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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://revolutionaryspaces.org

  • The Colorful Politician, James Michael Curley

    Wed, Jan 20, 2010
    William Bulger, who served as president of both the Massachusetts Senate and the University of Massachusetts, author of *James Michael Curley: a Short Biography*, explains why the "rascal" politician James Michael Curley was such and inspiration to the generation that followed him. James Michael Curley dominated the political scene for over half a century as Boston councilor, alderman, mayor, Massachusetts governor and congressman. Eloquent, passionate, every loyal to his constituents, Curley was a lightening rod for controversy throughout a political career extending from 1897 through 1955. Sponsored by the Lowell Institute.
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  • 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.
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  • 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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  • 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.
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  • 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.
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  • Anouar Majid: Piracy, Terrorism and the Question of Islam

    Thu, Mar 11, 2004
    Dr. Anouar Majid, professor and chair of English at the University of New England, discusses the United States' first major contact with the Muslim World in the Barbary War and the parallels to our own time.
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  • Town Meeting with Howard Zinn

    Thu, Mar 25, 2004
    Howard Zinn discusses his classic book *A People's History of the United States*. James R. Green, Professor of History at UMass, Boston, moderates. This event is presented in collaboration with the Organization of American Historians as a Partners in Public Dialogue Program.
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  • Literary Trail of Greater Boston

    Thu, Jun 23, 2005
    Professional photographer and writer Susan Wilson brings Boston's Freedom Trail to life with highlights from the newly revised edition of her beloved guidebook. No city in America can match the literary heritage of Boston. Just as the city has a Freedom Trail connecting its Revolutionary sites, it also has a literary trail connecting the homes, workplaces, and final resting places of its great writers.
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  • Vindication: A Life of Mary Wollstonecraft

    Wed, Oct 5, 2005
    Author Lyndall Gordon argues that Mary Wollstonecraft was not a born genius--she became one. Gordon discusses how this independent, compassionate woman who devised a blueprint for human change achieved that distinction. Wollstonecraft's wide, evolving circles of friends, benefactors, mentors, admirers and detractors are richly sketched out by Gordon, and drama (a money-squandering, abusive father; a sister trapped in a tyrannical marriage; financial crises; unfaithful lovers; attempted suicides) abounds. Wollstonecraft's life was an adventurous one; in Paris, she watched as the admired French Revolution became the Reign of Terror. Yet Wollstonecraft's adventurous life illuminates rather than obscures the philosophical and historical work that made her the foremother of much modern thinking about education and human rights, as well as about women's rights, female sexuality, and the institution of marriage.
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  • Empires at War: The French and Indian War

    Wed, Sep 7, 2005
    William Fowler, director of the Massachusetts Historical Society, describes the epic struggle between the world's two great super powers, France and England, in a war fought to determine the fate of North America.
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