i think the perceptionce that many people in the united states and also around the worldhi that this is an extraordinary unusual time in a sense where we are out of time will be a curiosity in the future. people will look back and wonder about that wonderment. and he gets kind of an interesting phenomenon. when you think about today do you compare it to any other time in history? as a historian. i m interested in that. we have a cognitive tendency. in the same way i m the kind of person that seems like this and family members. our need for familiarity. for most of my career as a historian. what time is this like. it is an easy story to write. i think there s a whole crop of presidential biographers who go out on talk shows. i generally find them to be not i in this era. it s actually a way to kind of contain the chaos. it is a way to avoid what is truly strange about this. what do we mean when we talk about american history. how are we to reckon with the fact that our prese
in the american revolution and i m looking forward to discussing this book with him. thank you so much. the book is a great read and i enjoyed it very much. i thought i knew a lot about american history, but i ve learned so much. let s start with aic basic question of why did you write this book and what did you hope the readers would get out of it? you probably don t know by which the process they gained independence fromta great brita. thanks for the introduction. i wanted to convey a sense of how complicated history is in general. it is a very strong misconception [inaudible] and that is correct enough but it s more complicated than that. who didn t want independence from britain at all. it might not be an improvement and this is the part when for the first time george washington, maybe benjamin franklin and the redcoats are on the other side. it s between those americans who wanted independence and those who did not and who called themselves patriots and loyalists and t
today s lecture is going to be on military aspects of the revolutionary war in the north and south. next week, when we have our guest speaker she will be talking about the western campaigns in more detail. there are other aspects of the war, financing the war, women s participation that we will not get to today that we will be leaving for future classes. i wanted to start by talking about one of the best recent books on the american revolution called the men who lost america. he argues that british generals are described as incompetent, in decisive, but he argues that these were competitive men in the midst accomplished professionals, and the reason why they failed was not due to a character flaw, but because they faced insurmountable obstacles fighting a war in america. i will lay out some of those obstacles. the first thing is diplomacy. in the seven years war britain had allies. during the war for american independence they found themselves relatively alone, fighting f
sits in a lecture with one of the nation s college professors. you can watch it next, brooklyn college professor benjamin carp talks about the advantages and disadvantages for british and american forces during the revolution. he describes how individual personalities, supplies, and timing influenced the outcomes. this class is one hour and 15 minutes. benjamin: hi, everybody. today s lecture is going to be on military aspects of the revolutionary war in the north and south. next week, when we have our guest speaker, she will be talking about the western campaigns in more detail. there are other aspects of the war, financing the war, women s participation that we will not get to today that we will be leaving for future classes. i wanted to start by talking about one of the best recent books on the american revolution called the men who lost america. he argues that british generals are described as incompetent, in decisive, but he argues that these were competitive men in th
the capitol took 3 2 years to build, starting in 1867, and it was deemed completed in 1899 by governor theodore roosevelt. construction materials such as granite and marble came from all over the country and all over the world. five architects worked on this building. the building reflects those different architectural styles. we re standing on the eastern approach to the capitol. this stairway contains 77 steps. and we re told that the 77 was chosen to commemorate the year 1777, which was when new york officially became a state. the stairway is also important in the history of this building because it s said governor theodore roosevelt used to run up these steps. and he would challenge reporters that if they could keep up with him, he would grant them an exclusive interview. at the very top you can see carvings of henry hudson and joseph grant. now, it s logical that henry hudson might appear on the new york state capitol since it was henry hudson who came to albany, discove