Brandeis Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (BOLLI)

The British Are Coming...Celebrate the 250th Anniversary!!!

Course Number

H&G2-5a-Wed2

Study Group Leader (SGL)

Sandy Bornstein

Location

This course will take place virtually on Zoom. Participation in this course requires a device (ideally a computer or tablet, rather than a cell phone) with a camera and microphone in good working order and basic familiarity with using Zoom and accessing email

5-Week Course

March 12 - April 9

Description

In the Spring of 2025 Lexington and Concord will celebrate the 250th anniversary of the beginning of the American Revolution. The towns are already buzzing with preparations. In honor of that event, we will study how the Revolution actually started. Everything you learned in high school is either wrong or incomplete. The colonists were not all heroes, and the British were not all bad guys. The truth is both more complex and more interesting.  

Who were the people who settled the Massachusetts Bay colony, and why did they come here?   What was daily life like? How did they govern themselves? How did the church influence their beliefs and practices? And why were the colonists of Massachusetts so very ornery about their rights and liberties?  Finally, how did friction with England build up until misunderstandings, co-incidences and flat out mistakes allowed a war to start, though no one wanted it?  

Using David Hackett Fischer’s Paul Revere’s Ride plus internet articles, we will examine all of these questions.  Our 5 sessions will run from the week of March 10 through the week of April 7, ending just before the 250th anniversary on April 19th. Then the SGL hopes you will want to ride on Lexington’s award-winning Liberty Ride trolley tour on Patriot’s Day weekend itself. The SGL is one of the guides, and she invites you to ride with her to experience what actually happened on the first day of the Revolution. 

Group Leadership Style

Roughly the same amount of lecture and discussion.

Course Materials

Paul Revere’s Ride by David Hackett Fischer, Oxford University Press,1995

Additional internet articles furnished by the instructor.

Preparation Time

1 to 2 hours of reading weekly.

Biography

Sandy Bornstein was Cantorial Soloist and Choir Director at Temple Isaiah in Lexington for 25 years. She is a professional soprano who has appeared throughout New England. She taught middle school music and has taught voice for 30 years at Harvard University, the Cambridge School of Adult Education, and in her home studio. She has taught courses at BOLLI on The History of Jewish Music, The Fabric of  Civilization (the role of textiles in human history), Music and Your Brain, and The British Are Coming…Not!!! (how and why the Revolution started here in Massachusetts)