First, tonight at 7:00 P.M. is Ted Widmer’s talk on “A Test Case for America: Washington, Longfellow, and the Jewish Community at Newport” at Cambridge Forum. [ADDENDUM at 2:00: I’m sorry to report that this event has been canceled because Widmer is ill. We hope to reschedule in the fall.]
Widmer is director of the John Carter Brown Library at Brown University, and author of Young America: The Flowering of Democracy in New York City, Ark of the Liberties: Why American Freedom Matters to the World, and Martin Van Buren. He’s been both a presidential speechwriter and the lead singer of the Upper Crust rock band. His oped “Reagan at the Wall” appeared in yesterday’s New York Times.
My job as moderator this evening will be to introduce Ted Widmer, try not to take notes too conspicuously, and manage the question period. The overlap of religion and government in America has always been a delicate topic, and this election cycle has already brought up more issues. Cambridge Forum events are free and easily accessible in First Parish, Cambridge, right across the street from one entrance to the Harvard subway station.
Sunday, 17 June, is the anniversary of the Battle of Bunker Hill and the occasion of the annual meeting of the Bunker Hill Monument Association. That afternoon I’ll moderate an event for members, a healthy debate between Paul O’Shaughnessey, representing His Majesty’s 10th Regiment of Foot, and Thomas Coots, representing Col. Thomas Gardner’s regiment of Middlesex County militia. Who actually won the battle? What might the commanders have done differently?
In between those dates, of course, I’ll share what I’ve figured out about the Ephraim Moors powder horn at the Concord Museum on Thursday, 14 June, at 7:00 P.M.
It never cease to amaze me how history is so connected. I started my own personal website to keep fit walking the fells and mountains of the Lake District National Park, England.
ReplyDeleteSome of my walks took me past old mine works, castles, peel towers and not forgetting such ancient monuments as the Castlerigg Stone Circle.
Its only when you get the history bug and look into these things that you learn so much that effects us all today.
Keep up the good work as there are people who enjoy reading such interesting works, like me.
For those who wish to learn more about the Lake District please take a look at my writtings and pictures at <a href=http://www.lakedistrictwalks.net and enjoy as its all FREE.
That comment is a bit spammy, but:
ReplyDelete(a) this posting is a bit self-promotional itself;
(b) walks in Britain’s Lake District do fit with eighteenth-century history; and
(c) though the site has lots of links to cottages, hotels, and other businesses, it’s also full of good free content as promised. So have fun, Anglophiliacs!