2020 Carl M. Buchholz Memorial Lecture: Annette Gordon-Reed

Pulitzer Prize-winning author and historian Annette Gordon-Reed joined the Museum of the American Revolution virtually for the third annual Carl M. Buchholz Memorial Lecture on Sept. 24, 2020, to examine how we can wrestle with — and have honest dialogue about — the complexities in our nation’s history.

During her talk, titled “The Past in the Present: Dealing with Troublesome Histories,” Gordon-Reed explored how many of the people and institutions we admire were born in eras when the lives of Black people, women, and Indigenous people were devalued. She asks, how do we find our way to a usable past?

The event marked the third annual Carl M. Buchholz Memorial Lecture, a series established by the generosity of the family, friends, and colleagues of the late Carl Buchholz, former vice chairman of the Museum’s Board of Directors. The series was created to honor his public service and to explore the political thought of the American Revolution and its national relevance today. Those interested in contributing to the endowment for this annual lecture can contact [email protected].

Annette Gordon-Reed is the Carl M. Loeb University Professor at Harvard. Gordon-Reed won sixteen book prizes, including the Pulitzer Prize in History in 2009 and the National Book Award in 2008 for The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family (W.W. Norton, 2008). In addition to articles and reviews, her other works include Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings: An American Controversy (UVA Press, 1997); Vernon Can Read! A Memoir, a collaboration with Vernon Jordan (PublicAffairs, 2001); Race on Trial: Law and Justice in American History (Oxford University Press, 2002); Andrew Johnson (Times Books/Henry Holt, 2010); and, most recently, with Peter S. Onuf, “Most Blessed of the Patriarchs”: Thomas Jefferson and the Empire of the Imagination (Liveright Publishing, 2016).

Funding for the 2020 Carl M. Buchholz Memorial Lecture was provided by Morris W. Offit, Karen Buchholz, Stephen Schwab, and Martha McGeary Snider.

This event was presented in partnership with WURD 96.1 FM | 900 AM.