“A fresh, arresting history of the American Revolution as people lived it: facing forward. Molly Beer recovers the suspense, perils, and dazzling possibilities of the era, and her lapidary prose and keen sense of character bring Angelica Schuyler Church, her family, and her world to vivid, unforgettable life, making a great global event into a family drama, and vice versa.” - Jane Kamensky, president of Monticello/The Thomas Jefferson Foundation and author of A Revolution in Color.

Few women of the American Revolution have come through 250 years of US history with such clarity and color as Angelica Schuyler Church. She was Alexander Hamilton’s “saucy” sister-in-law, and the heart of Thomas Jefferson’s “charming coterie” of artists and salonnières in Paris. The eldest daughter of one of New York’s most important families, Angelica was raised to be a domestic diplomat responsible for hosting indigenous chiefs and enemy British generals for dinner at their northern Hudson River home. Later, she became Madame Church, wife of a privateer turned merchant banker. Angelica’s transatlantic network of important friends spanned the political spectrum of her time and place, and her astute eye and brilliant letters kept them well informed. Don’t miss hearing from author Molly Beer and historian Julie Flavell about Angelica, Beer’s new biography offering an enthralling and revealing woman’s-eye view of Colonial America and the Revolutionary era.

Molly Beer was raised on a farm in the town of Angelica, New York. She is an award-winning nonfiction writer interested in history, women, politics, and place. She teaches at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

Julie Flavell is a dual US/UK citizen. Her Anglo-American perspective inspired her first book, When London Was Capital of America.  She received her Ph.D. from University College London and lives in Britain. She is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, and has lectured at Dundee and Edinburgh Universities.  Her latest book, The Howe Dynasty, was a New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice in August 2021, and a Finalist for the 2022 George Washington Book Prize.

Presented in partnership with Massachusetts Historical Society.