“Overthrowing the Government of Massachusetts:
The Bottom-Up Revolution of 1774”
Tuesday, November 29, 2016—Noon to 1:00pm
State Library of Massachusetts—
Room 341, Massachusetts State House
Join us at the State Library of Massachusetts on Tuesday, November 29th, for an Author Talk with historian J.L. Bell, who will speak about the dramatic opening of his book The Road to Concord: How Four Stolen Cannon Ignited the Revolutionary War. Published earlier this year, The Road to Concord explores the confrontations in New England that led up to the Revolutionary War. It starts with the action-packed days of September 1774, when a spontaneous rural uprising overthrew the royal government of Massachusetts outside of Boston. In the following months, the colony’s Patriots worked to build up a military force. Meanwhile, the British military, under the leadership of General Thomas Gage, tried to thwart those efforts. Central to this story are four small brass cannon belonging to the colonial militia that were smuggled out of Boston by radical Patriots and subsequently located by British spies on a farm in Concord. For different reasons, both the Patriots and Gage strove to keep these guns out of their public reports. In his thoroughly documented book, Mr. Bell argues that these little-known episodes sparked the beginning of the Revolutionary War.
In addition to The Road to Concord, Mr. Bell has written a comprehensive historic resource study for the National Park Service titled George Washington’s Headquarters and Home: Cambridge, Massachusetts, and he has also contributed to several journals, magazines, and books. Mr. Bell has been elected a Fellow of the Massachusetts Historical Society and a Member of both the American Antiquarian Society and the Colonial Society of Massachusetts. Additionally, Mr. Bell maintains the Boston 1775 blog (boston1775.net), which is dedicated to providing “history, analysis, and unabashed gossip about the start of the American Revolution in Massachusetts.”
Copies of The Road to Concord will be available for purchase and signing at the conclusion of Mr. Bell’s talk. We invite you to register online for this free event and join us on November 29th at the State Library.
Laura Schaub
Cataloging Librarian