Join us on the first Saturdays of April, May and June at the Rogers Free Library at 1PM for a deep dive into the origins of our country!
April 4: Revolutionary Summer: The Birth of America by Joseph Ellis – Improvising as they made consequential decisions and maneuvers, the Continental Army and the Continental Congress were challenged to defend a newly created nation in the summer of 1776.
May 2: American Scripture: Making the Declaration of Independence by Pauline Maier – Maier describes the transformation of the Second Continental Congress into a national government, unlike anything that preceded or followed it, and with more authority than the colonists would ever have conceded to the British Parliament; the great difficulty in making the decision for Independence; the influence of Paine’s Common Sense, which shifted the terms of debate; and the political maneuvers that allowed Congress to make the momentous decision. Register here!
June 6: Gilbert Stuart by Richard McLanathan – Every American knows the dignified bust portrait of George Washington that hangs in so many schoolrooms. The painter, Gilbert Stuart, was in his day the most famous, sought-after, celebrated, and accomplished portraitist of the infant Republic. This lively biography, the first in more than twenty years, and the only one ever to contain as many as fifty reproductions of Stuart’s paintings in color, brings the artist to life in dramatic fashion. Register here!