The Citizen and Philadelphia magazine present The Philadelphia Promise. A quarterly event series that features one-on-one conversations with some of the most brilliant, forward-thinking minds from our city and beyond. Each conversation is designed to spark discovery, inspire action, and underscore the power of thinking globally while acting locally.
JOIN US AT OUR UPCOMING EVENT
A Conversation with Richard Vague, author of The Banker Who Made America: Thomas Willing and the Rise of the American Financial Aristocracy 1731-1821
Thursday, February 26
Fitler Club Ballroom at 1 South 24th Street
Doors open: 5:30pm, Program: 6pm with book signing to follow
This July marks the 250th anniversary of America’s Declaration of Independence — and the beginning of the war that would create this country.
Two and a half centuries on, you probably think you know the story the American Revolution and of all the founding fathers who played a part in it, the people who molded the triumphant young nation that emerged after the fight. But you likely don’t know Thomas Willing, whose role as America’s preeminent merchant trader, first central banker and one of the major funders of the Revolution didn’t just shape the new country but arguably saved it in its earliest days.
In his new book, The Banker Who Made America: Thomas Willing and the Rise of the American Financial Aristocracy 1731-1821, Richard Vague—author, banker, policy advisor, public intellectual—tells the story of the most influential early American (and Philadelphian) you’ve never heard of, a man at the dead center of the country’s war for independence, as well as the class and culture wars that were raging within. The portrait Vague paints of Willing is fascinating; the tensions that Willing’s story highlights (between the wealthy elite and the lower and middle classes) are still impacting—even defining—the country today.
Join us at Fitler Club for the first installment of The Philadelphia Promise — a talk between Vague and Philadelphia magazine editor Christine Speer Lejeune about Willing, his incredible legacy and the rise of the country’s most lasting and entrenched political conflict.
$5 for entry, $35 for book pre-order. Headhouse Books will be selling books on site.
Free entry to Citizen members and Fitler Club members. Use your coupon code at checkout. Don’t have your code? Email membership@thephiladelphiacitizen.org.
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