"Our First Civil War" with H.W. Brands 

On Thursday, March 24, at 7 p.m., JHC will welcome best-selling historian and two-time Pulitzer finalist H.W. Brands, for a FREE virtual conversation about his new book, “Our First Civil War: Patriots and Loyalists in the American Revolution.”

An acclaimed historian and professor, Brands is the author of 30 books, including “The First American: The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin” and “Traitor to His Class: The Privileged Life and Radical Presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt“–both of which were finalists for the Pulitzer Prize in biography.

His new book, “Our First Civil War,” describes how, after the revolution, Patriots “were cast as heroes and founding fathers while the Loyalists were relegated to bit parts best forgotten.” Brands’s book, by contrast, “reminds us that before America could win its revolution against Britain, the patriots had to win a bitter civil war against family, neighbors, and friends”–and illustrates how “Native Americans and the enslaved were also forced to choose sides as civil war broke out around them.”

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The Jay Heritage Center (JHC) is an educational nonprofit and the steward of the Jay Estate in Rye, New York, a 23-acre National Historic Landmark site and public park. JHC hosts programs in American history, social justice, environmental stewardship, architecture, and preservation. Learn more at jayheritagecenter.org or email peraino.jhc@gmail.com for more information.