In this compelling conversation, historians Robert J. Allison and Iris de Rode uncover the hidden story behind the Improbable Patriot, revealing how intrigue, ambition, and daring shaped the fight for independence.
A Playwright. A Spy. A Revolution.
In 1776, the playwright and inventor Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais conceived an audacious plan to send aid to the American rebels. What’s more, he convinced King Louis XVI to bankroll the project and single-handedly carried it out. By war’s end, he had supplied Washington’s army with most of its weapons and powder, though he was never paid or acknowledged by the United States. To some, he was a dashing hero, a towering intellect who saved the American Revolution. To others, he was a pure rogue, a double-dealing adventurer who stopped at nothing to advance his fame and fortune. In fact, he was both, and more: an advisor to kings, an arms dealer, and an author of some of the most enduring works of the stage.
This is more than a story of the past—it’s a reminder that history is often shaped by unexpected individuals working in the shadows. It challenges us to reconsider who makes changes possible, and how. Join us to discover the untold story of the man who helped ignite a revolution—and the power of individuals to shape history against the odds.
Robert J. Allison.
Robert J. Allison, PhD, is Professor of History at Suffolk University in Boston, where he chairs the history department, and a lecturer at the Harvard Extension School. One of Boston’s most prominent public historians, his work spans early American history, the founding era, the American Revolution, and the history of Boston and New England.
He earned his Bachelor of Liberal Arts from the Harvard Extension School in 1987 and his doctorate in the history of American civilization from Harvard University in 1992, and has taught at the Extension School since 1993. He received the Harvard Extension School’s Petra Shattuck Distinguished Teaching Award in 1997, the Suffolk University Student Government Association’s Distinguished Faculty Award in 2006, and the Suffolk University Outstanding Faculty Award in 2007.
His books include The Crescent Obscured: The United States and the Muslim World, 1776–1815; A Short History of Boston; Stephen Decatur, American Naval Hero; The Boston Massacre; and The Boston Tea Party. He has also edited an edition of Olaudah Equiano’s autobiography and contributed to The Atlas of Boston History.
Allison is president of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts and chair of Revolution 250, a public initiative marking the 250th anniversary of American independence. He has delivered public lectures at the Bostonian Society and the Adams National Historic Site and has presented papers at conferences in the United States, Wales, and Turkey. He is a Fellow of the Massachusetts Historical Society, president of the South Boston Historical Society, and a member of the board of overseers of the USS Constitution Museum.
Iris de Rode.
Iris de Rode, PhD, is a historian of the French role in the American Revolution. In the family château of Major General François-Jean de Chastellux in Burgundy, she uncovered his unpublished papers. Chastellux, a French officer in Rochambeau’s army and close friend of George Washington, became the focus of her PhD (2019) and her book (2022), which received the Prix Guizot of the Académie Française in 2023. She has held more than twenty research fellowships, appears in Ken Burns’s PBS series The American Revolution, advises major museums and digital-heritage projects on both sides of the Atlantic, and is now completing a book on the French in the American Revolution.
