Frontier Country: The Politics of War in Early Pennsylvania

At this November colloquium, Patrick Spero, Ph.D. will discuss his new publication Frontier Country: The Politics of War in Early Pennsylvania. “In Frontier Country, Spero addresses one of the most controversial subjects in American history: the frontier. Countering the modern conception of the American frontier as an area of expansion, Spero employs the eighteenth-century meaning of the term to show colonists understood it as a vulnerable, militarized boundary. The Pennsylvania frontier, Spero argues, was constituted through conflicts not only between colonists and Native Americans but also among neighboring British colonies. These violent encounters created what Spero describes as a distinctive ‘frontier society’ on the eve of the American Revolution that transformed the once-peaceful colony of Pennsylvania into a ‘frontier county'” (Frontier Country).

Patrick Spero, Ph.D. is the Librarian and Director of the American Philosophical Society. Frontier Country is the first book written by Spero and is a volume in the University of Pennsylvania’s Penn Press Early American Studies series. Previously he was the co-editor of the anthology The American Revolution Reborn: New Perspective for the 21st Century. Spero earned his Ph.D. in History at the University of Pennsylvania and has since held roles there as professor, essayist, and lecturer, specializing in the era of the American Revolution.

The colloquium Frontier Country will take place on Thursday, November 17, 2016 in Ryder Hall at LancasterHistory.org, 230 N President Avenue, Lancaster. A social gathering with refreshments and a booksigning by the author will begin at 4pm, followed by the lecture from 4:30-5:30pm. This event is free and open to the public.