Brain Fuel

The Founding Fathers have often been portrayed as men of unflinching resolve, deeply committed to the idea of independence, but the revolution they led was one that none of them had truly anticipated and each would have preferred to avoid. Explaining how these loyal subjects of a great empire became the founders of an independent nation and a revolutionary republic remains one of the most challenging questions in American history. In this lecture, Professor Rakove finds the answer by exploring a series of pivotal events from 1773 to 1776. The British, he argues, badly miscalculated the reaction to events like the Boston Tea Party, the Coercive Acts of 1774, and their brutal occupation of New Jersey in 1776. Men like Jefferson, Adams, and Washington were forced to discover talents they otherwise would never have known they possessed and create the United States of America.