Tall Ships And Trials At Sea: Captain Dan Parrott On Baltimore Clippers, April 1

Chestertown, MD, March 22, 2004 — Washington College's C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience and Sultana Projects, Inc., as part of the Maritime Lecture Series, present “Baltimore Clippers: Then and Now,” a lecture by Daniel S. Parrott, former captain of the Pride of Baltimore II and author of Tall Ships Down, Thursday, April 1, at 7:30 p.m. in the College's Hynson Lounge. The event is free and the public is invited to attend. A booksigning will follow the lecture.

Parrott is a professional mariner with more than 20 years of experience sailing tall ships all over the world. Holding ocean masters licenses from the United States and Australia, Parrott has served as master for numerous vessels, including Pride of Baltimore II, Harvey Gamage, Bill of Rights and Tole Mour. He holds a master's degree in maritime affairs from the University of Rhode Island and is the author of the critically acclaimed book,Tall Ships Down, which chronicles the final, disastrous voyages of five contemporary tall ships: Pamir (1957), Albatross (1961),Marques (1984), Pride of Baltimore (1986) and Maria Asumpta(1995). Parrott's lecture will trace the evolution of the Baltimore Clipper design from its origins in the early 19th century to the reproductions in use today. In addition, he will discuss the human and technological challenges of building and sailing historical reproductions of tall ships and his view that recent tall ship tragedies at sea that have been deemed acts of god probably resulted from an ignorance or neglect of age-old practices of seamanship.

The Maritime Lecture Series is 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—in partnership with Sultana Projects, Inc., an organization that provides unique, hands-on educational experiences in colonial history and environmental science on board its reproduction 18th century schooner, Sultana.

For more information on upcoming lectures and events at Washington College, visithttp://calendar.washcoll.edu.

Success And The Art Of Adherence, Lecture March 29 At Washington College

Chestertown, MD, March 16, 2004 — Washington College's Students in Free Enterprise, the Sigma Beta Delta Business Honor Society and the Campus Events and Visitors Committee present “Sticking to It: The Art of Adherence,” a lecture by Lee J. Colan, president of the L Group, Inc, Monday, March 29, at 7:00 p.m. in the College's Hynson Lounge. The lecture is free and open to the public, and the first 50 people to arrive will receive a free copy of Colan's companion book, Sticking to It: The Art of Adherence.

Have you ever thought that business success is not just having talent, a popular product or a great idea, but a method? Lee J. Colan, Ph.D., author of Sticking to It: The Art of Adherence, believes in the simple maxim that the game of business is won by those who execute their strategies. While the challenges today's leaders face are always changing, the formula for winning remains the same: a focus on “how” more than “what.” Having a strategy gets you in the game, according to Colan, but execution gets you in the winner's circle. Sticking to It teaches the methods for follow-through, keeping a team on track and the practical steps that lead to business success. Joseph A. Bosch, Chief People Officer of Pizza Hut Corporation, said: “Sticking to It: The Art of Adherence will work in any company because Colan's strategies are grounded in real organizations and in the reality of human nature—not the theoretical. His passion for ‘keeping it simple' gives leaders confidence they can successfully create positive change.”

Founder and president of the Dallas-based consulting firm, L Group, Inc., Colan has more than 20 years under his belt as an organizational effectiveness consultant. He earned his master's and doctoral degrees in industrial/organizational psychology from George Washington University and has built a track record of successfully managing rapid organizational change and helping leaders and their organizations to grow.

For up-to-date information concerts and events at Washington College, visitcalendar.washcoll.edu.

Author Ben Yagoda On Developing Style And Voice In Prose Writing, February 17

Chestertown, MD, February 9, 2004 — Washington College's Sophie Kerr Lecture Series presents “The Sound on the Page: Style and Voice in Prose Writing,” a lecture by Ben Yagoda, author of About Town—the recent omnibus history of The New Yorker—and Director of the Journalism Program, University of Delaware. The lecture will be held Tuesday, February 17, at 4:30 p.m. at the O'Neill Literary House. The event is free and the public is invited to attend.

