The Rosenbach’s American History Book Club in Partnership with Carpenters’ Hall
All Program Dates
September 16, 2025 | 5:30 pm - 7:00 pm (at The Rosenbach)
October 21, 2025 | 5:30 pm - 7:00 pm (at Carpenters’ Hall)
November 18, 2025 | 5:30 pm - 7:00 pm (at The Rosenbach)
December 16, 2025 | 5:30 pm - 7:00 pm (at Carpenters’ Hall)
January 27, 2026 | 5:30 pm - 7:00 pm (at The Rosenbach)
February 17, 2026 | 5:30 pm - 7:00 pm (at Carpenters’ Hall)
March 24, 2026 | 5:30 pm - 7:00 pm (at Carpenters’ Hall)
Registration
Admission for this book club is $35 per session. Members receive exclusive discounts on our programs and courses. Not a member? Learn more.
Please check your spam folder for your email confirmation. If you have questions, please call (215) 732-1600 or email rsvp@rosenbach.org.
This is an in-person program at The Rosenbach and at Carpenters’ Hall
This program is for those 18 and older.
Description
Spies and espionage have long exercised a hold over the popular imagination of Americans, revealing excitement about, and uncertainty over, the stability of our national project. In commemoration of the 250th anniversary of Benjamin Franklin’s secret meetings with French spy Julien Bonvouloir at Carpenters’ Hall, which historian John Ferling has called one of the most underrated events of the American Revolution, Season 2 of The Republic of Letters, an American history book club, will feature works of history and fiction that illuminate unforgettable characters in the world of spycraft, from the days of the American Revolution through the Cold War.
This American history book club is a partnership of Carpenters’ Hall and the Rosenbach Museum & Library. Sessions meet variously at Carpenters’ Hall and the Rosenbach; check individual program descriptions for details. At least one book club session in the season will include a presentation of rare collection materials related to the themes and topics under discussion during the meetings.
Tuesday, September 16, 2025: Invisible Ink: Spycraft of the American Revolution by John Nagy
[At the Rosenbach]
Tuesday, October 21, 2025: How the French Saved America by Tom Shachtman
[At Carpenters’ Hall]
Tuesday, November 18, 2025: Espionage and Enslavement in the Revolution by Claire Bellerjaeu and Tiffany Yecke Brooks
[At the Rosenbach]
Tuesday, December 16, 2025: Treacherous Beauty by Mark Jacob and Stephen Case
[At Carpenters’ Hall]
Tuesday, January 27, 2026: The Alice Network by Kate Quinn
[At the Rosenbach]
Tuesday, February 17, 2026: Moscow Rules by Antonio and Jonna Mendez
[At Carpenters’ Hall]
Tuesday, March 24, 2026: Honeytrap by Aster Glenn Gray
[At Carpenters’ Hall]
Book Purchase
The Rosenbach has partnered with The Head & The Hand (H&H Books) to supply us with book club selections at reasonable prices via their Bookshop.org affiliate link. To order a copy, visit the following link and select our nonprofit partner, H&H Books, as the bookstore you’d like to support: The Republic of Letters
Learn more about H&H Books here: https://www.theheadandthehand.com/.
Note that copies of book club selections are not currently available at H&H Books’ physical location.
Facilitators
Alexander Lawrence Ames (he/him) is Director of Outreach & Engagement at the Rosenbach Museum & Library, and an historian of religious, intellectual, and cultural life in early America. He is the author of The Word in the Wilderness: Popular Piety and the Manuscript Arts in Early Pennsylvania (Penn State Press, 2020), Grolier Club Bookplates, Past & Present (The Grolier Club of New York, 2023), as well as numerous articles dealing with book-historical topics in journals including Winterthur Portfolio, Libraries: Culture, History, and Society, The Mennonite Quarterly Review, and Minnesota History. His current book project is Ships of Reason: The Enlightenment of Stephen Girard and the Mariners Who Built His Merchant Empire. When not curating Rosenbach exhibitions or leading book club sessions, Alex enjoys visiting historic house museums and public gardens in the Philadelphia area.
Alyssa Constad (she/her) is the Assistant Director at Carpenters’ Hall where she oversees the historic collections and excels at complaining when the air conditioning is not working. Alyssa has loved history since she was a child, but she knew she was destined for a career in museums when she fell in love with giving historic tours on the Lower East Side of Manhattan and instructing tourists on where to find the best pickles and knishes. The mom of a two-year-old, Alyssa no longer has hobbies, as all of her free time is spent cleaning up toys or watching Bluey, but when she’s able, she enjoys running and getting lost in a good historical fiction read. Alyssa currently lives in Manayunk with her husband, daughter, and 100-pound goldendoodle who often complains about the amount of hills they have to walk up.
Dr. Joshua Abraham Kopin is a teacher, tutor, writer, and editor who received his PhD in American Studies from the University of Texas at Austin in 2020. His research focuses on American visual, literary, and periodical cultures from the late-19th century to the present, as well as the history of technology. From his undergraduate career as an early Americanist, he maintains an interest in civic republicanism, constitutionalism, and the political philosophy of virtue. He has published in American Literature, Inks, The Journal of Comics and Culture and Keywords for Comics Studies. He currently teaches writing, history, and visual studies at Haverford College and Villanova University and facilitates a monthly speculative fiction book club at Iffy Books. He is always ready for it to be baseball season.
Michael Norris (he/him), the Executive Director of Carpenters' Hall, came of age in the mid-1970s and thus was fundamentally formed by the back-to-back impact of the Bicentennial, making him a self-professed history nerd and Star Wars (there was no A New Hope back then) devotee. After begging his parents to take him to Mount Vernon, he had to settle for the American Freedom Train when it visited suburban Philadelphia. While he has since been to Mount Vernon, he's still bitter. When not overseeing the operations of Carpenters' Hall and the Carpenters' Company, he's reading American history, dreaming up travel plans, or bingeing Peaky Blinders.
Emily Winters (she/her) is the Operations Manager/ Development Associate at Carpenters’ Hall by day and a rambling poet by night. Emily recently graduated Rutgers Camden with a master’s degree in history. She was raised in a small (no stoplight) town in South Jersey and continues to live in Camden County, New Jersey. When not learning how to play the violin and reading anything she can get her hands on, she enjoys late-night dessert runs with friends and getting lost in the woods.
Karen Grossman, Library and Museum Educator at the Rosenbach Museum & Library.
Karen will lead artifact show-and-tell sessions at select meetings of Republic of Letters to help club members situate book club selections in the context of the Rosenbach’s collections. With a background in classroom teaching and a passion for hands-on learning, she began her career as a science teacher, inspiring curiosity and critical thinking in students of all ages. After several years in education, she transitioned into museum work, now serving as a library and museum educator. When she is not hosting book clubs or leading other Rosenbach programs, she serves on the Board of the Delaware County Historical Society and takes her children to visit historical sites.
