Benjamin Carp

Benjamin L. Carp focuses particularly on urban politics, society, and culture in eighteenth-century America. He has taught survey and seminar courses on American military history to 1900, colonial American history, Revolutionary American history, women in early America, and fear and violence in early America.

He is the author of Defiance of the Patriots: The Boston Tea Party and the Making of America (Yale University Press, 2010), which won the triennial Society of the Cincinnati Cox Book Prize in 2013; and Rebels Rising: Cities and the American Revolution (Oxford University Press, 2007). With Richard D. Brown, he co-edited Major Problems in the Era of the American Revolution, 1760-1791: Documents and Essays, 3rd ed. (Cengage, 2014). He has also written articles for Colonial Williamsburg, the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post. His current manuscript, under contract with Yale University Press, is about the burning of New York City in 1776.

His parents each earned their degrees from CUNY. His interest in majoring in history at Yale University began with an assignment on theft in Essex County, Massachusetts. His desire to pursue a Ph.D. in history began with an article by Alfred F. Young on George Robert Twelves Hewes. Since then, he has written scholarly articles about firefighters and the American Revolution, nationalism during the Revolution and the Civil War, leadership in the work of Edmund S. Morgan, and Quaker merchants in Charleston.

He received the Leverhulme Research Fellowship (2005), the Charlotte W. Newcombe Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship (2003) and the Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship in Humanistic Studies (1998). Prior to joining Brooklyn College and the Graduate Center, he taught at the University of Edinburgh and Tufts University.

Books and Edited Volumes

• The Great New York Fire of 1776: A Lost Story of the American Revolution, is forthcoming from Yale University Press in 2023.

• Brown, Richard D. and Benjamin L. Carp. Major Problems in the Era of the American Revolution, 1760-1791: Documents and Essays, 3rd ed. Boston: Wadsworth Cengage Learning. (Books and Publications: Edited Book) 2014

• Defiance of the Patriots: The Boston Tea Party and the Making of America. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press. (Books and Publications: Book) 2010

• Rebels Rising: Cities and the American Revolution. New York: Oxford University Press. (Books and Publications: Book) 2007

Journal Articles

• "'Fix'd almost amongst Strangers': Charleston's Quaker Merchants and the Limits of Cosmopolitanism." William and Mary Quarterly, 74.1: 77-108. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 2017

• ""Did Dutch Smugglers Provoke the Boston Tea Party?" Early American Studies 10.2: 335-59. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article)2012

• "The Night the Yankees Burned Broadway: The New York City Fire of 1776." Early American Studies 4.2: 471-511. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 2006

• "Nations of American Rebels: Understanding Nationalism in Revolutionary North America and the Civil War South." Civil War History48.1: 5-33. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 2002

• "Fire of Liberty: Firefighters, Urban Voluntary Culture, and the Revolutionary Movement." William and Mary Quarterly 58.4: 781-818. (Books and Publications: Peer Reviewed Article) 2001

Other Publications

• "'Jefferson's Embargo: National Intent and Sectional Effects." Jeffersonians in Power: The Rhetoric of Opposition Meets the Realities of Governing. Eds. Joanne B. Freeman and Johann N. Neem. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press. 128-47. (Books and Publications: Forthcoming Publications) 2019

• "Boston in 1743." The Atlas of Boston History. Ed. Nancy S. Seasholes. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. (Books and Publications: Forthcoming Publications) 2019

• "'Disreputable among civilized Nations': Destroying Homes during the Revolutionary War." Justifying Revolution: Law, Virtue, and Violence in the American War of Independence. Eds. Glenn A. Moots and Phillip Hamilton. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press. 168-89.

• (Books and Publications: Chapter) 2018 "World Wide Enough: Historiography, Imagination, and Stagecraft." Journal of the Early Republic, 37.2: 289-294. (Books and Publications: Other Article) 2017

• "'The Unpleasing Part of the Drama': Fear, Devastation, and the Civilian Experience of the Revolutionary War." Fear and the Shaping of Early American Societies. Eds. Lauric Henneton and L. H. Roper. Leiden: Brill. 284-303. (Books and Publications: Chapter) 2016

• "In Retrospect: Edmund S. Morgan and the Urgency of Good Leadership." Reviews in American History, March: 1-18. (Books and Publications: Other Article) 2016

• "Ten Days that Made a Nation." BBC History Magazine, March: US1-US8. (Books and Publications: Other Article) 2016

• "Tempests and Teapots: Sexual Politics and Tea-Drinking in the Early Modern World." Notches: (Re)Marks on the History of Sexuality, Sept. 22. (Books and Publications: Other Article) 2015

• "Evacuation Day: Marking the End of the Revolutionary War." We're History, Nov. 25. (Books and Publications: Other Article) 2015

• "A Mother's Milk or Another Mother's Milk: Colonial Debates on Breast Feeding." Colonial Williamsburg Magazine 36.1: 36-43. (Books and Publications: Other Article) 2014

• "Separated by a Common History: North and South in Colonial Times." Colonial Williamsburg Magazine 35.1: 55-59. (Books and Publications: Other Article) 2013

• "Seven Myths about the Boston Tea Party." Journal of the American Revolution, Nov. 12. (Books and Publications: Other Article) 2013

