BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:talks.ox.ac.uk
BEGIN:VEVENT
SUMMARY:2026 George Rousseau Lecture: "Poland was but a breakfast": or\, w
 hy 1772 helps us to understand 1776 - David Armitage (Harvard)
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20260513T170000
DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20260513T180000
UID:https://new.talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/45ed4617-01a1-4a73-96b7-fcba0c1f9a
 01/
DESCRIPTION:The American Revolution is now widely accepted to have been th
 e last civil war within the British Empire of the Atlantic world. However\
 , British\, imperial\, and Atlantic contexts do not exhaust the historical
  frames essential to understand the Revolution or\, more specifically\, 17
 76. For contemporaries on both sides of the Atlantic\, Europe—particular
 ly the European balance of power—was the most important setting for the 
 fears raised by the American War. The greatest assault on that balance of 
 power had occurred only four years before 1776 in 1772 with the first Part
 ition of Poland by Austria\, Prussia and Russia. This lecture shows how fe
 ars of partition\, "Poland like"\, drove the decision for American indepen
 dence and how the Polish response to partition shaped the British counterb
 last to the Declaration of Independence.\n\n*David Armitage* is the Lloyd 
 C. Blankfein Professor of History and former Chair of the Department of Hi
 story at Harvard University\, where he teaches intellectual history and in
 ternational history. He is also an Affiliated Professor in the Harvard Dep
 artment of Government\, an Affiliated Faculty Member at Harvard Law School
 \, and an Honorary Professor of History at the University of Sydney. Befor
 e coming to Harvard in 2004\, he taught for eleven years at Columbia Unive
 rsity. He is the author or editor of fifteen books\, among them _The Ideol
 ogical Origins of the British Empire_ (2000)\, _The Declaration of Indepen
 dence: A Global History_ (2007)\, _Foundations of Modern International Tho
 ught_ (2013)\, _The History Manifesto_ (co-auth.\, 2014)\, and _Civil Wars
 : A History in Ideas_ (2017). Among his edited works are _Shakespeare and 
 Early Modern Political Thought_ (co-ed.\, 2009)\, _The Age of Revolutions 
 in Global Context\, c. 1760-1840) (co-ed.\, 2010)\, and _Pacific Histories
 : Ocean\, Land\, People_ (co-ed.\, 2014). \n\nThe lecture will be followed
  by a drinks reception.\nSpeakers:\nDavid Armitage (Harvard)
LOCATION:Magdalen College (Auditorium)\, High Street OX1 4AU
TZID:Europe/London
URL:https://new.talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/45ed4617-01a1-4a73-96b7-fcba0c1f9a
 01/
BEGIN:VALARM
ACTION:display
DESCRIPTION:Talk:2026 George Rousseau Lecture: "Poland was but a breakfast
 ": or\, why 1772 helps us to understand 1776 - David Armitage (Harvard)
TRIGGER:-PT1H
END:VALARM
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR