Splash Biography



MICHAEL HATTEM, PhD Candidate in Early American History



Major: History

College/Employer: Yale

Year of Graduation: G

Picture of Michael Hattem

Brief Biographical Sketch:

Michael D. Hattem is a PhD candidate in History at Yale University. He earned his BA in History from the City College of New York in 2011 and an MA in History from Yale University in 2013. His work focuses on the political culture of the late colonial period and the coming of the American Revolution. He has won numerous fellowships for his work on the American Revolution, including from the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation and The National Library at Mount Vernon. He recently solved a 239-year old mystery surrounding the authorship of a long-lost Continental Congress document. He is also a Contributing Editor of "The Junto: A Group Blog on Early American History," one of the most popular history blogs on the internet and the Producer of "The JuntoCast," a monthly podcast about early American History. He has contributed other writings about the eighteenth century to many websites. Finally, he is also a Research Assistant at the Papers of Benjamin Franklin.



Past Classes

  (Clicking a class title will bring you to the course's section of the corresponding course catalog)

H1490: The American Revolution in Art & Memory in Splash Spring 15 (Apr. 04, 2015)
As a historian of the American Revolution, I am not only fascinated by the Revolution itself but the ways in which it is remembered. This class will begin with a 30-minute discussion about how the ways in which we remember the Revolution have changed throughout our history. We will also talk about how our cultural memories of the Revolution shape how we view the present (and vice versa). Following that discussion, we will all walk to the Yale University Art Gallery where I will give a personally-guided tour of the gallery's amazing collection of paintings, sculptures, and artifacts from the Revolution and the eighteenth century, where we will see first-hand how our collective memory of the Revolution was initially formed.


H984: The American Revolution: Myths and Realities in Splash Spring 14 (Mar. 29, 2014)
This class will outline the major events and themes and dispel many common myths about the American Revolution. The course will also explore the role and importance of the American Revolution today.