Revolutionary Ideas: How Popular Power Shaped the Declaration of Independence

During this event, Robert Ballingall, Mark Brewer, and Ryan LaRochelle of the University of Maine will discuss the guiding theories and particular complaints of the Declaration of Independence and examine their impact on American politics and government.
The Bangor Historical Society’s William Stone copy of the Declaration of Independence will be on display for you to see the words that the revolutionaries presented to King George III as their complaints.
This event is free to attend.
Please RSVP to curator@bangorhistoricalsociety.org
About the Speakers
Dr. Mark D. Brewer is Professor and Chair of the Department of Political Science at the University of Maine. His research interests focus generally on political behavior, with specific research areas including partisanship and electoral behavior at both the mass and elite levels, the linkages between public opinion and public policy, and the interactions that exist between religion and politics in the United States. Brewer is the author or editor of a number of books and articles in academic journals, including Parties and Elections in America (with L. Sandy Maisel) now in its 10th edition, Polarization and the Politics of Personal Responsibility (with Jeffrey M. Stonecash, 2015), The Parties Respond, 5th edition (with L. Sandy Maisel, 2013), Party Images in the American Electorate (2009), and Dynamics of American Political Parties (with Jeffrey M. Stonecash, 2009). He is also the editor-in-chief of the New England Journal of Political Science.
Dr. Robert A. Ballingall is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Maine. His scholarly interests lie in the history of political thought and constitutional government. He has a deep background in classical political philosophy, and is the author of Plato’s Reverent City: the Laws and the Politics of Authority (2023), which offers an original interpretation of Plato and explains his enduring relevance for understanding the kind of citizen presupposed by the rule of law. His current work examines the relationship between pride and humiliation in early modern political thought. He is especially interested in how understanding this theme sheds light on America’s founding principles.
Dr. Ryan LaRochelle is Senior Lecturer at the William S. Cohen Institute for Leadership and Public Service at the University of Maine. His areas of expertise include American political development; the history of U.S. social welfare policy; and moments of democratic threat in American political history. His research has been published in the Journal of Policy History; Studies in American Political Development; The Forum; and the Maine Policy Review. His biography of William S. Cohen, which highlights how Cohen sought to defend democratic institutions and values throughout his career in public service, is forthcoming with the University Press of Kansas.