Lectures on Tap - Off With Their Heads: Organizing the French Revolution

Join us for an engaging evening where professors, experts, and storytellers bring their thought-provoking lectures to your favorite bar in Chicago!

Hosted by the Lectures on Tap team.

🗓️ Date: October 27th, 2025

🕡 Time: 6:30 PM

📍 Location: Wicker Park, Chicago (exact address given in confirmation email)

📚 Lecture: “Off With Their Heads: Organizing the French Revolution”

🎤 Speaker: Dr. John J. Murphy

In this compelling lecture, Dr. John J. Murphy will delve into the fascinating origins of the French Revolution, starting with a seemingly simple act: where people chose to sit. This pivotal moment in 1789 sparked a chaotic narrative of political organization, transformation, and terror.

Dr. Murphy will trace the evolution of revolutionary politics, highlighting the vibrant energy of Parisian coffeehouses and the influential pamphlets of notable figures like Danton and Desmoulins. He will discuss the rise of powerful clubs such as the Jacobins and the impact of unconventional personalities like Jean-Paul Marat, who wielded the pen as dangerously as any weapon.

We’ll explore the collision of centralized power with grassroots movements, the dangerous tipping of fiery rhetoric into violence, and how leaders like Robespierre endeavored to control a revolution that often turned on itself. Finally, we’ll ponder what contemporary movements can learn from the tumultuous dynamics of the French Revolution.

Get a drink, connect, and learn at Lectures on Tap! 🙌

Agenda

6:30 PM – Doors open: find a seat (open seating!), order food & drinks, and expect a bar line—arriving early is key.

6:55 PM – Host introduction

7:00 PM – Lecture begins

7:45 PM – Audience Q&A

8:00 PM – Have 1:1 time with the speaker, mingle with fellow guests, and order another round

8:30 PM – Wrap up.