Based on actual events during the occupation of New York by British troops, this course will immerse participants in the real dilemmas faced by New Yorkers in the early years of the American Revolution. While there will be introductory lectures providing essential background, all class members will be expected to complete the readings so they can participate knowledgeably in the reenactments that are integral to the course. Participants will take on roles of real people, participate in teams, and enact scenarios where they strive to convince their fellow citizens to support patriot or loyalist events. Roles include loyalists, patriots, and people caught in the middle, especially women, landless laborers, moderates, and enslaved people.

Drawing on the Reacting to the Past curriculum from Barnard College, student manuals, which include all the texts and guidelines for the reenactments, will be provided. Join us for this course which captures the divided loyalties, the costly decisions, and the struggles of citizens caught in the middle of both a war of independence and a civil war. OLLI members may remember other Reacting to the Past courses taught by Barbara Waldinger on women's suffrage, the French Revolution, Paris in the 1880s - Traditionalism and Modernism, Galileo and the Catholic Church, and Athens and Peloponnesian War. This course is part of the Rev 250 project. The OLLI players will perform two plays by Jesse Waldinger related to this history on October 19, 2025.

Katherine Kidd is a frequent OLLI instructor. Her undergraduate degree was in history, which remains a passion. Her graduate degrees are from Harvard University in Soviet Studies and the University of Pennsylvania in International Relations. Katherine was the founding director of interdisciplinary international studies majors at Fairfield and Sacred Heart Universities where she taught for many years. Her OLLI courses frequently re-examine the history we were taught, drawing on new historical research, and offer participants ways to reconsider historical assumptions and how they apply to current issues.

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