About the Presenter
Edward J. Larson is the University Professor of History and holds the Hugh and Hazel Darling Chair in Law at Pepperdine University. In anticipation of the 250th anniversary of American independence in 2026, Larson is researching and writing a book under contract with W. W. Norton to present and analyze the words and actions of 1776 from the British bombardment of Norfolk on January 1 through the publication of Common Sense and adoption of the Declaration of Independence to Washington's crossing of the Delaware River and year-end battles of Trenton and Princeton. Washington, Jefferson, Adams, Paine, Dickinson and others will feature prominently in the narrative along with soldiers and other individual participants in America's revolutionary year of independence.