09/08/2026
This year marks the nation’s semiquincentennial (or 250th birthday). This program will explore the causes, course, and legacies of the American Revolution, considering the events surrounding 1776 in light of our vantage point from the Midwest. Living in Wisconsin, we often feel a disconnect to the physical places where famous events of this history took place: the Tea Party, Lexington and Concord, Independence Hall, and the like. Yet people, places, and historical forces in the Midwest, even as far back as 1776, also shaped the American Revolution in profound ways. The program will consider how we can understand and make meaning from events that took place 250 years ago, here in the Midwest, in Philadelphia and Boston, and beyond.
About the speaker: Francis Russo is a Visiting Assistant Professor of History at UW-Madison. He is a historian of early and nineteenth-century America, with a focus on political economy, intellectual life, and social reform. His research and teaching interests are motivated by concerns within the history of capitalism, slavery and antislavery, democracy, social movements, intellectual, social and political history, and the history and philosophy of American Pragmatism.
