Uploaded September 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 hours ago
250th Independence Day: America's Unfinished Revolution
Bruno Maçães, Sarah Churchwell and Fredrik Logevall in conversation with Georgina Godwin
As the United States approaches 250 years of independence, the idea of its revolution, once a radical experiment in liberty and democracy, invites renewed scrutiny. Is it a completed project, or an unfinished promise, continually reshaped by history, conflict, and imagination? Bruno Maçães, known for his incisive analyses of global power and shifting world orders; Sarah Churchwell, whose work traces the cultural and ideological myths at the heart of America; Fredrik Logevall, a historian of U.S. foreign policy and its entanglements; bring their layered perspectives to this question. In conversation with Georgina Godwin, they revisit the American Revolution as an ongoing narrative marked by contradictions and reinventions.
Bruno Maçães is a Senior Advisor at Flint Global in London, where he advises leading global companies on geopolitics and technology, and also serves as a foreign correspondent and columnist for the New Statesman. He is a member of the European Council on Foreign Relations and previously served as Portugal’s Secretary of State for European Affairs during the eurozone crisis. He has authored several books, including The Dawn of Eurasia, Belt and Road, History Has Begun, Geopolitics for the End Times, and World Builders, which argues that geopolitics is now a race to define reality itself. His forthcoming book will be published in June 2026.
Sarah Churchwell is Professor of American Literature and Chair of Public Humanities at the University of London. Her most recent book is The Wrath to Come: Gone with the Wind and the Lies America Tells (2022). Her journalism has been widely published, and she is an experienced broadcaster and presenter. She won the 2015 Eccles British Library Writer’s Award and was longlisted for the Orwell Prize in 2021.
Fredrik Logevall is the Laurence D. Belfer Professor of History and International Affairs at Harvard University. He is the author of JFK: Coming of Age in the American Century, 1917–1956, which won the Elizabeth Longford Prize, was named Biography of the Year by The Times (UK), and was recognized as a New York Times Notable Book of the Year.
Georgina Godwin is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. A distinguished broadcast journalist, she presents the author interview programme Meet the Writers as well as the current affairs show The Globalist on Monocle Radio. She also serves as the station’s Books Editor and chairs literary events worldwide. A founding member of Zimbabwe’s first independent radio station, she was later declared an “Enemy of the State” and exiled to London. Georgina Godwin also serves on the board of the charity English PEN.
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#america #independenceday #revolution
250th Independence Day: America's Unfinished Revolution
Bruno Maçães, Sarah Churchwell and Fredrik Logevall in conversation with Georgina Godwin
As the United States approaches 250 years of independence, the idea of its revolution, once a radical experiment in liberty and democracy, invites renewed scrutiny. Is it a completed project, or an unfinished promise, continually reshaped by history, conflict, and imagination? Bruno Maçães, known for his incisive analyses of global power and shifting world orders; Sarah Churchwell, whose work traces the cultural and ideological myths at the heart of America; Fredrik Logevall, a historian of U.S. foreign policy and its entanglements; bring their layered perspectives to this question. In conversation with Georgina Godwin, they revisit the American Revolution as an ongoing narrative marked by contradictions and reinventions.
Bruno Maçães is a Senior Advisor at Flint Global in London, where he advises leading global companies on geopolitics and technology, and also serves as a foreign correspondent and columnist for the New Statesman. He is a member of the European Council on Foreign Relations and previously served as Portugal’s Secretary of State for European Affairs during the eurozone crisis. He has authored several books, including The Dawn of Eurasia, Belt and Road, History Has Begun, Geopolitics for the End Times, and World Builders, which argues that geopolitics is now a race to define reality itself. His forthcoming book will be published in June 2026.
Sarah Churchwell is Professor of American Literature and Chair of Public Humanities at the University of London. Her most recent book is The Wrath to Come: Gone with the Wind and the Lies America Tells (2022). Her journalism has been widely published, and she is an experienced broadcaster and presenter. She won the 2015 Eccles British Library Writer’s Award and was longlisted for the Orwell Prize in 2021.
Fredrik Logevall is the Laurence D. Belfer Professor of History and International Affairs at Harvard University. He is the author of JFK: Coming of Age in the American Century, 1917–1956, which won the Elizabeth Longford Prize, was named Biography of the Year by The Times (UK), and was recognized as a New York Times Notable Book of the Year.
Georgina Godwin is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. A distinguished broadcast journalist, she presents the author interview programme Meet the Writers as well as the current affairs show The Globalist on Monocle Radio. She also serves as the station’s Books Editor and chairs literary events worldwide. A founding member of Zimbabwe’s first independent radio station, she was later declared an “Enemy of the State” and exiled to London. Georgina Godwin also serves on the board of the charity English PEN.
Follow us on –
Website - jlflitfest.org
Facebook - facebook.com/JLFInternational
YouTube - youtube.com/@JLFInternational
Instagram - instagram.com/jlfinternational
X - twitter.com/JLFLitfest
#america #independenceday #revolution
