It's the 250th Anniversary of the American Revolution AND Poetry Month so we have a treat for you. 

Most of us have read Longfellow’s poem in our early years and assumed it was historically accurate. Not so. Longfellow wrote the poem 85 years after Paul Revere made his famous ride April 18-19, 1775. This talk by Fred Zilian will examine the historical inaccuracies of the poem and try to explain Longfellow’s mistakes. It will then address the Battle of Lexington and Concord and the significance of the “shot heard round the world.

About Fred Zilian:

After a 21-year career as an infantry officer in the Army, Fred Zilian was an educator at Portsmouth Abbey School, 1992-2015, where he taught history, ethics, and German. He was an adjunct professor (history and politics) at Salve Regina University, 2016-2022. He now lectures on a wide variety of subjects and offers tours of Newport & Boston and of the Battle of Rhode Island (1778).

Zilian holds a Ph.D. in international relations/strategic studies from the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University. He is the author of numerous articles, essays, and book reviews on history, American society, Germany, religion, music, education, climate change, and globalization in numerous publications from the Wall Street Journal to the Newport Daily News.