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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

  • Scandal on the Stage: Banned Theater in Boston

    Thu, May 1, 2003
    This program includes vignettes of censored plays in Boston, beginning with the Puritan censorship of Morton's Maypole and climaxing with the 1929 banning of Eugene O'Neill's Freudian theatrical experiment, Strange Interlude. A panel discusses the performances, the historical ideas of censorship, and what forms censorship takes today.
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    Revolutionary Spaces

  • Industry's Revolution: The Labor Movement in Greater Boston and Beyond

    Thu, Sep 9, 2010
    Historian Phillip Dray, award-winning author of *There is Power in a Union*, examines how the labor movement over time has invoked our nation’s revolutionary ideals—freedom, individualism and liberty—in its exploration of labor, capital, class politics and corporate might. Industry arrived in the early years of our young republic, and with it came a vigorous labor movement that paralleled the path of our nation’s social and cultural history. The American labor movement has endured picket lines, police batons and strikes, and has celebrated the successful creation of fair workers’ rights and safer working conditions.
    Forum Network
    Partner:
    Revolutionary Spaces

  • Tragedy in November: The Luongo Fire and Thanksgiving Day Fires

    Thu, Nov 18, 2010
    Former Boston Fire Commissioner Paul Christian shares the story of the little-known Luongo fire as well as that of the 8-alarm Thanksgiving Day Fire of 1889. November has been a tragic month in Boston's fire history. On November 15, 1942, a fire started in the back room of the Luongo Restaurant in East Boston. Just hours later, without warning, a wall collapsed, trapping firefighters in burning debris and burying the city's largest ladder truck. Eight firemen were killed. Presented in collaboration with the Boston Fire Historical Society, the Boston Fire Department, Downtown Crossing Partnership, the National Fire Prevention Association and other local partners. Special thanks to author and historian Stephanie Schorow.
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    Partner:
    Revolutionary Spaces

  • Legacy of the Cocoanut Grove Nightclub Fire

    Thu, Nov 11, 2010
    On November 28, 1942, a vibrant and popular nightclub turned into a horrifying inferno via a fast-moving and searing fire that left nearly 500 people dead. The personal stories that emerged from this tragic event shocked the nation and led to sweeping changes in fire regulations, emergency procedures, and medicine. Casey Grant, research director of the Fire Protection Research Foundation of the National Fire Protection Association and expert on the Cocoanut Grove fire, examines the impact and legacy of this fire. Presented in collaboration with the Boston Fire Historical Society, the Boston Fire Department, Downtown Crossing Partnership, the National Fire Prevention Association and other local partners. Special thanks to author and historian Stephanie Schorow.
    Forum Network
    Partner:
    Revolutionary Spaces

  • City Censors: The Notorious Watch and Ward Society

    Tue, Sep 28, 2010
    Neil Miller, author and lecturer in journalism at Tufts University, traces the evolution of the straitlaced, New England Watch and Ward Society from its aristocratic reformist roots to its ruthless moral crusades. The influential and contentious New England Watch and Ward Society acted as Boston’s unofficial moral guardians for over 80 years. These elite watchdogs actively policed the city’s social evils from gambling and prostitution, to obscene books and scandalous theater. Elaborate sting operations, raids, ample arrests, and courtroom battles earned the Society notoriety and Boston a reputation as a prudish and puritanical city.
    Forum Network
    Partner:
    Revolutionary Spaces