The American Revolution on Trial

In this virtual talk, T.H. Breen discusses his new book, The American Revolution on Trial: A New Nation Confronts the Burden of Independence (March 2026), which reconstructs a strange court martial held in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1778. General John Burgoyne, himself then a prisoner of war, demanded that leading Continental officers try an honored American colonel for possible abuse of British soldiers. The trial was only marginally a military story. Rather, it raised troublesome issues about achieving cultural independence from Great Britain--even during a war--and demonstrated how preserving the rule of law was important for people eager to establish an honorable reputation for the New Republic. T.H. Breen has written several prize-winning books on the American Revolution, including Marketplace of Revolution: How Consumer Politics Shaped American Independence (2004), which won the Colonial War Society Prize for the best book in 2004 on the American Revolution. Breen’s research and writing explore how the experiences of ordinary Americans were as important as the actions of the Founding Fathers in mobilizing revolutionary resistance and achieving national independence. Breen has taught at Northwestern University, the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, and at the California Institute of Technology. He was elected to AAS membership in April 1994. Rosalind Remer is senior vice provost, libraries, collections & archives and founding director, Lenfest Center for Cultural Partnerships and is an affiliated faculty member in Drexel’s Department of History. Remer taught history for fourteen years at Moravian College, and was drawn to public history, museum planning, and administration while on leave to direct planning efforts for the National Constitution Center. She went on to serve as executive director of the Benjamin Franklin Tercentenary and then co-founded Remer & Talbott, a consulting firm serving museums, libraries, universities, historic sites, and other nonprofits. Remer joined Drexel in 2013, where she previously served as senior advisor to the president and facilitator of Drexel’s key presidential initiatives. She was elected to AAS membership in October of 1997.