moment in history. Jeffrey Rosen, president and CEO of the National Constitution Center, moderates.
Video
Participants
Rick Atkinson is the author of seven narrative histories about five American wars. His most recent book is The British Are Coming: The War for America, Lexington to Princeton, 1775–1777, which spent nearly three months on the New York Times bestseller list in 2019. He is also the bestselling author of the Liberation Trilogy―An Army at Dawn, The Day of Battle, and The Guns at Last Light―among other books.
Mary Beth Norton is the author of five books and co-editor of several others. Her textbook, A People and a Nation—a survey of U.S. history written with five other authors—has been published in 10 editions and has sold more than 500,000 copies. Norton is the Mary Donlon Alger Professor Emerita of American History at Cornell University. Her most recent book is 1774: The Long Year of Revolution.
Rosemarie Zagarri is a distinguished university professor at George Mason University. She has published four books, the most recent of which is Revolutionary Backlash: Women and Politics in the Early American Republic. Her articles have appeared in leading scholarly journals and in numerous edited collections. Her latest book project is titled Liberty and Oppression: Thomas Law and the Problem of Empire in Colonial British India and the Early American Republic.
Jeffrey Rosen is the president and CEO of the National Constitution Center, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization devoted to educating the public about the U.S. Constitution. Rosen is also professor of law at The George Washington University Law School and a contributing editor of The Atlantic.
Additional Resources
- Rick Atkinson, The British Are Coming: The War for America, Lexington to Princeton, 1775-1777, (2019)
- Rick Atkinson, The Fate of the Day: The War for America, Fort Ticonderoga to Charleston, 1777-1780, (2025)
- Mary Beth Norton, 1774: The Long Year of Revolution, (2020)
- Mary Beth Norton, Liberty’s daughters: The Revolutionary experience of American women, 1750-1800, (1980)
- Rosemarie Zagarri, Revolutionary Backlash: Women and Politics in the Early American Republic, (2008)
- Rosemarie Zagarri, A Woman’s Dilemma: Mercy Otis Warren and the American Revolution (2nd ed. 2014)
- Townshend Act (1767)
- The Tea Act and the Boston Tea Party (Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation)
- The Intolerable Acts (Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation)
- Joseph Warren, “Our Country Is In Danger but Not To Be Despaired Of,” (March 6, 1775)
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