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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

  • Anthony Sammarco: Lost Boston

    Thu, May 29, 2014
    In 1876 the Old South Meeting House was auctioned off for the value of its parts and was being dismantled when people rallied to save it! But other historic structures in Boston have not fared so well. The original Museum of Fine Arts in Copley Square, John Hancock's Beacon Hill mansion, the Huntington Avenue Grounds and the original Boston Opera House are just a few of the places that have been lost to decline or the wrecker's ball. Discover just how much we have lost when historian Anthony Sammarco takes us on a nostalgic and eye-opening journey to a wide range of Boston places that can no longer be seen.
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  • The Boston Mob Guide: Hit Men, Hoodlums & Hideouts

    Wed, Apr 25, 2012
    The capture of James 'Whitey' Bulger closed an infamous chapter in Boston history. Yet the city's criminal underworld has a long and bloody rap sheet that stretches back to the beginning of the Twentieth Century. Boston journalists Beverly Ford and Stephanie Schorow reveal the real story of the underbelly of Boston through profiles of ruthless gangsters and the backrooms and seedy hangouts where deadly hits and lucrative heists were hatched.
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  • Benjamin Carp: Resolute Men (Dressed as Mohawks)

    Thu, Dec 12, 2013
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  • Loren Spears: A Prism of Information - Indigenous Knowledge and Public History

    Thu, Mar 13, 2014
    Lorén Spears, Narragansett artist, educator, and executive director of the Tomaquag Indian Memorial Museum in Rhode Island, one of the oldest tribal museums in the nation, shared her extensive experience teaching the public about Southern New England's Native residents. Through an illustrated lecture, storytelling and song, Spears explained how today's indigenous educators help broaden our understanding of history through collaborations with local historians, oral history projects and performing arts programs.
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  • Trial of Andrew Johnson and the Fight for Lincoln's Legacy

    Mon, Jun 15, 2009
    Author and Constitutional lawyer David O. Stewart reveals how the first President Impeachment Crisis was wrought with corruption and greed. In 1868 when the nation was healing from a bloody civil war, the US Congress impeached Lincoln's successor, President Andrew Johnson. Attempting to secure the rights of the freed slaves and prevent the southern states from falling under control of the rebels, congressional Republicans seized the opportunity to impeach President Johnson, a man who took a narrow view of federal powers and was untroubled by racial violence. The conflict between the President and the Congress threatened to tear the nation apart, in a clash that strained the Constitution to the breaking point. This program is generously funded by the Lowell Institute.
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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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  • 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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  • 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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    Belinda Rathbone: Tea with Miss Rose

    Thu, Dec 17, 2009
    Belinda Rathbone, co-author of *Tea with Miss Rose*, talks about the life and times of Rose Nichols, the Bostonian spinster who gathered a regular crowd at her townhouse on Beacon Hill in the 1950s to discuss art, politics, and world affairs over a cup of Hu-Kwa. Rathbone describes these famous tea parties and shares recipes for tea cakes and the best "ingredients" for lively conversations for a proper tea party.
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