History scholar to deliver free, public talk about chaotic years in the American frontier

Williamsport, Pa. — Robert Parkinson, Ph.D., will make a special appearance at Lycoming College to discuss his new book, Heart of American Darkness, a story of vengeance and chaos in the 18th century.

Before the expansion that led to the Wild West era, several factions battled over the northeast U.S. This tumultuous time leading up to the Revolutionary War is the focus of Dr. Parkinson's book.

The discussion will be held on Wednesday, Sept. 11 at 4:30 p.m. in Trogner Presentation Room, Krapf Gateway Center, on the Lycoming College campus. The event, co-sponsored by the Humanities Research Center and the history department, is free and open to the public.

“The frontier evokes all sorts of images about America's past and has generated vast claims about its exceptional nature. This talk explores how utterly bewildering, absurd, and confusing it was to live on the frontier in the 18th century, especially for two of the most prominent families, the Cresaps and the Shickellamys,” said Parkinson. “The dramatic twists and turns these families experienced through the Seven Years War, Pontiac's War, and the American Revolution shed important light on how we might see this time and place differently. Rather than a place of progress or a crucible for democracy, the early American frontier was rather a heart of American darkness.”

Director of graduate studies and associate professor of history at Binghamton University, Parkinson's research interests are in early American history, especially the American Revolution. His first book, The Common Cause: Creating Nation and Race in the American Revolution (UNC Press, 2016) explores how questions of race collided with pressing issues of nation building at the Founding. His most recent book, The Heart of American Darkness, is a microhistory about how the grisly murder of nine Natives on a tributary of the Ohio River in 1774 exerted a surprisingly powerful influence in the political and rhetorical life of the early American republic.

Parkinson has held fellowships at the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture, the C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience, the Library Company of Philadelphia, the Rockefeller Library at Colonial Williamsburg, the Filson Historical Society in Louisville, the David Library of the American Revolution, the Clements Library at the University of Michigan, and the International Center for Jefferson Studies at Monticello.

His teaching interests include the American Revolution, colonial America, the history of American slavery, Native American history, and nation-making and race in the early modern world. Parkinson holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Tennessee, and a doctoral degree from the University of Virginia.