JACKSON, Wyo. – How did the American revolution and early republic influence the West and Wyoming?
A free Western Scholar Talk with Dr. Alan Taylor “The Western End to the American Revolution” will explore this question and more on Thursday, August 13 at 6 p.m. at the Jackson Hole History Museum. The program will be on the outside deck and followed by a book signing.
According to Taylor, the creators of the American republic anticipated the nation’s future unfolding through westward expansion, which would multiply farms and communities across the continent. But during the 1780s that vision nearly imploded, owing to an array of obstacles to expansion posed by Native peoples and rival empires.
That set of crises helped lead to the new Federal Constitution written in 1787. The terms of that resolution framed the construction of future states including Wyoming as equal members of the union.
Dr. Alan Taylor is an acclaimed American scholar specializing in early U.S. history, the American Revolution, and the early Republic. Winner of the Bancroft Prize, the National Book Award, and two Pulitzer Prizes, Taylor has authored 12 books focused on the colonial era, the American Revolution, and the Early Republic.
After teaching at Boston University and UC Davis, he is now the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation Professor of History Emeritus at the University of Virginia.
“Inspired by the nation’s 250th anniversary this year, we’re looking forward to Dr. Taylor connecting our earliest national history to our region and the state of Wyoming,” said Executive Director Morgan Jaouen.
Taylor’s books include William Cooper’s Town: Power and Persuasion on the Frontier of the Early American Republic (Knopf, 1995), American Colonies: The Settling of North America (Viking/Penguin, 2001), American Revolutions: A Continental History, 1750-1804 (W. W. Norton, 2016), Thomas Jefferson’s Education (W.W. Norton, 2019), and American Republics: A Continental History of the United States, 1783–1850 (W.W.Norton, 2021).
Many thanks to the Jackson Hole News&Guide, The Hole History Society, Masinter Family, Teton County Semiquincentennial Committee, Wyoming Cultural Trust Fund, and Wyoming Humanities for supporting the Western Scholars Speaker series.
Taylor is currently writing on “Tower Hill: A Plantation on the Edge” about a plantation in southeastern Virginian on the edge of environmental crisis, economic collapse, epidemic disease, family madness, and slave resistance.
For more information about Taylor’s talk, visit jacksonholehistory.org or call (307)733-2414.
