The New York American Revolution Round Table brings together a diverse group of people, largely business and professional men and women, united by a common interest in the Revolutionary era. We meet five times a year, the first Tuesday of October, December, February, April and June, at the Williams Club on 39th Street in New York City. After a pleasant cocktail hour the members sit down to dinner. Conversation about the Revolution is interspersed by reviews by various members of the latest books. The books are solicited from the publishers by the book review chairman and distributed to volunteer reviewers.
After coffee the main program of the evening begins. A speaker, usually someone who has recently published an important book on some aspect of the Revolution, talks for thirty to forty minutes. Occasionally the speaker is a Round Table member who has a special interest and expertise in a battle or a Revolutionary figure and has made a serious study of the subject. Topics range from the battle of Monmouth to the Whiskey Rebellion to Benjamin Franklin's diplomacy in Paris. One recent talk, by award winning historian Richard Bushman of Columbia University, was on violence in the streets, comparing the very different ideas about popular protest before the Revolution to our own times. At almost every dinner, books donated by members are auctioned at bargain prices for the benefit of the speakers' fund.
Dues are twenty-five dollars per year. The Round Table publishes a newsletter reporting on current books, historical tours, celebrations at Revolutionary sites, activities of members and information regarding upcoming meetings and speakers. Each year the Round Table gives an award for the best book published on the revolution. This is usually a gala affair, with the author on hand to accept a handsome plaque and respond with a talk on the background of the award winning book.
Congenial people with a common interest, a perennially fascinating subject, and an historic setting have made the American Revolution Round Table a tradition in New York for over forty years.
Board of Governors
To join, write to:
Mr. David W. Jacobs
6 Grovedale Road
Niantic, Connecticut 06357
djacobs01@snet.net