From “Birth of a Nation” to “Gone With the Wind,” harmful stereotypes of Black life were the rule in Hollywood. After World War II, there was some progress in showing a more realistic picture on the screen, due to the efforts of younger, more progressive Hollywood screenwriters – many of whom wound up on the Hollywood Blacklist.
Much of current American culture seems divorced from the realities of ordinary (and especially, rural) life. The images of “country life” for so many Americans alternates between Oh, isn’t this charming and rustic! and Oh, how rural and backward! Sometimes it is patronizing and infuriating. Other times it just seems disappointing and sad. Join Scudder Parker for an exploration of these topics.
While George Washington aimed to curb his own influence and image lest the citizenry come to view him as a monarch, he frequently indulged romantic ideas around his manliness. Jasper Craven shows how the figure he allegedly cut – as the “political savior of our nation” who bravely “conducted the Americans’ thro seas of blood” – helped form America’s foundational warrior archetype, and its closely related, ever-evolving masculine mold.
Part of the traditional allure of military service was that it promised romantic interest. This was typified at West Point’s Cadet Hostess Office, composed of military wives who taught etiquette to cadets and fielded love letters from girls at Vassar College and other nearby schools. But as the feminist and Vietnam anti-war movements coalesced, the uniform lost its luster.
In response to concerns about election tampering in the 1850s, New Yorker Samuel Jollie proposed a novel solution: a ballot box made of glass. Emphasizing glass’s transparency and purity, Jollie suggested that his box would ensure fair and just elections. Middlebury professor Ellery Foutch illuminates the contemporary resonance of Jollie’s invention.
Our seasonal “Words in the Woods” program allows Vermonters and visitors to enjoy our state’s natural beauty while listening to and reading literature in the outdoors.
Humanities Camps are filled with reading and writing projects, field trips, and outdoor activities.
We won a 2020 Schwartz Prize for best public humanities programming in the U.S. for Vermont Reads 2019: “March: Book One.”
We supported the Chandler Center for the Arts’ Global Connections Youth Outreach program, which highlights artists from around the world.
Our free public events help bring the power of the humanities to communities across Vermont.
