Wednesday, March 10, 2004

Starr Center Announces Spring Lectures In American History, Culture And Contemporary Issues


Chestertown, MD, March 10, 2004 — Washington College's C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience announces a full season of speakers for spring, addressing colonial to contemporary American history and culture. All lectures are free and open to the public.

Ambassador Joseph Wilson, “The Mess in Iraq and the Way Ahead.”

Thursday, March 25, 7:30 p.m., Hynson Lounge. Ambassador Wilson has led a highly decorated career in the Foreign Service, and as the active ambassador to Iraq, he was the last American to meet with Saddam Hussein before the first Gulf War. He became the senior Africa expert on the National Security Council and planned President Clinton's trip in 1998. Shortly after debunking the White House claims of uranium sales from Niger to Iraq in 2003, his wife was exposed as a CIA operative. Wilson is the author of The Politics of Truth, which will be released in May. This talk is co-sponsored by the Washington College Goldstein Program in Public Affairs.

Captain Dan Parrott, “Baltimore Clippers: Then and Now.”

Thursday, April 1, 7:30 p.m., Hynson Lounge. Dan Parrott is a former captain of Pride of Baltimore II and the author of Tall Ships Down, a critically acclaimed book about disasters at sea. Parrott, assistant professor at the Maine Maritime Academy, will chart the history of the Baltimore Clipper from its introduction on the Chesapeake to the reproductions in use today. This talk is part of the ongoing Maritime Lecture Series, co-sponsored by Sultana Projects, Inc.

Adam Goodheart, “Two Pirate Ships at Point Comfort: New Discoveries on America's First Slaves.”

Thursday, April 15, 7:00 p.m., Hynson Lounge. In the summer of 1619—a year before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock— two corsairs, one Dutch and one English, sailed into the mouth of the Chesapeake and anchored near the mouth of the James River. Among the pirates' cargo were some two dozen Africans, the first slaves to arrive in the Virginia Colony. Drawing on research for a book he is writing on the history of slavery, C.V. Starr Fellow Adam Goodheart will describe recent discoveries that illuminate the lives of these first African-Americans and their strange, violent and eventful journey to the New World.

Walter Isaacson, “Benjamin Franklin and America's Values.”

Thursday, April 22, 7:30 p.m., Hynson Lounge. Isaacson is the author of Benjamin Franklin: An American Life, a critically acclaimed biography of one of America's formative intellects. A brilliant inventor, charming diplomat and complicated visionary, Franklin—more than anyone else in the founding period—created the archetype of the American “self-made” man. Isaacson, the former managing editor of Time and CEO of Time Warner, is the director of the Aspen Institute and is the author of Kissinger and co-author of The Wise Men.

David Steinberg, “Peale's Artist in His Museum and the Nineteenth Century Emblem Problem.”

Friday, April 23, 4:30 p.m., Casey Academic Center Forum. Known primarily as a portrait painter, Maryland-born Peale created the first museum of cultural and natural history in America. David Steinberg will explore the intersection of central problems in visual representation, theology and natural science through one of Peale's most famous paintings. Steinberg is a Visiting Scholar at the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture. This lecture is part of the Starr Center's American Pictures Series and is co-sponsored by the Washington College Department of Art.
These spring lectures are sponsored by the C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience, an innovative forum for new scholarship about American history. Drawing on the special historical strengths of Washington College and Chestertown, the Center is dedicated to exploring the early republic, the rise of democracy, and the manifold ways in which the founding era continues to shape American culture. News about upcoming events is available online at http://starrcenter.washcoll.edu/, or by calling Program Manager Kees de Mooy at 410-810-7156.
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