Event – Detail Past

In the 1790s, amidst the electrifying possibilities and terrifying violence of the French Revolution, thousands of French refugees poured into Philadelphia. Among them were five of the country’s most distinguished leaders, including the great diplomat Talleyrand. These five men, who had led the French Revolution in its early stages, found refuge in Philadelphia’s Society Hill neighborhood. Their stories offer an extraordinary new way of understanding the challenges faced by the United States in this pivotal moment in its history – and of seeing connections between Philadelphia, France, the Caribbean, and North America’s continental interior. Johns Hopkins history professor François Furstenberg will describe a Philadelphia, and a Society Hill, you never imagined existed.

In partnership with Society Hill Civic Association. This event will be proceeded by the Society Hill General Membership Meeting at 5:30pm.

François Furstenberg grew up and was educated in the United States, before moving to Montreal to begin his career as a professor of U.S. history at the Université de Montréal. He moved back to the United States in 2014, and now lives in Baltimore, Maryland, with his partner and two young daughters. He is a professor of history at Johns Hopkins University. In addition to his interest in the francophone history of Philadelphia, Professor Furstenberg writes about higher education in the United States, as well as connections between U.S. history and its contemporary politics.