First Wednesdays
Civil War Lectures 2011-2012 • 7:00 pm
Brattleboro, Brooks Memorial Library, December 7
American Oracle: The Civil War in the Civil Rights Era. David Blight, Yale professor and acclaimed author of Race and Reunion, considers how Americans looked on the War’s centennial during the early 1960s and explores the gulf between remembrance and reality. Sponsor: Brattleboro Historical Society. A Vermont Reads/Big Read event
Manchester, First Congregational Church (Mark Skinner Library), March 7
Winslow Homer and the Civil War. Marc Simpson, American art history scholar at Williams College and the Clark Art Institute, explores Winslow Homer’s early career, whose first paintings illustrated Civil War battlefields, camps, and the home front. Sponsor: Keelan Family Foundation. A Vermont Reads 2012 event.
Manchester, First Congregational Church (Mark Skinner Library), April 4
If You Don’t Want Your Slave to Speak Freely, You Should Forbid Him to Sing! In this performance lecture, Middlebury College Artist-in-Residence Dr. Francois Clemmons illustrates how the Negro Spiritual grew out of slaves' experiences. A Vermont Reads 2012 event.
Newport, Goodrich Memorial Library, January 4
From the Northeast Kingdom to Baton Rouge: Vermonters, the Civil War, and the Road to Emancipation. National park superintendent and writer Rolf Diamant discusses how profoundly the Civil War transformed Vermont and why public memory of the war still matters. A Vermont Reads 2012 event.
Norwich, Norwich Public Library and Norwich Historical Society, May 2
Why Lincoln Matters: To Presidents, to History, and to Us. Presented with the Dartmouth History Department. Lincoln’s memory has been used, boldly updated, and occasionally abused. Preeminent Lincoln historian Harold Holzer considers how we see, appreciate, adopt, and interpret Lincoln—and why he still very much matters. Location: Filene Auditorium, Moore Hall, Dartmouth College. A Vermont Reads 2012 event.
St. Johnsbury Athenaeum, April 4
The Supreme Court Argument That Saved the Union. President Lincoln justified the Emancipation Proclamation as a “necessary war measure.” But was the Civil War, in point of law, a war? Former Vermont Chief Justice Jeffrey Amestoy tells the thrilling story of Richard Henry Dana, Jr.’s oral argument before the Court in the Prize Cases. Sponsor: Vermont Bar Association. A Vermont Reads 2012 event.
Learn more about First Wednesdays lectures in Brattleboro, Essex Junction, Manchester, Middlebury, Montpelier, Newport, Norwich, Rutland, and St. Johnsbury.