A Special Conversation on THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION

This episode of WPSU Conversations Live featured historian and host Dr. Jared Frederick leading an in depth discussion on American history in anticipation of the upcoming PBS documentary The American Revolution by Ken Burns, Sara Botstein, and David Schmidt. The program brought together three distinguished scholars whose expertise directly supports public understanding of early American history. The panel included: • Dr. Friederike Baer (Penn State Abington), an award winning historian of the American Revolutionary War whose recent work on Hessian soldiers informed and appears in the forthcoming PBS documentary. • Brady Crytzer (Robert Morris University), a specialist in North American frontier history and widely published author who contributes to public facing historical media. • Dr. Christopher Thrasher (Penn State), a scholar of Native American and early U.S. history whose research centers Indigenous perspectives during the Revolutionary era. Together, the guests explored new scholarship on the Revolutionary War, the complexities of early American identity, and the importance of incorporating diverse historical voices into public history narratives. The conversation highlighted how academic research shapes documentary storytelling and emphasized the role of public media in expanding historical literacy.