Date/Time
Friday, April 10, 2026
9:00 am PDT – 5:00 pm PDT
Location
UCLA William Andrews Clark Memorial Library
2520 Cimarron Street
Organized by Professors Craig Yirush (University of California, Los Angeles), and Brad A. Jones (California State University, Fresno)
On the 200th anniversary of the American Revolution in 1976, Americans celebrated it as the story of a struggle for liberty which culminated in the creation of the world’s first democratic republic. The leading historians of the time largely concurred with this nationalistic view of the Revolution’s significance. They disagreed about whether the republicanism the new nation was committed to was liberal and thus more individualistic, or classical and thus more communitarian; but they all agreed that the Revolution sparked a “contagion of liberty” (in the words of its leading historian, Bernard Bailyn) which transformed American society.
As we approach the 250th anniversary in 2026, things are very different. While the public continues to think about the Revolution in democratic and egalitarian terms – as the popularity of the musical Hamilton and any number of popular biographies of the Founders attests – historians no longer take the nation as the starting point for their research. Nor are they so confident that the Revolution ushered in an age of liberty.
This one-day conference at the Clark Library will gather a group of leading scholars to see where scholarship about the Revolution is fifty years later, on its 250th anniversary. Through their own research, they’ll address the many and exciting ways we’ve come to rethink this important event, including its broader continental and even global reach, and its racial and ideological underpinnings. Unlike a traditional academic conference, however, these talks will be addressed to a mostly non-academic audience of students and members of the public. In doing so, we hope to show non-scholars new ways historians are currently thinking about the meaning of this seminal event in U.S. and world history.
Speakers
Richard Bell, University of Maryland
Katherine Carté, Southern Methodist University
Travis Glasson, Temple University
Patrick Griffin, University of Notre Dame
Brad A. Jones, California State University, Fresno
Jeffers Lennox, Wesleyan University
Johann Neem, Western Washington University
Gregory E. O’Malley, University of California, Santa Cruz
Robert Parkinson, Binghamton University
Kristofer Ray, College of the Holy Cross
Rosemarie Zagarri, George Mason University
Program Schedule
8:30 a.m.
Coffee and Registration
9:00 a.m.
Director’s Welcome
Bronwen Wilson, University of California, Los Angeles
Introduction
Craig Yirush, University of California, Los Angeles
9:15 a.m.
Johann Neem, Western Washington University
“The Contest over the American Revolution Today”
9:45 a.m.
Robert Parkinson, Binghamton University
“Behind the Declaration’s Grievances”
10:15 a.m.
Brad A. Jones, California State University, Fresno
“The Loyalist Revolution”
10:45 a.m.
Coffee Break
11:00 a.m.
Travis Glasson, Temple University
“Neutrality, Revolution, and Civil War”
11:30 a.m.
Katherine Carté, Southern Methodist University
“Religion and the American Revolution”
12:00 p.m.
Lunch
Exhibition of Clark Library materials in the North Book Room
1:00 p.m.
Rosemarie Zagarri, George Mason University
“Women and Politics in Revolutionary America”
1:30 p.m.
Kristofer Ray, College of the Holy Cross
“American Revolutions at 250: The View from Native Country”
2:00 p.m.
Jeffers Lennox, Wesleyan University
“National Reckonings: 1776 and Lessons from Canada’s 150th Anniversary”
2:30 p.m.
Coffee Break
2:45 p.m.
Gregory E. O’Malley, University of California, Santa Cruz
“The Escapes of David George and Enslaved Perspectives on the American Revolution”
3:15 p.m.
Richard Bell, University of Maryland
“Globalizing the American Revolution”
3:45 p.m.
Patrick Griffin, University of Notre Dame
“The American Revolution at 250”
4:15 p.m.
Roundtable
5:00 p.m.
Conclusion
Presentations will be recorded and made available on the Center’s YouTube Channel following the conference: youtube.com/@ucla-c1718cs
The conference is free to attend with advance registration, and will be held in-person at the Clark Library. Seating is limited at the Clark Library; walk-in registrants are welcome as space permits.
Image: Johannes Adam Simon Oertel (1823–1909). Pulling Down the Statue of King George III, New York City, 1852–53. Oil on canvas, 32 in. × 41 1/4 in. The New York Historical Society.