How I Zoomed My Summer Vacation

It’s the part of August in New England when the sky is overcast, the air has a chill, and hurricanes sometimes pass by. Back when I was growing up, my family always managed to be on a New Hampshire lakeside during that week, shivering in sweaters on the little beach.

So with those reminders of summer coming to an end, even though each day can seem just like the last, I’m round up links to the videos I’ve participated in since the pandemic shutdown began.

With History Camps canceled around the country this year, organizers Lee Wright and Carrie Lund turned to producing online events highlighting historical authors and sites.

Here’s my conversation with Lee and Carrie about The Road to Concord. And here are links to all the other interviews they’ve done since. On this upcoming Thursday, the conversation will feature Jim Christ, President of the Paoli Battlefield Preservation Fund.

Lee and Carrie also organized America’s Summer Road Trip to feature over a dozen historic sites across the country. I collaborated with Ranger Jim Hollister and Lee to show off both famous and little-known parts of Minute Man National Historical Park, and here’s that video.

Ranger Jim and I also had a video conversation about the weapons collected in Concord in early 1775 and what that led to. And I got to participate in the park’s group reading of Henry W. Longfellow’s “Paul Revere’s Ride.” Look for some other friendly faces in Boston’s Revolutionary history scene. There are many more videos on Minute Man’s Facebook page.

Christian Di Spigna and Randy Flood of the new Dr. Joseph Warren Historical Society are interviewing historians about smallpox in the eighteenth century and other topics. Here’s my conversation about the ripple effects of the 1764 smallpox epidemic and other topics. And here’s the whole list of videos.

Roger Williams is convening History Author Talks featuring two authors with related books plus a third as moderator. Here’s my conversation with Nina Sankovitch, author of American Rebels, with Paul Lockhart in the chair. Again, this is an ongoing series. The next session on Tuesday, 25 August, will feature Don Hagist (Noble Volunteers), Stephen Taaffe (Washington’s Revolutionary War Generals), and Gregory J. W. Unwin.