The Great New York Fire of 1776 Book Discussion

Join us free on Zoom with author Benjamin Carp to explore the mysterious origins of the Great New York Fire of 1776 and the political forces that drove a rebellious American army to burn down cities on their own soil rather than succumb to British capture. Our January 2025 Roundtable Book Group selection is Carp’s book The Great New York Fire of 1776: A Lost Story of the American Revolution. The discussion will take place on Sunday, January 12 at 4 p.m. on Zoom. To register click here: https://tinyurl.com/y48vd3bh The Institute for Thomas Paine Studies (ITPS) at Iona University is once again joining RW250 as a cosponsor. Dr. Michael Crowder, former ITPS public historian and currently Assistant Professor at Texas State University, will moderate the discussion. “The Great New York Fire of 1776 makes us rethink many of our assumptions about the American Revolution and New York City's role in it. Carp presents the reader with a violent, confused account of the Revolutionary War. Instead of virtuous revolutionary leaders, we find rebels who 'skulked and deceived, burned and massacred, unleashed campaigns of terror, and denigrated people as less worthy of citizenship,' among other sins. It is not a story that lends itself to nationalistic pride or heroic memorialization. It is, however, one that includes many more voices from a much more varied and diverse set of people than most influential histories of the Revolution present, and it is one that has a distinctive resonance with the era of confusion and political violence in which many Americans now find ourselves.” —The Gotham Center for New York City History