January 26, 2021 Mary Beth Norton, the Mary Donlon Alger Professor of American History Emerita in the College of Arts and Sciences, will discuss her book, “1774: The Long Year of Revolution,” in the next “Book Breaks” discussion, hosted by the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History in New York City. The virtual event is scheduled for 2 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 31; register here. The book, released in February 2020, is the culmination of more than four decades of research and thought. In it, Norton looks at the 16 months leading up to the clashes at Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts, in mid-April 1775. This was the critical, and often overlooked, period when colonists traditionally loyal to King George III began the discordant “discussions” that led them to accept the inevitability of war against the British Empire.