Yagoda is the author of the critically acclaimed booksAbout Town: The New Yorker and the World It Made(Scribner, 2000) and Will Rogers: A Biography (Alfred A. Knopf, 1993), and he is the co-editor of The Art of Fact: A Historical Anthology of Literary Journalism(Scribner, 1997). He has contributed articles, essays and reviews to more than 50 national publications, including Esquire, GQ, New York Times Magazine and the New York Times Book Review, and has been a regular columnist for Philadelphia Magazine and The Chronicle of Higher Education. A graduate of Yale and the University of Pennsylvania, Yagoda is an associate professor of English at the University of Delaware, where he teaches courses in journalism, literary non-fiction and non-fiction writing. He lives in Swarthmore, PA, with his wife and two daughters.

The talk is sponsored by the Sophie Kerr Lecture Series, named in honor of the late Sophie Kerr, a writer from Denton, MD, whose generosity has done so much to enrich Washington College's literary culture. When she died in 1965, she left the bulk of her estate to the College, specifying that one half of the income from her bequest be awarded every year to the senior showing the most “ability and promise for future fulfillment in the field of literary endeavor” and the other half be used to bring visiting writers to campus, to fund scholarships, and to help defray the costs of student publications.

Poet Michael Waters To Read From His Works, February 12 At Washington College

Chestertown, MD, January 28, 2004 — Washington College's Sophie Kerr Lecture Series presents poet Michael Waters, professor of English at Salisbury University, reading from his works, Thursday, February 12, at 4:30 p.m. in the Sophie Kerr Room of the College's Miller Library. The event is free and the public is invited to attend. “I cannot call to mind anyone of Waters' generation who is currently writing better poetry,” said critic Floyd Collins of Waters in The Gettysburg Review. A prolific poet whose works have appeared in such distinguished journals as Poetry, Antioch Review and The Yale Review, Waters is the recipient of two Pushcart Prizes and has been awarded several fellowships in creative writing. His recent books include Parthenopi: New and Selected Poems (BOA Editions, 2001), Green Ash, Red Maple, Black Gum (BOA Editions, 1997) and Bountiful (Carnegie Mellon University Press, 1992). He also has edited several volumes, including Contemporary American Poetry (Houghton Mifflin, 2001) and Perfect in Their Art (Southern Illinois University Press, 2003). Waters' poetry has been called vivid and sensual, willing to embrace humanity's imperfections and to speak of love, loss and emotional aftermaths.

Born in Brooklyn, NY, Waters attended SUNY-Brockport (B.A., M.A.), the University of Nottingham, the University of Iowa (M.F.A.), and Ohio University (Ph.D.). He has taught in the creative writing programs at Ohio University and the University of Maryland, has served as a Visiting Professor of American Literature at the University of Athens, Greece, and was as a Banister Writer-in-Residence at Sweet Briar College in Virginia. He has taught at Salisbury University since 1978.

The reading is sponsored by the Sophie Kerr Lecture Series, named in honor of the late Sophie Kerr, a writer from Denton, MD, whose generosity has done so much to enrich Washington College's literary culture. When she died in 1965, she left the bulk of her estate to the College, specifying that one half of the income from her bequest be awarded every year to the senior showing the most “ability and promise for future fulfillment in the field of literary endeavor” and the other half be used to bring visiting writers to campus, to fund scholarships, and to help defray the costs of student publications.

Author Jan Pottker To Read From Her Biography Of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, February 5

Chestertown, MD, January 22, 2004 — Washington College's Sophie Kerr Lecture Series and Gender Studies Program present a reading by author Jan Pottker from her book, Janet and Jackie: The Story of a Mother and her Daughter, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Thursday, February 5 in the Sophie Kerr Room uptairs in Miller Library. A reception will be held at 4 p.m.in the Hodson Hall Study Lounge with the reading to follow at 4:30 p.m. The event is free and the public is invited to attend.

Although many biographies of Jackie Kennedy Onassis have been written, most focus on her relationships with the men in her life. Pottker takes a different approach and examines the role of her mother, Janet Lee Auchincloss, in the shaping of her identity and personal destiny. The book presents a portrait of Auchincloss and surprising facts about this mother-daughter relationship.

A writer and public speaker fascinated with the history and personalities behind America's political and financial family dynasties, Pottker has been is a guest lecturer for Celebrity Cruise Line and has appeared on NBC's Inside Edition, ABC's Working Woman, CNBC'sBusiness Today, and CNN's Sonia Live. In addition to her regular lectures, she has been interviewed on more than 200 radio shows and has spoken to more than 60 social, business and professional groups nationwide. Her published works include, Crisis in Candyland: Melting the Chocolate Shell of the Mars Family Empire, Born to Power: Heirs to America's Leading Businesses, and Dear Ann, Dear Abby: An Unauthorized Biography of Ann Landers and Abigail Van Buren, which sold more than 270,000 copies. Pottker lives in Potomac, MD, with her husband, Andrew S. Fishel.

