The Leawood Historic Commission is pleased to present a series of presentations about the Revolutionary War and the Declaration of Independence. The series will begin in March and continue on the final Saturday of each month at 10 a.m. through July: March 28, April 25, May 30, June 27, July 25. A speaker will present a different topic about the Revolutionary War and the Declaration of Independence at Leawood City Hall in the Oak Room.
The series continues on May 25th with a presentation by Mitch Lohr on “The Hard Part Begins: Inventing an American Nation after Independence”. Lohr will discuss the political and cultural aftermath of the Revolution and how Americans created a new nation.
After the guns fell silent in 1783, Americans faced a problem they had never resolved before: how to turn a revolution into a functioning nation. This talk explores the political chaos, economic uncertainty, social change, and cultural debates that followed independence. From arguments over loyalty and liberty to the creation of the Constitution. The United States had to examine what independence actually meant and decide what kind of people Americans would become.
Mitch Lohr is a writer and history professional specializing in American political and cultural history. He earned his M.A. in History from DePaul University, where his research focused on how Americans understood citizenship, identity, and national purpose in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
While living in Washington, D.C., he worked as an educator with the Smithsonian National Museum of American History and led tours of the United States Capitol. He currently volunteers with the National WWI Museum and Memorial, serves on the Leawood Historic Commission, and produces educational historical content aimed at connecting modern audiences to the past.
