The Battle of Saratoga and the life of General John Burgoyne

Witness to Yesterday (The Champlain Society Podcast on Canadian History)

In this podcast episode, Larry Ostola talks to Norman Poser about his book From the Battlefield to the Stage: The Many Lives of General John Burgoyne, published by McGill-Queens University Press in 2022. In From the Battlefield to the Stage, Norman Poser provides a rounded biography, covering not only the Saratoga campaign of 1777, but also elements of Burgoyne’s eventful life that have never been adequately explored. Burgoyne was a socialite, welcome in London’s fashionable drawing rooms, a high-stakes gambler in its elite clubs, and a playwright whose social comedies were successfully performed on the London stage. Poser paints a vivid portrait of General John Burgoyne, remembering him not only for his role in one of Britain’s worst military disasters but also as a brave, talented, humane man. Norman Poser is a retired law professor who enjoyed a distinguished career at the Brooklyn Law School in New York. Prior to that, he served as Assistant Secretary of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. He's the author of several books on eighteenth-century history, including, Lord Mansfield: Justice in the Age of Reason, published by McGill-Queen’s University Press in 2015, and The Birth of Modern Theatre: Rivalry, Riots, and Romance in the Age of Garrick, published by Routledge in 2018. This podcast was produced by Jessica Schmidt. Image Credit: Empire Spring, Saratoga, Boston Public Library If you like our work, please consider supporting it: bit.ly/support_WTY. Your support contributes to the Champlain Society’s mission of opening new windows to directly explore and experience Canada’s past.