The reading is sponsored by the Sophie Kerr Lecture Series, named in honor of the late Sophie Kerr, a writer from Denton, MD, whose generosity has done so much to enrich Washington College's literary culture. When she died in 1965, she left the bulk of her estate to the College specifying that one half of the income from her bequest be awarded every year to the senior showing the most “ability and promise for future fulfillment in the field of literary endeavor,” and the other half be used to bring visiting writers to campus, to fund scholarships, and to help defray the costs of student publications.

Red States, Blue States: Speaker Examines Regional Divisions In American Politics, February 4

Chestertown, MD, January 22, 2004 — Washington College's Goldstein Program in Public Affairs presents “Red States, Blue States: Regional and Cultural Divisions in American Politics,” a lecture by Michael Lind, Senior Fellow with the New America Foundation and noted author of Made in Texas and The Radical Center, Wednesday, February 4 at 7:30 p.m. in the College's Hynson Lounge. This is a free event and the public is invited to attend.

Lind is the Whitehead Senior Fellow and director of the American Strategy Project at the New America Foundation, an independent, non-partisan, non-profit institute that explores public policy ideas that transcend the conventional political spectrum. He is the author of The Radical Center: The Future of American Politics (with Ted Halstead) and Made in Texas: George W. Bush and the Southern Takeover of American Politics (New America Books/Basic, 2003). Lind has been an editor or staff writer for The New Yorker, Harper's Magazine, The New Republic and The National Interest. He has written for The Atlantic Monthly, Prospect, The New York Times Magazine, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, The Financial Times and other leading publications, and he has appeared as a guest on CNN's Crossfire, C-SPAN, National Public Radio and The News Hour with Jim Lehrer. He has also been a guest lecturer at Harvard Law School.

Lind's first three books of political history—The Next American Nation (1995), Up From Conservatism (1996) and Vietnam (1999)—were all selected as New York Times Notable Books. He has also published several volumes of fiction and poetry, including The Alamo (1997), which the Los Angeles Times named as one of the Best Books of the year. He is currently working on a study of Abraham Lincoln titled What Lincoln Believed: The Values and Convictions of America's Greatest President, which will be published by Doubleday this year.

The talk is sponsored by Washington College's Goldstein Program in Public Affairs, established in honor of the late Louis L. Goldstein, 1935 alumnus and Maryland's longest serving elected official. The Goldstein Program sponsors lectures, symposia, visiting fellows, travel and other projects that bring students and faculty together with leaders in public policy and the media.

C.V. Starr Center Presents Vanity Fair's Sam Tanenhaus On Buckley And McCarthy, November 4

Chestertown, MD, October 27, 2003 — Washington College's C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience presents “TWO WHO MADE A REVOLUTION: BILL BUCKLEY AND JOE MCCARTHY,” a lecture by author Sam Tanenhaus, contributing editor to Vanity Fair and Visiting Fellow at the C.V. Starr Center. This free talk will be held Tuesday, November 4, at 7:30 p.m. in the College's Hynson Lounge. All are invited to attend.
A prolific writer and close chronicler of America's contemporary political scene, Tanenhaus is the author of the critically acclaimed biography, Whittaker Chambers: A Biography (Random House, 1997), and is currently working on a biography of William F. Buckley, Jr. His November 4th talk will focus on his research for this book and examine the rise of the modern conservative movement from two men who ascended to national prominence at the same moment and worked together closely half a century ago: William F. Buckley and Sen. Joseph McCarthy. Tanenhaus is a former editor at The New York Times and his articles have appeared in The American Scholar and Commentary, among other periodicals. In addition to his biography of Whittaker Chambers, he is the author of Louis Armstrong: Biography of a Musician (1989) and Literature Unbound: A Guide for the Common Reader (1984).
For more information about events, programs and speakers sponsored by Washington College's C. V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience, visit the Center online at http://starrcenter.washcoll.edu, or call 410-810-7156.

