Join LancasterHistory on October 7 as we welcome award-winning author Clint Smith for “Revolution to Reconstruction: Pennsylvania and the Fight for Liberty & Equality,” an America250PA lecture. Smith will share insights on Pennsylvania’s central role in shaping our ideals of liberty & equality from the Revolution through Reconstruction and the notion that there is no such thing as a single American story.

Clint Smith is the author of the upcoming nonfiction book, Just Beneath the Soil (Knopf, May 2027) which explores how World War II is remembered around the world. He is also wrote the narrative nonfiction book, How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning With the History of Slavery Across America, which was a #1 New York Times bestseller, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction, the Hillman Prize for Book Journalism, the Stowe Prize, and selected by the New York Times as one of the 10 best books of 2021. With Sonja Cherry-Paul, Smith adapted How the Word Is Passed into a bestseller for young readers (Little, Brown, 2025). He is also the author of the New York Times bestselling poetry collection Above Ground and the award-winning poetry collection Counting Descent. His writing has been published in The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, Poetry Magazine, The Paris Review, and elsewhere. In 2020, Smith was named a New America (Emerson Collective) Fellow, and in 2026 was named the inaugural fellow of the Sachs Foundation. Clint received his B.A. in English from Davidson College and a Ph.D. in Education from Harvard University. He is a staff writer at The Atlantic.

EVENT DETAILS & HOW TO REGISTER

The event, “Revolution to Reconstruction,” will take place on Wednesday, October 7, 2026 at the Ware Center for the Performing Arts, 42 N. Prince Street in Lancaster, PA. Doors open at 5pm, followed by the lecture at 5:30pm. Tickets are free, but registration in advance is required as capacity is limited and this event is anticipated to sell out. The event will include a Q&A portion for our audience, and will not be livestreamed or recorded.

To register, please click the link below or call 717.392.4633 to book over the phone.

REGISTER FOR OCTOBER 7

Signed copies of Clint Smith’s How the Word Is Passed will be available for purchase on-site, thanks to our friends at Pocket Books Shop on Prince! Cash and card are accepted.

Thank You to America250PA for Their Support of This Event!