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UPCOMING EVENTS
Siân Evans with Maiden Voyages: Magnificent Ocean Liners and the Women Who Traveled and Worked Aboard Them
Virtual Event: Thursday, August 5 at 3 p.m. ET
Moderator: Robin Young, host of NPR/WBUR’s Here & Now
Presented in partnership with WBUR CitySpace
This engaging social history explores how women’s lives and American culture were transformed by transatlantic travel between Europe and North America.
At the peak of summer, join us for an afternoon journey back to the early twentieth century and the Golden Age of Ocean Liners. Inspired by family research – her great-great uncle was a Cunard Chief Officer – Siân Evans documents the journeys of women whose lives were changed by their voyages between the Old World and the New. Some set off for leisure, others, for work; many, to reinvent themselves. They were celebrities, migrants and millionaires, refugees, aristocrats and crew members. Entertaining and informative, Maiden Voyages profiles A-list passengers Marlene Dietrich, Wallis Simpson, and Josephine Baker alongside émigrées in steerage; and, in between, the experiences of the female workers including “The Unsinkable Stewardess” who survived the Titanic disaster. With Evans and award-winning broadcast journalist Robin Young, we’ll explore how transatlantic travel changed society on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean.
Siân Evans is the author of Queen Bees: Six Brilliant and Extraordinary Society Hostesses between the Wars among other works. Based in London, she is a freelance film consultant for the National Trust and earned a MA in Cultural History from the Royal College of Art. Her articles have appeared in Daily Mail, the Daily Express, The Lady, and BBC Antiques Roadshow Magazine, as well in National Trust publications.
Robin Young has been the co-host of NPR/WBUR’s Here & Now for over 20 years. She brings a long career in broadcast journalism to her role at Here & Now. She is a Peabody Award-winning documentary filmmaker; has reported for NBC, CBS and ABC; and has received several Emmy Awards in addition to radio's regional Edward R. Murrow award.
Scott Borchert with Republic of Detours: How the New Deal Paid Broke Writers to Rediscover America
Virtual Event: Tuesday, August 17 at 6 p.m. ET
Moderator: Rhonda McClure, Senior Genealogist, American Ancestors
Presented in partnership with the State Library of Massachusetts
An immersive account of the New Deal project that created state-by-state guidebooks to America, in the midst of the Great Depression—and employed some of the biggest names in American letters.
The plan was as idealistic as it was audacious, and utterly unprecedented. Take thousands of hard-up writers and put them to work charting a country on the brink of social and economic collapse, with the aim of producing a series of guidebooks to the then forty-eight states—along with hundreds of other publications dedicated to cities, regions, and towns—while also gathering reams of folklore, narratives of formerly enslaved people, and even recipes. With this effort, America was documented, its families and their sensibilities brought to life by such celebrated authors as Nelson Algren, Zora Neale Hurston, Richard Wright. Don’t miss Scott Borchert’s discussion with genealogist Rhonda McClure about this remarkable, history-making Federal Writers’ Project, part of the Works Progress Administration (WPA)’s New Deal initiative.
Scott Borchert is a writer and editor based in New Jersey, and a former assistant editor at the book publisher Farrar, Straus and Giroux. He holds a master’s degree in cultural reporting and criticism from the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute at New York University, and his work has appeared in Southwest Review, Monthly Review, The Rumpus, PopMatters, Brooklyn Magazine, and other publications.
Rhonda R. McClure is the senior genealogist at American Ancestors/NEHGS. She has been a contributing editor for Heritage Quest Magazine and Biography magazine and contributed to The History Channel Magazine and American History Magazine. She is the author of ten books, including the award-winning The Complete Idiot's Guide to Online Genealogy.
John N. Maclean with Home Waters: A Chronicle of Family and a River
Virtual Event: Thursday, August 26 at 6 p.m. ET
Moderator: O. Alan Weltzien, Professor of English, Emeritus, and author
“A lyrical companion to his father’s classic, A River Runs through It, chronicling their family’s history and bond with Montana’s Blackfoot River.” —Washington Post
A memoir about the power of place to shape generations, Home Waters is John N. Maclean's remarkable memoir of his family's century-long love affair with Montana's majestic Blackfoot River, the setting for his father's classic novella, A River Runs Through It. Maclean returns annually to the simple family cabin that his grandfather built by hand, still in search of the trout of a lifetime. When he hooks it at last, decades of longing promise to be fulfilled, inspiring John, reporter and author, to finally write the story he was born to tell. Join him and the Maclean family biographer O.Alan Weltzien for this remarkable look at one family, the place they love, and the sport that is their shared passion and tradition.