Science, Politics, And The Struggle To Save The Bay

Chestertown, MD, October 23, 2003 — Washington College's Joseph H. McLain Lecture Series and the Center for the Environment and Society present "CHESAPEAKE BAY BLUES: SCIENCE, POLITICS, AND THE STRUGGLE TO SAVE THE BAY, " a lecture by Dr. Howard Ernst, Assistant Professor, U.S. Naval Academy and Senior Scholar, Center for Politics, University of Virginia. A book signing will follow. The event will take place Thursday, Oct. 23, Hynson Lounge, 7:30 p.m.

Reflections On Landscape And Life: British Naturalist Richard Mabey To Discuss The Environments Of His Native Land, Oct. 29

Chestertown, MD, October 21, 2003 — Washington College's Center for the Environment and Society presents “THE WOOD AND THE WET,” a lecture by Britain's foremost nature writer, Richard Mabey, Wednesday, October 29, at 4 p.m. in the Hynson Lounge. The event is free and the public is invited to attend.
Richard Mabey is considered one of Britain's most gifted and evocative writers on nature and the environment. For more than 30 years, as a writer and broadcaster, he has educated British audiences about their nation's own natural history, habitats, flora and fauna. He is the author of more than 20 books including the popular Food for Free, Flora Britannica, Country Matters and The Common Ground, which examines the future of Britain's countryside. In his lecture “The Wood and the Wet,” he will introduce us to his work in progress, Nature Cure, which describes his move from the natural environment of Britain's forested Chiltern Hills to the flat, wet fenlands of Norfolk. His talk will reflect on the contrasting characters of these two habitats and the different cultural and psychological meanings that they have for their inhabitants.
To learn more about events and programs sponsored by Washington College's Center for the Environment and Society, visit the center online at http://ces.washcoll.edu.

Speaker Explores The Political And Cultural Symbolism In American Mapmaking, November 5

Chestertown, MD, October 20, 2003 — Washington College's C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience presents “THE GEOGRAPHICAL IMAGINATION IN AMERICA,” a lecture by Susan Schulten, assistant professor of history at the University of Denver, Wednesday, November 5, at 7:30 p.m. in the College's Hynson Lounge. The event is free and the public is invited to attend.
The author of the book The Geographical Imagination in America, 1880-1950 (University of Chicago Press, 2001), Schulten will explore how politics, history and culture influenced the study and presentation of geography in America from 1880, when maps first became widely available, to 1950, the beginning of the Cold War. Her research tells the story of Americans beginning to see the world around them, how maps of the historical period represented U.S. attitudes toward the world, and how four influential institutions—publicly available maps and atlases, the National Geographic Society, the American university, and the public school system—conveyed through mapmaking and the teaching of geography the political and cultural ideology of our nation.
Publishers Weekly described Schulten's book as “a well-documented account of how politics, history and culture influenced the study and presentation of geography… Theory is wisely balanced by a hodgepodge of odd and interesting facts about maps, politics and American cultural trends.”
For more information about C. V. Starr Center events and programs, visit the Center online at http://starrcenter.washcoll.edu, or call 410-810-7156.

Tea & Talk Series Hosts Prof. Tom Cousineau Speaking On The Tragic Tradition In Western Literature

Chestertown, MD, October 13, 2003 — The O'Neill Literary House continues its 2003-2004 Tea & Talk Series on Monday, October 20, at 4:30 p.m. with a talk by Washington College English professor Tom Cousineau titled “Singing Songs while Killing Goats: From Oedipus the King to Waiting for Godot.” The event is free and all are welcomed to enjoy tea and discussion at the O'Neill Literary House. Tea served at 4 p.m.
“The title of my talk refers to ‘tragoidia,' the Greek word for tragedy which is usually translated as ‘a song sung while sacrificing a goat,'” says Professor Cousineau. “The talk itself grows out of the many classes involving Sophocles' Oedipus the King and Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot that I have taught here at the College. Over the years, I've pondered the different ways in which each play gives expression to the ritual practices out of which Western drama developed. The talk will reflect my research on this topic and my thoughts on it as I worked on various publication projects. In fact, these reflections became a fundamental reference for my forthcoming book, Ritual Unbound: Reading Sacrifice in Modernist Fiction.”
Founded in 1782 under the patronage of George Washington, Washington College is a private, independent college of liberal arts and sciences located in historic Chestertown on Maryland's Eastern Shore. Since its dedication in 1985, the rambling and eclectic O'Neill Literary House has been the locus of the College's creative writing and literary culture.

