As a newly minted Ph.D. in 1958, Alfred Young bucked historical conventions, which gave a central place to high politics, political biography, and elite intellectual history. In *The Democratic Republicans of New York* (1967), Young studied the political movements and aspirations of the "meaner sort" of the Revolutionary era, placing them within a broader class analysis of politics. In its focus on the popular classes, on social conflict, and on the Revolution as the occasion for unleashing popular politics, Young anticipated many of the themes and interpretations that distinguish studies of the Revolution over the next two decades. Young then embarked on an ambitious study of Boston artisans during the Revolutionary era. In other articles and lectures, Young explored the transmission of English popular rituals and traditions to the colonies and their mobilization during the Revolution, the transformations of artisans consciousness and politics, and the impact of popular politics on the drafting of the Constitution.

Laurel Thatcher Ulrich is the 300th Anniversary University Professor emerita at Harvard University. She is the author of seven books including A Midwife's Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard Based on Her Diary, 1785 - 1812 and Well-behaved Women Seldom Make History (2007), exploring the popular phrase which she coined. She has received numerous awards and honors including the Pulitzer Prize for History in 1991.

Joan is an actor/storyteller who is selected for the Massachusetts Cultural Council's Events and residency Roster of Artists, and the Mass Touring Program of the New England Foundation for the Arts. She is the creator and performer of "Petticoat Adventures", dramatic solo performances interpreting the lives of extraordinary American women including Deborah Samson, First Lady Louisa Catherine Adams, seafaring Johanna Burgess, and Rachel Revere.