Land speculator, revolutionary, pamphleteer, politician, and empire-builder, Ira Allen was a key figure on the late eighteenth-century Green Mountain frontier. Based on his 2024 book Ira Allen: A Biography, J. Kevin Graffagnino’s lively talk evaluates Allen’s checkered career and makes the case for including him in our picture of Vermont’s formative decades.
Photo Credit: Arminnius, Wikimedia Commons
About the presenter
J. Kevin Graffagnino is author/editor of 17 books on Vermont history, including The Shaping of Vermont, Vermont in the Victorian Age, and Vermont Heritage: Essays on Green Mountain History, 1779-1920. His most recent books are Ira Allen: A Biography and Vermontiana: An Annotated Checklist, 1764-1899, both of which came out in 2024. Dr. Graffagnino was curator of Vermont history at the University of Vermont library’s Special Collections 1978-95 and executive director of the Vermont Historical Society 2003-08. Since 1980 he has spoken in more than half the towns in Vermont.