College To Honor Author William Warner, April 18

Scholarship in His Name Recognizes Student Environmental Writing

Chestertown, MD, April 15, 2003 — Washington College will honor William W. Warner, acclaimed author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning book Beautiful Swimmers, on Friday, April 18 at 5 p.m. with the dedication in the College's Custom House of a plaque recognizing recipients of the William Warner Scholarship. The $1,000 scholarship was established by friends of the College to be presented to a Washington College junior in recognition of an aptitude for writing about nature and the environment.
“William Warner is one of the nation's most distinguished environmental writers, and he is a great inspiration to our students who aspire in their lives, through word and deed, to protect our world's natural resources,” said Dr. John S. Toll, president of the College. “The William Warner Prize will assist those worthy students who may one day follow in his footsteps.”
Warner has been a Senior Fellow of Washington College since 1985, when he was honored by the College for his classic work on the environment and people of the Chesapeake, Beautiful Swimmers: Watermen, Crabs and the Chesapeake Bay, originally published in 1976. Warner went on to write Distant Water: The Fate of the North Atlantic Fisherman, in which he studied the environmental impact of ocean-going factory fishing ships in the North Atlantic. In 1999, Warner published Into the Porcupine Cave and Other Odysseys, a book of 10 essays recounting life-shaping events in his growth as a naturalist, from wanderings in the wild with his step-grandfather to adventures in Patagonia and Hawaii. For this he received the Washington College Literary Prize in April of that year. Warner has also written many articles on nature for such journals as The Wilson Quarterly, Atlantic Monthly, New York Times, and Atlantic Naturalist.

Author Kees De Mooy To Present "John Adams In His Own Words" April 17

Chestertown, MD, April 1, 2003 — “My plain writings,” wrote John Adams in 1820, “have been misunderstood by many, misrepresented by more, and anathematized by multitudes who never read them.”

But after nearly 200 years, that may be about to change. On Thursday, April 17, Kees de Mooy of Washington College's C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience will present “John Adams in His Own Words,” an opportunity to reevaluate the most controversial and cantankerous of the Founding Fathers. De Mooy will read from his newly published book, The Wisdom of John Adams (Citadel Press), a collection of Adams's writings on subjects from patriotism to religion to parenthood. The event, which will be held at 4 p.m. in the College's Casey Academic Center Forum, will be followed by a book-signing. It is free and open to the public.

The nation's second president and a leader of the revolutionary generation, Adams has drawn new attention since the publication of a Pulitzer Prize-winning biography by David McCullough. “His accomplishments have sometimes been overshadowed by his peers Washington and Jefferson,” de Mooy acknowledges. “Yet he was a truly heroic figure in his own right – intelligent, passionate, fiercely patriotic, and staunchly committed to the ideals of the United States.”

Adams was also fiercely – some might say stubbornly – opinionated, about everything from politics (“I shall be plagued with piddling politicians as long as I live”) to the French (“Stern and haughty republican as I am, I cannot help loving these people”) to his own shortcomings (“Vanity … is my cardinal vice and cardinal folly”). De Mooy, who is the Starr Center's program manager and a 2001 graduate of Washington College, combed through thousands of Adams's letters, written over a period of more than 70 years, to find the most revealing and colorful passages. He has recently finished a similar volume on Thomas Jefferson, which will be published later this year, and is at work on another on Abraham Lincoln. The Wisdom of John Adams will be available for sale at the April 17 event.

For more information about C. V. Starr Center events and programs, visit the Center online athttp://starrcenter.washcoll.edu, or call 410-810-7156.

Voyage Of Discovery: Author Nathaniel Philbrick To Discuss First U.S. Scientific Sailing Expedition April 15

Chestertown, MD, March 28, 2003 — Washington College's C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience, the Center for the Environment and Society, and Sultana Projects, Inc., present Nathaniel Philbrick, author of the bestseller In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex, speaking on his forthcoming book, Sea of Glory: The United States Exploring Expedition, 1838-1842, on Tuesday, April 15 at 7:30 p.m. in the College's Tawes Theatre. The event is free and the public is invited to attend.

