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Welcome!

My name is Benjamin L. Carp. I hold the Daniel M. Lyons Chair in American History at Brooklyn College as a member of its History Department and I am affiliated Faculty in the History Program of the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. I specialize in the history of the American Revolution and the eighteenth century, particularly in the seaport cities of eastern North America. I have written about firefighting, gunpowder explosions, fear, Quaker merchants in Charleston, Benjamin Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson’s Embargo of 1807–1809. (See my C.V. for more.)

In addition to my books and scholarly articles, I have written for wider audiences in BBC History, Colonial Williamsburg, the Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post. I have appeared on podcasts like The Alarmist, History Extra, and Revolution 250 and on radio and television. I have spoken before a range of audiences, such as the New-York Historical Society, Fraunces Tavern Museum, the Boston Public Library, and the Museum of Fine Arts. My favorite people are teachers, and I have had the privilege of participating in teacher workshops in Massachusetts, New York, and Maryland.

I received a B.A. in history from Yale University and an M.A. and Ph.D. in history from the University of Virginia. Before I arrived at Brooklyn College, I taught at the University of Edinburgh and Tufts University.