America 250 - Lessons and Legacies of the American Revolution
About this event
The Ralph Munro Institute for Civic Education will present their fall seminar on Oct. 15 and 16, 2026.
Co-sponsored by LWVBWC, the event will feature keynote speaker Joanne Freeman of Yale University, renowned historian and public intellectual Thursday evening, Oct. 15, at 5:00pm.
On Friday afternoon, Oct. 16, there will be two panel presentations:
- Preventing Unchecked Power: Legislatures and Liberty from the Founding to Today, 1:00pm to 2:30pm.
- Jaime Herrara Beutler, former U.S. Representative the Washington's 3rd Congressional District
- Craig Yirush, University of California, Los Angeles
- Subjects to Citizens: Civic Action and Social Change, 3:00p to 4:30pm.
- Abigail Dym Bowdoin College
- Vicki Hsueh, Western Washington University
- John Reeve Huston, Duke University
All events are free and will be held at the Western Washington Viking Union Multi-Purpose Room and online.
Joanne B. Freeman is the Alan Boles Class of 1929 Professor of History and American Studies at Yale University, specializing in early national American politics. Her first book, Affairs of Honor: National Politics in the New Republic, won the Best Book award from the Society of Historians of the Early American Republic. She has also edited Alexander Hamilton: Writings – an Atlantic Monthly “best book”; The Essential Hamilton: Letters and Other Writings; and co-edited Jeffersonian Republicans in Power, 1800-1824 with Johann Neem. Her most recent book, The Field of Blood: Violence in Congress and the Road to Civil War, was a finalist for the Gilder Lehrman Lincoln Prize, a New York Times Notable Book, and a best book for Mother Jones, NPR, and Smithsonian.
Elected to the Society of American Historians, Freeman has won fellowships from the American Council of Learned Societies, the Dirkson Congressional Research Center, the American Historical Association, and the Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center for Writers and Scholars. In 2021-22, she was President of the Society for Historians of the Early American Republic. Freeman’s articles and op-eds have appeared in a wide range of scholarly journals and major media outlets; she appears regularly in documentaries and as a television and radio analyst.
Long committed to public-minded history, Freeman gives frequent public programs and teaching workshops. A leading expert on Alexander Hamilton, she was the historical consultant for the National Park Service’s reconstruction of Hamilton’s home, the Grange; Lin-Manuel Miranda used Freeman’s work in writing Hamilton.
Online, Freeman co-hosted the podcasts BackStory and Now & Then with Heather Cox Richardson. The two now co-host What the Heck Just Happened? Freeman also hosts two solo podcasts: History Matters, and A Few Thoughts for Those Who Can’t Sleep. Her work is on her YouTube channel.
Location
Western Washington University
Viking Union Multipurpose Room
Bellingham, WA
USA
Event Contact(s)
Eileen McCracken
Registration Info
Registration is not Required
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