Philbrick's talk will present his research on the historic United States Exploring Expedition, an unprecedented voyage of discovery by the American Navy that would do for the Pacific Ocean what Lewis and Clark had done for the American West. Led by the colorful and controversial Lieutenant Charles Wilkes, the man who likely served as the prototype for Herman Melville's Captain Ahab, the expedition charted the South and Central Pacific and Antarctica, and artists on board provided Americans with early glimpses of the flora and fauna of the Pacific islands and American Northwest. The maps produced during the expedition were so accurate that some were still used by Allied forces during World War II. The estimated 40 tons of artifacts and specimens brought back by the expedition became part of the Smithsonian Institution.

Philbrick is Director of the Egan Institute of Maritime Studies on Nantucket Island. His bestselling history, In the Heart of the Sea, was winner of the 2000 National Book Award. His recently released Revenge of the Whale, an account of the Essex disaster for young readers, was named a Best Book for Young Adults by the American Library Association. A former intercollegiate All-American sailor and North American Sunfish champion, Philbrick has also written extensively about sailing, including The Passionate Sailor (1986), Yachting, A Parody (1984), for which he was editor-in-chief; and Second Wind: A Sunfish Sailor's Odyssey (1999). His other books include Away Off Shore: Nantucket Island and Its People (1994) andAbram's Eyes: The Native American Legacy of Nantucket Island (1998). He has begun work on a new book about the voyage of the Mayflower and the settlement of Plymouth Colony. Philbrick's writing has appeared in Vanity Fair, New York Times Book Review, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, and Boston Globe. He has been on NBC Dateline, the Today Show, Today Weekend, The Early Show, The Lehrer News Hour, C-SPAN, the History Channel, A&E's “Biography” series, and National Public Radio. In 2002 he was named the Nathaniel Bowditch Maritime Scholar of the Year by the American Merchant Marine Museum. He has lived on Nantucket with his wife and two children since 1986.

Philbrick's lecture is sponsored by Washington College's C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience, the Center for the Environment, and Sultana Projects, Inc., an organization that provides unique, hands-on educational experiences in colonial history and environmental science on board Chestertown's reproduction 18th century schooner Sultana.

For more information about C. V. Starr Center events and programs, visit the Center online athttp://starrcenter.washcoll.edu, or call 410-810-7156.

Political Analyst Kevin Phillips Explores Wealth, Politics And American Democracy April 1

Chestertown, MD, March 17, 2003 — Washington College's Goldstein Program in Public Affairs presents “WEALTH AND DEMOCRACY: POLITICAL CHANGE IN AMERICA,” a lecture by Kevin Phillips, political analyst and author of the New York Times bestseller Wealth and Democracy, Tuesday, April 1, at 7 p.m. in the College's Hynson Lounge, 7 p.m. The event is free and the public is invited to attend.

For more than 30 years, Kevin Phillips' insight into American politics and economics has helped to make history as well as record it. His best-selling books, including The Politics of Rich and Poor (1990), have influenced presidential campaigns and changed the way America sees itself. Now, in Wealth and Democracy, Phillips turns his attention to the United States' history of great wealth and power. Critics have called him a “modern Thomas Paine,” as he explores the ongoing saga of how great wealth is accumulated and how wealth and political power have frequently worked together to create or perpetuate privilege and define national interests and policy. His analysis of present-day America illuminates a politics and corruption with excessive concentration of wealth he sees evident by tax favoritism and selective bailouts in the name of free enterprise, economic stimulus and national security.

Phillips' reputation as America's leading political analyst dates from the success and prophecy of his book The Emerging Republican Majority which was written in 1967, used in the 1968 GOP presidential campaign and published in 1969. The New York Times Book Review noted in 1993 that “through more than 25 years of analysis and prediction, nobody has been as transcendentally right about the outlines of American political change” than Phillips. Philips is the former editor-publisher of The American Political Report, a contributing columnist for the Los Angeles Times and Wall Street Journal, and a regular commentator for National Public Radio. He was a commentator for CBS TV News at the 1984, 1988, and 1992 Democratic and Republican National conventions. Phillips' other books include, The Cousins Wars and Arrogant Capital.

The talk is sponsored by Washington College's Goldstein Program in Public Affairs, established in honor of the late Louis L. Goldstein, 1935 alumnus and Maryland's longest serving elected official. The Goldstein Program sponsors lectures, symposia, visiting fellows, travel and other projects that bring students and faculty together with leaders in public policy and the media.

