Introduction to Special Issue

Abstract AS New England towns, commissions, and societies prepare reenactments, exhibitions, and productions for the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution, organizers and audiences alike find themselves reflecting explicitly on the relationship between the founding of the United States and the present moment. These relationships are not new. When Boston reenacted the Boston Tea Party in 1973, tens of thousands of protestors flooded the streets, calling for political changes that ranged from protecting the environment (represented by throwing oil drums into Boston Harbor) to the impeachment of Richard Nixon (strung up in effigy). In 2023, there were no such public disruptions to the reenactment. Instead, the Revolution seems to have been appropriated by contemporary politics rather than the other way around. Nowhere was this more obvious than the use of the American Revolution's language and imagery in the insurrection of January 6, 2021, when armed rioters attempted to disrupt a national election at the United States Capital while chanting “1776.”