Drawing on Shorto’s Revolution Song: The Story of America’s Founding in Six Remarkable Lives - along with his broader body of work, including The Island at the Center of the World and Smalltime - the evening will explore how history comes alive when it is told through real people rather than timelines and test dates. By following individuals - elite and ordinary, enslaved, indigenous, and free, men and women, Shorto reveals how human choices, contradictions, and lived experience shape the American story.

Shorto and Mokriski will connect this approach to the work of students in the Troutbeck Symposium, where young historians uncover overlooked local stories and turn them into films, podcasts, exhibitions, and performances. Together they will reflect on how narrative history builds curiosity, empathy, and civic imagination - and why helping students become storytellers of the past may be one of the most powerful forms of history education.

House of Books will have a selection of Shorto's books available for purchase.

Russell Shorto is Director of the New Amsterdam Project at the New-York Historical Society and Senior Scholar at the New Netherland Institute. He is the author of eight books of narrative history, including the national bestseller The Island at the Center of the World.

Rhonan Mokriski has taught at Salisbury School since 1996 and is a co-founder of the Troutbeck Symposium. He was named the 2024 Gilder Lehrman Connecticut History Teacher of the Year for his innovative, student-centered approach to teaching history.

Presented in partnership with The Salisbury Association, The Salisbury Forum, The Troutbeck Symposium, and Scoville Memorial Library, in connection with Salisbury Commemoration 250 and CT 250.

Please join us for dinner following the talk. View the dinner menu and make a reservation here.