Speaker Explores The Political And Cultural Symbolism In American Mapmaking

Chestertown, MD, March 12, 2003 — Washington College's C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience presents “THE GEOGRAPHIC IMAGINATION IN AMERICA: 1880-1950,” a lecture by Susan Schulten, assistant professor of history at the University of Denver. The event is free and the public is invited to attend.

The author of the book The Geographical Imagination in America, 1880-1950 (University of Chicago Press, 2001), Schulten will explore how politics, history and culture influenced the study and presentation of geography in America from 1880, when maps first became widely available, to 1950, the beginning of the Cold War. Her research tells the story of Americans beginning to see the world around them, how maps of the historical period represented U.S. attitudes toward the world, and how four influential institutions—publicly available maps and atlases, the National Geographic Society, the American university, and the public school system—conveyed through mapmaking and the teaching of geography the political and cultural ideology of our nation. Publishers Weekly described Schulten's book as “a well-documented account of how politics, history and culture influenced the study and presentation of geography… Theory is wisely balanced by a hodgepodge of odd and interesting facts about maps, politics and American cultural trends.”

For more information about C. V. Starr Center events and programs, visit the Center online at http://starrcenter.washcoll.edu, or call 410-810-7156.

Sophie Kerr Weekend March 21-22: Novelist Tim O'Brien To Speak March 21

In the spirit of the writer and her gift that established the nation's largest undergraduate literary prize, the Sophie Kerr Weekend at Washington College welcomes award-winning author Tim O'Brien to the College's Norman James Theatre, Friday, March 21, at 4 p.m.

Known for his gripping novels about the Vietnam War experience, O'Brien will read from his works with a book-signing to follow.

This a free event and the public is invited to attend. Learn more about the Sophie Kerr Legacyat Washington College.

Author Chris Bolgiano To Speak On Appalachian Forests March 19, Read From Her Works March 20

Chestertown, MD, March 7, 2003 — Washington College's Center for the Environment and Society announces the next event in the popular Journeys Home Lecture Series. Author and environmentalist Chris Bolgiano will speak on “The Appalachian Forest: A Search for Sustainability,” Wednesday, March 19, 2003, at 7:30 p.m. in Easton's historic Avalon Theatre. On Thursday, March 20, she will also give a 12:30 p.m. luncheon reading from her works, titled “A Field Guide to Home,” at Washington College's O'Neill Literary House. Tickets are required for the Avalon Theatre lecture. The Washington College event is free and open to the public, and a complimentary lunch is included, but seating is limited. Please call 410-810-7151 by March 13 to reserve a place.

Bolgiano has spent years studying the globally unique Appalachian Forest. Through slides and readings, she will tell the stories of people and places that illuminate what “sustainable” really means in our postindustrial woodlands. Born in Germany, Bolgiano grew up in the Washington, D.C. suburbs and received an undergraduate degree in history and a graduate degree in library science from the University of Maryland. She currently serves as adjunct professor for rare books and manuscripts at James Madison University while pursuing her freelance writing. She has written travel articles for the New York Times and The Washington Post, investigative reports for a wide variety of environmental magazines, and nature essays for various anthologies. Her first book, Mountain Lion: An Unnatural History of Pumas and People (1995), examined the interactions between cougars and people across North America. Her second book, The Appalachian Forest: A Search for Roots and Renewal (1998), recounts the natural and cultural histories of the southern Appalachian region, and garnered a prize from the Southern Environmental Law Center. Bolgiano continues to explore how modern society can achieve harmony with the natural world and has just finished a book on sustainable forestry called Living In The Appalachian Forest.

Journeys Home is collaboration between the Center for the Environment and Society, Adkins Arboretum, Eastern Shore Land Conservancy, and Maryland Center for Agro-Ecology, Inc. Tickets to the Avalon lecture may be purchased at the door or by contacting the Adkins Arboretum at 410-634-2847.

To learn more about educational events and program sponsored by the Washington College Center for the Environment and Society, visit the center online at http://ces.washcoll.edu or call 410-810-7151.

