by David J. Kent
Washington, DC
Monday, April 29, 2024
"The only constant is change," supposedly* said ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus, and that is the case with the Lincoln Group of DC's upcoming programs.
May 18, 2024: Let's start with the annual Lincoln Group tour originally scheduled for April 27th, which has been postponed to our "rain date," Saturday, May 18th. There was some off-and-on rain, but the primary reason for postponement was the lack of carpool drivers, putting several people in the position of not having a ride, including our inveterate tour guide, Craig Howell. The new date is Saturday, May 18, 2024, and as before, people should contact Craig directly to let him know your intention to join. Craig will guide us around the Spotsylvania Courthouse Battlefield, including around the famed Mule Shoe Salient, where Robert E. Lee's defenses were uncharacteristically vulnerable and where Ulysses S. Grant made a number of ferocious if ultimately futile attacks. Check out the updated event on the Guided Tour event on this website's Event page.
May 21, 2024: The other big change relates to our May 21, 2024, monthly meeting. Originally planned to be a dinner meeting at Maggiano's, a last-minute snag forced us to change the event to a Zoom Only meeting, same date, same time: Tuesday, May 21, 2024, beginning at 6 pm. Nancy Spannaus will be our featured speaker. Spannaus started studying Alexander Hamilton in the mid-1970s. Her most recent book, Defeating Slavery: Hamilton’s American System Showed the Way, lays out the blueprint for Abraham Lincoln’s own philosophy and argues that the failure to end slavery was the abandonment of Hamilton’s economic principles. Spannaus will examine how Jeffersonians and Jacksonians promoted slavery and put the nation on the path to war, as well as how Lincoln guided the return to Hamiltonian principles. This is history that is relevant to today’s political situation, and Spannaus helps show a pathway to resolving our crises today. Again, check out the updated event on the Event page and RSVP your intention to participate on Zoom.
There are also some new events coming up that involve Lincoln Group of DC members and Abraham Lincoln-related topics.
May 8, 2024: Frank Smith will be discussing "Abraham Lincoln: Then and Now" at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Library at 901 G Street NW in Washington, DC. This is a special location for the monthly DC Civil War Round Table event. The library is easily accessible from any Metro line and located around the corner from Ford's Theatre. For more information, check out the CWRTDC website.
May 15, 2024: For those of you who can make it to York, Pennsylvania, the York Civil War Round Table will be hosting me for a presentation about "Lincoln's Influence on Science and Technology in the Civil War" on Wednesday, May 15, 2024. The event will be available in-person and online. For more information, see the York CWRT website.
June 6, 2024: The White House Historical Association will host me for a History Happy Hour on Thursday, June 6th. The event starts off with Diageo creating a specialty cocktail, followed by my talk about how Lincoln federalized science and a Q&A. More information will be here shortly.
September 17, 2024: The Lincoln Group of DC will host Ross Heller for a talk entitled, "Down the Rabbit Hole: Discovery of Abraham Lincoln's 1858 Time Capsule" based on a book he published a few years ago. More information shortly on the Lincolnian.org website.
October 15, 2024: LGDC will sponsor an open discussion of the all-important Election of 1864, an election that many didn't think should happen. David J. Kent and Ed Epstein will give brief presentations and then the floor will be open for discussion to all participants. More info soon on Lincolnian.org.
There will likely be additional programs, so check the website periodically!
*The quote is a derived paraphrase of how Heraclitus viewed the world as constantly in flux, always "becoming," but never quite "being." Translations of his work include phrases like "Everything flows" and "No man ever steps in the same river twice." For those into art, Heraclitus is the disheveled artist-looking man leaning against the box in the foreground of Raphael's great Vatican painting, "The School of Athens." For bonus trivia, another great painter and sculptor, Michelangelo, was the model for the Heraclitus figure in the painting.
Comments