War in the Middle East and a calamitous global energy shock. Domestic political instability and violence. Assassination attempts on the life of a controversial Republican President. America celebrating a milestone birthday.

The USA in 2026? Or 1976?

During its Semiquincentennial (250th anniversary) year, the US finds itself once again contemplating its birth pangs during a time of crisis and a collapse in American self-confidence. This mood of cynicism and uncertainty seems to rhyme with the Bicentennial moment fifty years ago – though the narratives and institutional memories of the USA’s founding certainly had their own dynamics in the mid-1970s, as they do today.

So turn up your Eagles LP, switch on your Apple 1 computer, watch Rocky hit the silver screen, and join us as we remember remembering Revolution in 1976.

Chaired by Mike Collins, Chair of the British Association for American Studies.

The event is part of ‘America Now!’, a series of live events exploring the current state of the USA and its place in the world. In a world of hot takes these discussions offer some much-needed deep dives, giving expert insight into some of the most pressing or peculiar aspects of modern American life – from the Supreme Court to ‘Cowboy Carter’, and from the politics of the White House to the politics of ‘The White Lotus’.