This is Brian Lear's Daily Politics podcast from WNYC Studios.

It's Wednesday, July 1st.

I'm Bridget Bergen, sitting in for Brian today.

As we continue to recognize the 250th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence

will turn our attention to New York's role in the American Revolution. While it may be

overshadowed by Boston, Philadelphia, and Virginia in the popular imagination, New York was occupied

by the British for most of the war. It was also the site of the largest

battle of the revolution, and it was home to a staggering mix of loyalists, patriots, enslaved people,

indigenous nations, and recent immigrants all trying to figure out which way the war was going to

break. So what about the role of New York during the revolution?

We'll talk to two historians now about a new book that asks different versions of that question.

The book is called Fire and Freedom, the American Revolution in New York. My guests are Thomas

Wehrmuth, who edited the book and wrote its introduction.

He's co-founder and director of the Hudson River Valley Institute and Chair of the Hudson River Valley History at Marist University.

And Iris DeRode, a Dutch historian who specializes in the American Revolution and the French American Alliance, and she contributed a chapter to the book about that French American alliance. I want to welcome you both to the show. Well, Bridget, thank you very much for having us. Thank you very much. Professor Wehramuth, what made you want to put this particular collection together right now?

Well, Bridget, partly it has to do with, of course, it's the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution,

the Declaration of Independence, the semi-Quincennial.

However, really, it had a lot to do with the reasons you just gave right up front in terms of the importance of New York to the revolution and the revolutionary process.

You know, a couple of years ago, I'm on the editorial board of New York history, the journal.

But I met with the co-editors, Jennifer Lamack, Devin Lander, and we were talking about we knew the 250th was coming.

We knew there were going to be public reenactments and,

you know, various like July 4th birthday parties and things, but we wanted to make sure that there

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