Alexander Stille, Acclaimed New Yorker Writer, To Speak On “The Future Of The Past” March 31

Chestertown, MD, March 4, 2003 — On Monday, March 31, at 7:30 p.m., Washington College's C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience presents “The Future of the Past,” a lecture by Alexander Stille, author of the recent book of that title and frequent contributor to New Yorker magazine. Stille will discuss the provocative thesis of his latest book, in which he ranged across the globe to portray how cultures worldwide are losing touch with their own history. The event will be held in the College's Hynson Lounge. It is free and open to the public. A book-signing will follow the lecture.

“Our society is in the midst of a fundamental rupture with the past,” Stille says. Although modern technology – such as carbon-dating and genetic research – makes it easier to recover some historical data than ever before, he observes, technology and its byproducts also “threaten to destroy in a few generations monuments and works of art that have survived thousands of years of war, revolution, famine, and pestilence.” His research for his book – which began as a series of New Yorkerarticles – took him to places as far-flung as Egypt (where fast food franchises share the desert vista with the Great Pyramid), New Guinea (where natives are trading in their traditional carved canoes for power boats), and the Vatican (where a lone monk from Milwaukee fights a one-man crusade to revive the Latin language). In his lecture, he will describe what he found on his travels, and how it fits together into a global cultural phenomenon.

The Future of the Past, published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux, is Stille's third book of history and reportage, and has been widely praised. Publisher's Weekly called it “a must-read for anyone interested in the preservation of our world's decaying treasures.” The Future of the Past was preceded by Excellent Cadavers: The Mafia and the Death of the First Italian Republic (1995) and Benevolence & Betrayal: Five Italian Jewish Families Under Fascism(1991), which won the Los Angeles Times Book Award and Italy's Premio Acqui. Besides his work for the New Yorker, Stille is a frequent contributor to the New York Times “Arts and Ideas” page, the New York Review of Books, and the leading Italian daily La Repubblica. He holds degrees from Yale University and the Columbia School of Journalism, and taught at Vassar College as Distinguished Gladys Delmas Professor. He lives in New York City.

For more information about C. V. Starr Center events and programs, visit the Center online athttp://starrcenter.washcoll.edu, or call 410-810-7156.

Speaker Tells Of Lincoln's Struggle With Depression February 12

Chestertown, MD, February 12, 2003 — In honor of Abraham Lincoln's birthday, Washington College's C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience presents a lecture by Joshua Wolf Shenk, author of the forthcoming book The Melancholy of Abraham Lincoln. Shenk's lecture will be held on Wednesday, February 12, 2003, at 7:30 p.m. in the College's Hynson Lounge. The event is free and the public is invited to attend.

Shenk's book, which will be published by Viking Press in 2004, brings a fresh and unexpected perspective to the often-mythologized life of the sixteenth president. An essayist who has written extensively about both history and mental illness, Shenk has spent the last five years working on a book that will chronicle Lincoln's lifelong struggle with depression. “Everyone who knew Lincoln said that his ‘melancholy' was one of his most striking characteristics,” Shenk says. As a young man, Lincoln's friends feared he would kill himself. And even as he rose in business and politics in his 30s and 40s, he was often consumed with despair. Lincoln was elected president in 1860, at age 51.

Shenk says that psychiatrists who have examined Lincoln's history agree that a diagnosis of major depression would apply. But Shenk warns against easy labels and diagnoses. “To really understand Lincoln's melancholy, you have to look at his whole story,” Shenk says. “And when you do, you see how this problem also underlay some of his great strengths-including his determination to do meaningful work and his deep and complex faith.”

Shenk's lecture, “Fiction, Not Fantasy: Shaping a True History of Abraham Lincoln,” will describe what he has discovered about Lincoln, as well as his experience conceiving, researching, and shaping his book. “Lincoln is one of the most written about human beings in the history of civilization,” Shenk says. “And this makes him a great subject for students of the biographer's techniques and of the role that mythic stories have in a culture.”

Shenk's essays and articles have appeared in Harper's Magazine, The Atlantic Monthly, and the New York Times, as well as in the national bestseller Unholy Ghost: Writers on Depression. He has worked as an editor or correspondent at the Washington Monthly, The New Republic, and The Economist. He has been a Rosalynn Carter Fellow in Mental Health Journalism at the Carter Center, and currently teaches writing at New York University and the New School. He lives in New York City.

For more information about C. V. Starr Center events and programs, visit the Center online athttp://starrcenter.washcoll.edu, or call 410-810-7156.