John N. Maclean is an award-winning author and journalist. He spent thirty years at the Chicago Tribune, most of that time as a Washington correspondent. After leaving the Tribune, Maclean wrote five nonfiction books about wildland fire that are considered a staple of fire literature as well as training material for firefighters. Maclean is the son of Norman Maclean, author of A River Runs Through It.
O. Alan Weltzien is a Professor Emeritus at the University of Montana Western and author of The Norman Maclean Reader. His 2008 memoir, A Father and an Island, tells his family story, centered on a Puget Sound island and a saltwater beach. His biography of Montana novelist Thomas Savage was published in 2020. A poet as well, Weltzien has published two chapbooks and two full-length collections.
Produced by GBH Forum Network in partnership with Boston Public Library
PAST EVENTS
July 27, 2021
Dorothy Wickenden
The Agitators: Three Friends Who Fought for Abolition and Women’s Rights
Presented in partnership with the Boston Public Library and the State Library of Massachusetts
July 20, 2021
Menachem Kaiser
Plunder: A Memoir of Family Property and Nazi Treasure
Presented in partnership with the Wyner Family Jewish Heritage Center
July 8, 2021
Peter S. Canellos
The Great Dissenter: The Story of John Marshall Harlan, America's Judicial Hero
Presented in partnership with the Boston Public Library and GBH Forum Network
June 28, 2021
Stephen Bown
The Company: The Rise and Fall of the Hudson's Bay Empire
Presented in partnership with GBH Forum Network
June 15, 2021
Gabrielle Glaser
American Baby: A Mother, A Child, and the Shadow History of Adoption
Presented in partnership with WBUR (Boston) and its CitySpace
June 3, 2021
Joseph M. Bagley
Boston's Oldest Buildings and Where to Find Them
Presented in partnership with the State Library of Massachusetts
May 25, 2021
Skip Finley
Whaling Captains of Color: America's First Meritocracy
Presented in partnership with Boston Public Library, the State Library of Massachusetts, and Museum of African American History
May 12, 2021
Daniel James Brown
Facing the Mountain: A True Story of Japanese American Heroes in World War II
Presented in partnership with Boston Public Library, the Japan Society of Boston, and GBH Forum Network
May 6, 2021
Joshua Jelly-Schapiro
Names of New York: Discovering the City's Past, Present, and Future Through Its Place-Names
April 29, 2021
Quiara Alegría Hudes
My Broken Language: A Memoir
Presented in partnership with Boston Public Library, Huntington Theatre Company, Porter Square Books, and GBH Forum Network
April 13, 2021
Tobey Pearl
Terror to the Wicked: America’s First Trial by Jury That Ended a War and Helped to Form a Nation
Presented in partnership with Boston Public Library and State Library of Massachusetts
April 8, 2021
Stellene Volandes
Jewels that Made History: 100 Stones, Myths, and Legends
March 23, 2021
John Matteson
A Worse Place Than Hell: How the Civil War Battle of Fredericksburg Changed a Nation
In partnership with Porter Square Books and GBH Forum Network
March 2, 2021
Russell Shorto
Smalltime: A Story of My Family and the Mob
February 23, 2021
Anna Malaika Tubbs
The Three Mothers: How the Mothers of Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and James Baldwin Shaped a Nation
In partnership with Boston Public Library, State Library of Massachusetts, and the Museum of African American History
February 18, 2021
Richard Thompson Ford
Dress Codes: How the Laws of Fashion Made History
In partnership with the Peabody Essex Museum
February 4, 2021
Janice P. Nimura
The Doctors Blackwell: How Two Pioneering Sisters Brought Medicine to Women—and Women to Medicine
In partnership with Boston Public Library and GBH Forum Network
January 19, 2021
Nadia Owusu
Aftershocks: A Memoir
In partnership with GBH Forum Network
January 13, 2021
Eric Jay Dolin
A Furious Sky: The Five-Hundred-Year History of America's Hurricanes
In partnership with the State Library of Massachusetts
December 16, 2020
Christina Schwarz
Bonnie
December 7, 2020
Nicholas Basbanes
Cross of Snow: The Life of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
In partnership with the State Library of Massachusetts and GBH Forum Network
December 3, 2020
David S. Reynolds
Abe: Abraham Lincoln in His Times
In partnership with Porter Square Books
November 12, 2020
Nathaniel Philbrick
