Boston Under Siege

Robert Allison received his bachelor of liberal arts from the Harvard Extension School in 1987 and his doctorate in the history of American civilization from Harvard University in 1992. He has taught in Extension since 1993, earning the Petra T. Shattuck Excellence in Teaching Award in 1997. He is also a professor of history at Suffolk University in Boston, where he has received the Student Government Association's award for teaching three times. His books include The Crescent Obscured: The United States and the Muslim World 1776-1820, Stephen Decatur: American Naval Hero 1779-1820, A Short History of Boston, and short volumes on Cape Cod, the Boston Massacre, and the American Revolution. He has also edited an edition of The Interesting Narrative of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African. For the Teaching Company's Great Courses, he has made "Before 1776: Life in Colonial America," and "The Age of Benjamin Franklin." He chairs Revolution 250, a consortium of history organizations planning commemorations of the American Revolution's anniversary and hosts its weekly podcast. He is president of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts, a Fellow of the Massachusetts Historical Society and of the American Antiquarian Society, and an honorary member of the Society of the Cincinnati. He is a life-trustee the USS Constitution Museum and is currently writing a book about the USS Constitution's 1840s world cruise. He and his wife live in East Boston.