This week’s episode profiles Mercy Otis Warren—a trailblazing woman who was one of the leading thinkers of America’s Revolutionary and Founding period. A poet, playwright, and pamphleteer—Warren’s ideas influenced John, Abigail, and Samuel Adams as well as Alexander Hamilton and others, and even helped shape the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Host Jeffrey Rosen was joined by two biographers of Warren, Nancy Rubin Stuart, author of The Muse of the Revolution: The Secret Pen of Mercy Otis Warren and the Founding of a Nation, and Rosemarie Zagarri, author of A Woman's Dilemma: Mercy Otis Warren and the American Revolution.
FULL PODCAST
This episode was produced by Jackie McDermott and engineered by David Stotz. Research was provided by Alexandra "Mac" Taylor, Amy Lu, Olivia Gross, and Lana Ulrich.
TRANSCRIPT
This transcript may not be in its final form, accuracy may vary, and it may be updated or revised in the future.
PARTICIPANTS
Nancy Rubin Stuart is an author who specializes in women and social history. She is the author of The Muse of the Revolution: The Secret Pen of Mercy Otis Warren and the Founding of a Nation. Her next book Poor Richard’s Women: Deborah Read Franklin and the Other Women Behind the Founding Father will be published in February 2022.
Rosemarie Zagarri is University Professor at George Mason University where she specializes in early American history. She is the author of A Woman's Dilemma: Mercy Otis Warren and the American Revolution which is part of the American Biographical History Series. Her latest book is Revolutionary Backlash: Women and Politics in 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
- Nancy Rubin Stuart, The Muse of the Revolution: The Secret Pen of Mercy Otis Warren and the Founding of a Nation
- Rosemarie Zagarri, A Woman's Dilemma: Mercy Otis Warren and the American Revolution
- The Mercy Otis Warren Papers
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