Upcoming Events
Who really won the Revolutionary War?
In 1775, Ben Franklin sent a Connecticut shopkeeper, Silas Deane, on a secret mission to persuade Louis XVI to arm the Americans against the British. Deane had no experience abroad, spoke no French, and knew nothing about diplomacy, but Franklin chose him because Deane was such an improbable secret agent, the British would never suspect him.
This is the bizarre true story of how Deane succeeded with the help of two other men – a French comic playwright and a gender-bending spy – to smuggle all of the arms, ammunition, and supplies out of France, through the British lines, to George Washington’s beleaguered army. It’s a wild tale of espionage, political intrigue, seduction, and murder.
The Washington Post named Paul’s book, Unlikely Allies, one of the best books of the year and compared it to a Monty Python movie. It’s available for purchase online or at your local bookseller. Book signing with the author to follow.
This event is FREE and open to the public - No advance registration required.
In partnership with the Franco-American Centre
At the start of our republic, America was an idea, not a reality. We were many peoples, not one. Americans identified as citizens of their states and had little in common with people from other states. It took decades for an American identity to emerge from two competing visions of American nationalism.
New Hampshire native son Daniel Webster challenged Andrew Jackson’s populist idea that only white Christians could be American. Webster argued that the Constitution defines all of us as Americans, regardless of race, faith, or ethnicity. Professor Paul shows how Webster’s pluralist idea of constitutional nationalism triumphed and came to define what it means to be an American.
Joel Richard Paul is the Alfred and Hanna Fromm Emeritus Professor at the University of California College of the Law, San Francisco, where he teaches constitutional and international economic law. He has also taught on the law faculties of the University of California, Berkeley; Yale University; the University of Connecticut; Leiden University in the Netherlands; and American University.
His most recent books include Indivisible: Daniel Webster and the Birth of American Nationalism; Without Precedent: Chief Justice John Marshall and His Times; and Unlikely Allies: How a Merchant, a Playwright, and a Spy Saved the American Revolution (all published by Penguin/Riverhead). Unlikely Allies was named one of the best books of 2009 by The Washington Post and was recently adapted by the author into a stage play. His books and articles have been appeared in French, Japanese, Chinese, and Spanish.
Professor Paul was educated at Amherst College, the London School of Economics, Harvard Law School, and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. He lives outside San Francisco.
Books may be purchased in advance online or at your local bookseller. Book signing with the author to follow.
This event is free and open to the public - No advance registration required.
Pizza and Politics with Massachusetts State Auditor Diana DiZoglio
Pizza and Politics with Senator John E. Sununu