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Free online lectures: Explore a world of ideas

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Revolutionary Spaces

**Revolutionary Spaces ** connects people to the history and continuing practice of democracy through the intertwined stories of two of the nation’s most iconic sites—Boston’s Old South Meeting House and Old State House. We foster a free and open exchange of ideas, explore history, create gathering places, and preserve and steward historic buildings.

https://www.bostonhistory.org

  • Stealing God's Thunder: Benjamin Franklin's Lightning Rod

    Tue, Jan 17, 2006
    Philip Dray uses the story of Franklin's wild experiments and his battles with his vehement detractors as a metaphor for America's struggle for democracy and the establishment of our fundamental democratic values. Long before Benjamin Franklin was an eminent statesman and a father of American democracy, he was famous for being a revolutionary scientist, most notably for his experiments with lightning and electricity. But Franklin had many powerful doubters who were troubled by his presumption in denying God his favorite weapon of resentment. For as long as anyone could remember, all the way back to Greek, Roman, and Norse mythology, one of the gods' privileges had been the ability to hurl thunderbolts to punish the misdeeds of mortals. **Philip Dray** is the author of *At the Hands of Persons Unknown: The Lynching of Black America*, which won the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Book Prize and the Southern Book Critics Circle Award, and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the Los Angeles Times Book Award.
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  • Memory and Abolition in 1850's Boston

    Thu, Feb 16, 2006
    Margot Minardi explores why the Revolutionary past mattered to 19th century Bostonians and how they used that history to make the case for or against abolition. In 1843, the suspicion that President John Tyler had brought a slave to the dedication of the Bunker Hill Monument set Boston abolitionists up in arms. This incident was by no means the only time in the antebellum years when the celebration of American liberty ran up against the messy reality of slavery.
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  • Death in the Haymarket

    Thu, Mar 30, 2006
    James Green, professor of history at UMASS Boston and Howard Zinn, author of A People's History of the United States discuss the exhilarating rise of a visionary union movement and its downfall in the wake of the Haymarket tragedy. In May of 1886 Americans awoke to the news that a bomb had exploded a Chicago labor rally, killing several policemen. Coming in the midst of the largest national strike Americans had ever seen, the bombing, the mass hysteria it created, and the sensational trial and executions that followed, made headlines across the country. National sentiment turned against the burgeoning labor movement, ending a moment of hope for the nation's working class.
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  • Stephen Decatur: American Naval Hero

    Fri, Jun 9, 2006
    Historian Robert Allison tells the story of Stephen Decatur's eventful life at a time when the young republic was developing its own identity. Born to a prominent Philadelphia family in 1779, Decatur became the youngest man ever to serve as a captain in the US Navy at age 25.
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    True Crimes in New England: The Boston Strangler

    Wed, Oct 18, 2006
    Alan Rogers sheds light on one of Boston's most terrifying crime sprees, one that remains unsolved to this day. Between June 14, 1962 and January 4, 1964, Boston was terrorized by a serial killer who murdered 13 women. Rogers presents a historical context to the grisly case and details the crimes, the investigation, and the arrest, conviction and sentencing of Albert DeSalvo.
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