• "Terms of Estrangement: Who Were the Sons of Liberty?" Colonial Williamsburg Magazine 34.1: 2-7. (Books and Publications: Other Article) 2012

• "Franklin and the Coming of the American Revolution." A Companion to Benjamin Franklin. Ed. David Waldstreicher. Malden, Mass.: Wiley-Blackwell. 146-63. (Books and Publications: Chapter) 2011

• "La Boston Tea Party, modèle pour les insoumis." Alternatives Internationales 53: 20-25. (Books and Publications: Other Article) 2011

• "A Global Tea Party." BBC History Magazine 11.13: 18-23. (Books and Publications: Other Article) 2010

• "Noble Patriots or Glorified Vandals?" The Wall Street Journal, Oct. 16: C2. (Books and Publications: Other Article) 2010

• "Changing Our Habitation: Henry Laurens, Rattray Green, and the Revolutionary Movement in Charleston's Domestic Spaces." Material Culture in Anglo-America: Regional Identity and Urbanity in the Tidewater, Lowcountry, and Caribbean. Ed. David Shields. Columbia, S.C.: University of South Carolina Press. 285-309. (Books and Publications: Chapter) 2009

• "Nice Party, But Not So Revolutionary." Washington Post, Outlook section. April 19: B3. (Books and Publications: Other Article) 2009 

Awards, Honors and Fellowships

• Price Visiting Research Fellowship, William L. Clements Library, for "The Night Broadway Burned: The New York City Fire of 1776." $1,000. (Grants and Fellowships) 2018

• PSC-CUNY Enhanced Research Award, for "The Night Broadway Burned: The New York City Fire of 1776." $10,684.50; 2018-2019. (Grants and Fellowships) 2018

• Archie K. Davis Fellowship, North Caroliniana Society, for current research on the Revolutionary War. (Grants and Fellowships) 2013

• David Library of the American Revolution Fellowship, for current research on the Revolutionary War. (Grants and Fellowships) 2013

• Society of the Cincinnati Cox Book Prize, for Defiance of the Patriots. (Awards and Honors) 2013

• Massachusetts Society of the Cincinnati Fellowship, Society of the Cincinnati Library (Anderson House), for current research on the Revolutionary War. (Grants and Fellowships) 2012

• Defiance of the Patriots, "Must-Read Nonfiction" selection, Massachusetts Center for the Book. (Awards and Honors) 2011

• American Revolution Round Table of New York's Annual Award for Best Book on the Era of the American Revolution, for Defiance of the Patriots(2010). (Awards and Honors) 2011

• Mellon Research Fellowship, Virginia Historical Society, for "Destruction during the American Revolution." (Grants and Fellowships) 2006

• Leverhulme Research Fellowship, Leverhulme Trust, for "Destruction during the American Revolution." 2005-06. (Grants and Fellowships)2005

• Research grant, Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland, for "Destruction during the American Revolution." (Grants and Fellowships)2005

• American Society for Eighteenth Century Studies Fellowship, Library Company of Philadelphia and Historical Society of Pennsylvania, for "Cityscapes and Revolution: Political Mobilization and Urban Spaces in North America, 1740-1783." (Grants and Fellowships) 2003

• Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Library Resident Fellowship, American Philosophical Society Library, for "Cityscapes and Revolution: Political Mobilization and Urban Spaces in North America, 1740-1783." (Grants and Fellowships) 2003

• Charlotte W. Newcombe Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship, Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, for "Cityscapes and Revolution: Political Mobilization and Urban Spaces in North America, 1740-1783." 2003-04. (Grants and Fellowships) 2003

• Fellowship, GIlder Lehrman Institute of American History, for "Cityscapes and Revolution: Political Mobilization and Urban Spaces in North America, 1740-1783." (Grants and Fellowships) 2003

• Barbara S. Mosbacher Fellowship, John Carter Brown Library, for "Cityscapes and Revolution: Political Mobilization and Urban Spaces in North America, 1740-1783." (Grants and Fellowships) 2002

• W.M. Keck Foundation and Fletcher Jones Foundation Fellowship, Huntington Library, for "Cityscapes and Revolution: Political Mobilization and Urban Spaces in North America, 1740-1783." (Grants and Fellowships) 2002

• Kate B. and Hall J. Peterson Fellowship, American Antiquarian Society, for "Cityscapes and Revolution: Political Mobilization and Urban Spaces in North America, 1740-1783." (Grants and Fellowships) 2001

• Massachusetts Society of the Cincinnati Fellowship, Massachusetts Historical Society, for "Cityscapes and Revolution: Political Mobilization and Urban Spaces in North America, 1740-1783." (Grants and Fellowships) 2001

• Price Visiting Research Fellowship, William L. Clements Library, for "Cityscapes and Revolution: Political Mobilization and Urban Spaces in North America, 1740-1783." (Grants and Fellowships) 2001

• Winterthur Fellowship, Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library, for "Cityscapes and Revolution: Political Mobilization and Urban Spaces in North America, 1740-1783." (Grants and Fellowships) 2001

• Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship in Humanistic Studies, Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, 1998-99. (Grants and Fellowships)1998