U.S. Booksellers for Free Expression president Christopher Finan looks at the importance of and struggle to defend freedom of speech and other civil liberties over the 20th century.
The lecture audio can be downloaded as an mp3.
Author Lisa Alther talks about her work to trace her family genealogy and determine whether her ancestry includes any members of a perhaps-folkloric group of Tennessee residents called the "Melungeons." She talks about how people reconstruct their family trees, adding and omitting to create the history they wish to remember.
Athenaeum program director and librarian Richard Wendorf looks back over the 200-year history of the Boston Athenaeum, using objects from the Athenaeum's collection to illustrate this history and focusing on points of change in that history.
National Archives senior curator Stacey Bredhoff looks at the process involved in compiling the touring National Archives exhibit "Eyewitness," which focuses on eyewitness accounts of events from World War II, the Holocaust, the Vietnam War, and the Civil Rights' Movement's Bloody Sunday March at Selma.
Professor and author Michael Oren looks at the history of relations between the U.S. and the Middle East, beginning in 1785 with the Barbary Wars and continuing to the present day.
The lecture audio is also available as a mp3 file.
Joseph Cirincione, Senior Vice President of the Center for American Progress, discusses the history and future of nuclear weapons, looking particularly at nuclear weapons production in Iran.
Boston Public Library president Bernard Margolis and Athenaeum librarian and program director Richard Wendorf discuss ownership of cultural property and the question of whether the Boston Athenaeum should have become the Boston Public Library. The presentation outlines the early history of the Athenaeum and the history of the debate over whether the institution should become a public library.
An mp3 version of the lecture is also available for download.
NAACP chairman Julian Bond reviews his experiences as an active participant in the Civil Rights Movement, including helping found the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and the Southern Poverty Law Center. He also talks about the continuing need for social action today, both combating racism and other social issues.
An mp3 version of the lecture audio can be downloaded.
A panel discusses the documentary television series American Experience: Eyes on the Prize, which uses contemporary interviews and historical footage to follow the civil rights movement from 1954 to 1985, following a preview screening. The discussion focuses on the creation of the series and what its creators hoped to achieve.
An mp3 of the discussion audio is available for download.
As part of a bicentennial series celebrating Boston Athenaeum writers, Jill Ker Conway discusses the work of maritime historian Samuel Eliot Morison (18871976); Megan Marshall discusses Christian author and first female entrant to the Athenaeum, Hannah Adams (17551831); and Philip McFarland discusses historian Francis Parkman (18231893).