Baxter Lecture on Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community and War
In partnership with Boston Public Library, the State Library of Massachusetts, and GBH Forum
November 5, 2020
Tamara Payne
The Dead are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X
In partnership with Boston Public Library and GBH Forum
October 20, 2020
Claire Messud
Kant's Little Prussian Head and Other Reasons Why I Write
In partnership with Boston Public Library and GBH Forum
October 8, 2020
David Michaelis
Eleanor
In partnership with the State Library of Massachusetts and Porter Square Books
October 1, 2020
David Hill
The Vapors: A Southern Family, the New York Mob, and the Rise and Fall of Hot Springs, America’s Forgotten Capital of Vice
September 10, 2020
Pam Fessler
Carville’s Cure: Leprosy, Stigma, and the Fight for Justice
In partnership with Boston Public Library, State Library of Massachusetts, and GBH Forum
August 25, 2020
E. Dolores Johnson
Say I’m Dead : A Family Memory of Race, Secrets and Love
In partnership with Boston Public Library, Museum of African American History, State Library of Massachusetts, and GBH Forum Network
August 20, 2020
Susan Eisenhower
How Ike Led: The Principles Behind Eisenhower's Biggest Decision
In partnership with Boston Public Library and GBH Forum
August 11, 2020
Gretchen Sorin
Driving While Black: African American Travel and the Road to Civil Rights
In partnership with Boston Public Library, Museum of African American History, and GBH Forum Network
July 23, 2020
Larry Tye
Demagogue: The Life and Long Shadow of Senator Joe McCarthy
In partnership with Boston Public Library and GBH Forum
June 24, 2020
Rick Beyer
Rivals Unto Death: Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr
In partnership with Boston Public Library and GBH Forum
June 8, 2020
Honor Moore
Our Revolution: A Mother and Daughter at Mid-Century
In partnership with Boston Public Library and GBH Forum
May 20, 2020
Libby Copeland
The Lost Family: How DNA Testing is Upending Who We Are
In partnership with Boston Public Library and GBH Forum
May 14, 2020
Stephen Puleo
Voyage of Mercy: The USS Jamestown, the Irish Famine, and the Remarkable Story of America's First Humanitarian Mission
In partnership with Boston Public Library and GBH Forum
April 28, 2020
Phuc Tran
Sigh, Gone: A Misfit’s Memoir of Great Books, Punk Rock, and the Fight to Fit In
In partnership with Boston Public Library and GBH Forum
April 16, 2020
TaraShea Nesbit
Beheld: A Novel
In partnership with Boston Public Library and GBH Forum
March 6, 2020
Adam Hochschild
Rebel Cinderella: From Rags to Riches to Radical, the Epic Journey of Rose Pastor Stokes
In partnership with Wyner Family Jewish Heritage Center, the Jewish Women’s Archive, and GBH Forum
February 26, 2020
Kristen Richardson
The Season: A Social History of the Debutante
No video available
February 11, 2020
Marcia Chatelain
Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black America
In partnership with GBH Forum
February 11, 2020
Marcia Chatelain
Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black America
In conversation with GBH News Reporter Callie Crossley at the BPL Studio
January 30, 2020
Scott Simon
Honoring The Career Of NPR Broadcaster Scott Simon
In partnership with GBH Forum
January 30, 2020
Scott Simon
Sunnyside Plaza
In conversation with WGBH News Reporter Craig Lemoult at the BPL Studio
January 14, 2020
William Martin
Bound For Gold: A Novel of the California Gold Rush
No video available
December 10, 2019
Holly George-Warren
Janis: Her Life and Music
In partnership with Boston Public Library and GBH Forum
November 21, 2019
George Howe Colt
The Game: Harvard, Yale, and America in 1968
In partnership with Boston Public Library and GBH Forum
November 12, 2019
Donald L. Miller
Vicksburg: Grant’s Campaign that Broke the Confederacy
No video available
October 18, 2019
Gail Collins
No Stopping Us Now: The Adventures of Older Women in American History
In partnership with GBH Forum
October 18, 2019
Gail Collins
No Stopping Us Now: The Adventures of Older Women in American History
With Boston Public Radio at the BPL Studio
September 26, 2019
Brian Jay Jones
Becoming Dr. Seuss: Theodor Geisel and the Making of an American Imagination
No video available
September 17, 2019
Susan Ronald
Condé Nast: The Man and His Empire
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