The Transatlantic Enlightenment and the American Revolution
Nov 12, 2026 | 12:00 – 1:00pm ET
Roundtable at the Library of Congress (Mumford Room, James Madison Building, Library of Congress, 101 Independence Avenue SE) & Online | Panelists: Jürgen Overhoff (University of Münster); Sarah Pearsall (Johns Hopkins University); Eric Slauter (University of Chicago); Moderators: Kevin Butterfield (Kluge Center, Library of Congress) and Axel Jansen (GHI Washington)
Convened by: the German Historical Institute Washington (GHI), the John W. Kluge Center at the Library of Congress, and the Organization of American Historians (OAH)
As the United States marks the 250th anniversary of its founding, this roundtable reassesses the American Revolution through the lens of the Enlightenment and its contested legacy. Leading scholars of European and Atlantic intellectual history, early American political culture, and the law and cultural politics of rights will examine how Enlightenment ideas crossed the Atlantic and were translated into the American context. They will consider where those ideas widened political possibilities, and where they exposed exclusions and contradictions.
The conversation joins historical depth with contemporary relevance. It will trace the eighteenth-century origins of debates over liberty, rights, federalism, and self-government, and ask what the renewed pressure on Enlightenment principles today means for how we understand them.
The program will be followed by a small reception. The roundtable will begin at noon, with doors opening at 11:30 a.m.