Ben’s Book Club: ‘The Gun, the Ship & the Pen’ by Linda Colley

Wednesday May 18 2022, 5pm BST/12pm ET. Register here.  

Join us for the May instalment of Ben’s Book Club, a quarterly virtual gathering looking at themes relating to Benjamin Franklin, the 18th century, and American history.  

 This month we will be talking to Linda Colley about her book ‘The Gun, the Ship & the Pen: Warfare, Constitutions and the Making of the Modern World.’ Starting with the Corsican constitution of 1755, the book moves through every continent, disrupting accepted narratives and demonstrating how constitutions evolved in tandem with warfare, how they have functioned to advance empire as well as promote nations, and worked to exclude as well as liberate. 

Whether reinterpreting Japan’s momentous 1889 constitution, or exploring the significance of the first constitution to enfranchise all adult women on Pitcairn Island in the Pacific in 1838, this is one of the most original global histories in decades. 

Linda Colley is an expert on British, imperial and global history since 1700. She is currently Shelby M. C. Davis 1958 Professor of History at Princeton University and a Long-Term Fellow in History at the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study in Uppsala. She previously held chairs at Yale University and at the London School of Economics. 

Buy ‘The Gun, the Ship & the Pen’ here. 

 Join us even if you don’t have a chance to read the book by the event date!  

 This event is free of charge but please consider making an online donation here to support the work of Benjamin Franklin House.