{"id":16768,"date":"2026-03-17T09:10:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T13:10:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ciss\/?p=16768"},"modified":"2026-03-17T09:25:40","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T13:25:40","slug":"bu-class-ponders-revolutionary-icons-as-the-declaration-of-independence-anniversary-nears","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ciss\/2026\/03\/17\/bu-class-ponders-revolutionary-icons-as-the-declaration-of-independence-anniversary-nears\/","title":{"rendered":"BU Class Ponders \u201cRevolutionary Icons\u201d as the Declaration of Independence Anniversary Nears"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"is-style-default\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/ciss\/files\/2026\/03\/Rezek_Author_Photo_crop-900x900-1-636x636.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" class=\"wp-image-16769 alignright\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ciss\/files\/2026\/03\/Rezek_Author_Photo_crop-900x900-1-636x636.jpg 636w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ciss\/files\/2026\/03\/Rezek_Author_Photo_crop-900x900-1-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ciss\/files\/2026\/03\/Rezek_Author_Photo_crop-900x900-1-768x768.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ciss\/files\/2026\/03\/Rezek_Author_Photo_crop-900x900-1-550x550.jpg 550w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ciss\/files\/2026\/03\/Rezek_Author_Photo_crop-900x900-1-710x710.jpg 710w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ciss\/files\/2026\/03\/Rezek_Author_Photo_crop-900x900-1-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ciss\/files\/2026\/03\/Rezek_Author_Photo_crop-900x900-1-600x600.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ciss\/files\/2026\/03\/Rezek_Author_Photo_crop-900x900-1-100x100.jpg 100w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ciss\/files\/2026\/03\/Rezek_Author_Photo_crop-900x900-1.jpg 900w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>Would you have coffee with Ben Franklin? Boston University students in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/americanstudies\/profile\/joseph-rezek\/\">Joseph Rezek<\/a>\u2019s (CAS\/American Studies) <em>Revolutionary Icons<\/em> class aren\u2019t jumping at the chance.<\/p>\n<p class=\"is-style-default\">Sure, they know the founding father\u2019s gold-plated CV: prodigious inventor\/scientist, helpmate in drafting the Declaration of Independence, respected diplomat who helped negotiate the end of the American Revolutionary War. But after reading Franklin\u2019s autobiography, the preoccupations of which include thrift and acquiring wealth, HB Bielawa (CAS\u201926) speaks for others in finding the book\u2019s self-made-man\u2019s pretensions disingenuous&#8230;.<\/p>\n<p><span>The relevance of Rezek\u2019s decade-old course swells this year, the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Expanding the scholarly prism beyond these shores is deliberate, he tells\u00a0<\/span><em>BU Today:<span>\u00a0<\/span><\/em><span>\u201cThe American Revolution heavily influenced the French Revolution, which heavily influenced the Haitian Revolution. There\u2019s a kind of circuit of excitement about overturning old, unjust institutions and monarchies.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>To read more, visit <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/articles\/2026\/revolutionary-icons-bu-class\/?utm_campaign=bu_today&amp;utm_source=email_20260317_full&amp;utm_medium=2_must_read_1&amp;utm_content=health\">BU TODAY<\/a> <\/span><span>where this article<\/span><span> originally first appeared on March 16, 2026.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Would you have coffee with Ben Franklin? Boston University students in Joseph Rezek\u2019s (CAS\/American Studies) Revolutionary Icons class aren\u2019t jumping at the chance. Sure, they know the founding father\u2019s gold-plated CV: prodigious inventor\/scientist, helpmate in drafting the Declaration of Independence, respected diplomat who helped negotiate the end of the American Revolutionary War. But after reading [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22310,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ciss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16768"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ciss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ciss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ciss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22310"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ciss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16768"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ciss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16768\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16770,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ciss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16768\/revisions\/16770"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ciss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16768"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ciss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16768"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ciss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16768"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}