“1763 and the Americas” Events in Boston & Providence, 6-8 June

A slew of organizations is co-sponsoring a public symposium on “1763 and the Americas” over two days in two cities next month. That event commemorates and examines the end of the Seven Years’ War 250 years ago and considers how it laid the groundwork for profound change in North America.

As an appetizer for the main event, on Thursday, 6 June, the John Carter Brown Library in Providence will host a book talk by Jack Greene, author of Evaluating Empire and Confronting Colonialism in Eighteenth-Century Britain.

Then comes the symposium. The first session is on the afternoon of Friday, 7 June, in Boston’s Faneuil Hall:

• 2:00-3:45 “New England in the Age of Global War, 1739-63,” with William Pencak (Dept. of History, Penn State University), Sandy Balcom (Parks Canada, Fortess of Louisbourg National Historic Site), and Eliga Gould (Dept. of History, University of New Hampshire), chair
• 4:00-5:30 “The Seven Years War and the Coming of the Revolution,” with Fred Anderson (University of Colorado, Boulder), Pauline Maier (Dept. of History, MIT), Jack P. Greene (emeritus, Dept. of History, Johns Hopkins University, and author of the new book Evaluating Empire and Confronting Colonialism in Eighteenth-Century Britain), and Paul Mapp (Dept. of History, College of William and Mary), chair

The next day, 8 June, the action moves to the MacMillan Reading Room at the John Carter Brown Library in Providence:

• 10:00 A.M.-noon “Nos amis les ennemis: intercolonial relations before, during, and after the mid-century wars,” with Bertie Mandelblatt (Dept. of History, New College, University of Toronto), Thomas Truxes (Dept. of History, NYU), Sandy Balcom (Parks Canada, Fortess of Louisbourg National Historic Site), Charles-Phillipe Courtois (Dept. of History, Royal Military College of Saint-Jean), Matt Schumann (Dept. of History and Philosophy, Eastern Michigan University), and Fred Anderson (University of Colorado, Boulder), chair.
• Noon-2:00 P.M. Break for lunch!
• 2:00-3:30 P.M. Roundtable discussion: Looking Back, Looking Forward. The past, present, and future of North America’s political geography through the lens of 1763, with symposium speakers and chairs.

Both parts of this symposium are free and open to the public. It has been organized by the 1763 Peace of Paris Commemoration and supported by the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture, the John Carter Brown Library, the Lowell Institute, Norman B. Leventhal and Mapping Boston, the Military Historical Society of Massachusetts, the Canadian Consulate General Boston, and the Mouvement nationale des Québécoises et Québécois.