Welcome to #1776serial week on From the Green Notebook!
One of my favorite periods of American history is the American Revolution. Today, its memory still shapes the character of our Nation’s politics, our economy, and how we see ourselves in the world So, I’m excited to announce that From the Green Notebook is teaming up with Serial Box Publishing to announce the release of a new 12 episode series 1776: The World Turned Upside Down. Each day this week, we will release an excerpt from the series.
So what is the series?
In 1976 the Associated Press commissioned three of its top journalists to write a month-by-month account of America in 1776 for the bicentennial. Originally, these accounts were collected in a beautiful, large format book for their member news organizations. Now, more than 40 years later, the collection will be made available to the general public in full for the first time.
The AP collaborated with Serial Box to significantly update the original text, which is unique in its focus on the lives of ordinary colonists and the more personal stories of now-famed figures, for example Thomas Paine’s failed career as a corset-maker prior to his writing of Common Sense. Through this series of 12 episodes released every month in ebook and audio (the audio version will be narrated in part by Chris Jackson of Hamilton and Robin Miles from Hidden Figures), readers and listeners will learn first hand that revolutionary heroes don’t start out as legends and revolutions are not predestined to succeed. The courage, conviction, fallibility, and sometimes base motives of the people who invented America created the foundation for what our country is today. The series is intended to help us all explore the root causes of America’s greatest successes and failures, by examining how ordinary citizens – failed corset-makers, farmers, and high school dropouts – persuaded a disparate group of colonies to unite into one country and fight for a brand new idea: America.
The Contest
1.) Download the Serial Box app here.
2.) Listen to the first episode of 1776 for free when it’s released on January 31st! .
2.) Tweet #1776serial and share something new you learned from the episode
3.) We will pick one winner to receive the entire series for free!
Check back tomorrow as we kick the series off with a look at Thomas Paine and the road to Common Sense.
