Peter Mancall
June 24 • 8:30am • $35.79

Join University of Southern California professor Peter Mancall as he explores the origins of revolutions in America with real-world examples from Barbados to New England to New Mexico. Mancall explores the long-lasting consequences of these early rebellions and how they foreshadowed the American Revolution itself.

Andrew O’Shaughnessy
10.30am • $35.79

Continuing the arguments of his prize-winning books The Men Who Lost America and Republic and Empire, Andrew O'Shaughnessy explores British policies toward America before the Revolution — examining why they often seemed disjointed and unsystematic, and whether the colony was run by tyranny or not.

Vincent Brown with Malika Pryor
12.30pm • $35.79

Harvard historian and award-winning author of Tacky's Revolt, Vincent Brown examines the role of the Atlantic slave trade and the Caribbean in the origins of American independence — focusing on the economic and political connections between the Caribbean and South Carolina, and how fears of imperial reform and the resistance of enslaved people shaped revolutionary thought.

Conversation moderated by Malika Pryor, Chief Learning and Engagement Officer, International African American Museum.

Featuring Andrew O’Shaughnessy, Peter Mancall, and Vincent Brown. Moderated by John M. McCardell Jr.
2.30pm • $35.79

Three of the symposium's leading scholars join a panel to examine what sparked the Revolution, how it took shape, and which actors played a role in the birth of the rebellion. Moderated by John M. McCardell Jr.

Maya Jasanoff with Ben Zeigler

4.30pm • $35.79

Maya Jasanoff, Chair of the Department of History at Harvard University, joins us to explore the contested politics of loyalty during the American Revolution. Author of Liberty's Exiles, which won the National Book Award for Nonfiction, Jasanoff will draw on her acclaimed scholarship of empire, migration, and global history, to examine the experiences of Loyalists whose allegiances complicated the familiar narratives of patriotism and independence.

Moderated by Ben Zeigler, member of the SC250 Commission and one of the organizers of the Revolutionary Ideas Symposium

Join us at the historic Charleston Library Society for a VIP cocktail reception with our symposium speakers and featuring remarks from Pulitzer Prize winning historian Jon Meacham.

*Limited to VIP Two-Day Pass Holders

Katharine Carté

8:30am • $35.79

Author of Religion and the American Revolution, Katherine Carté explores the powerful role of communities of faith in the American Revolution—how evangelical networks and competing religious loyalties shaped political ideas, mobilized communities, and influenced support and resistance to the revolutionary cause across the Atlantic world. 

Featuring Katherine Carté  and Maya Jasanoff. Moderated by Elizabeth Chew, CEO, South Carolina Historical Society

10.30am • $35.79

Katherine Carté and Maya Jasanoff explore the world of ideas informing the Revolution as it unfolded—including the confines of the British Empire, the role of religious influence, and the political landscapes that allowed a rebellion to take shape. Moderated by Elizabeth Chew, CEO of the South Carolina Historical Society.

Jon Meacham
12.30pm • $47.72

Pulitzer Prize-winner Jon Meacham joins Revolutionary Ideas to discuss his groundbreaking book American Struggle — illuminating the nation's complicated past from 1619 to the twenty-first century through primary-source documents that take us back to critical moments in the national experiment. 

James Grant
2.30pm • $35.79

James Grant, author of Friends Until the End, traces the intellectual legacies of Edmund Burke and Charles Fox—two great Irish and English orators of the 18th century who cultivated an improbable friendship across their political differences. 

Featuring Sir Michael Fallon KCB, Jon Meacham, and Christy Coleman. Chaired by James Arroyo, CEO, The Ditchley Foundation.
4.30pm • $35.79

Join us for this historic closing panel presented and convened with The Ditchley Foundation (UK). This distinguished panel will explore the enduring legacies of American independence and its continuous influence on democracy, global leadership, and the transatlantic alliance. Chaired by James Arroyo, CEO of The Ditchley Foundation, the panel examines how the revolutionary ideals of 1776 still shape political thought and international partnerships, and the future of democratic institutions in America and beyond.