Library U

When the American Revolution finally came, it arrived first in Boston.  We will learn about Boston's role as the center of American political, economic, and military resistance and the city's pre-war military preparations and intelligence organization.  We'll also look at the first days of fighting, including Lexington Green, Concord Bridge, Bunker Hill, and the British withdrawal from Boston.

Bainbridge Island military historian LARRY KERR  is a career member (retired) of the U.S. Senior Foreign Service. Following service as an airborne infantry and special operations officer, he began a career in the U.S. State Department. His final diplomatic assignment was as assistant professor of grand strategy and national security studies at the Eisenhower School of the National Defense University. He also served as a distinguished lecturer at the Inter-American Defense College in Washington, D.C., and as a lecturer in American politics at the University of the Americas, located near Mexico City.

"Are you now or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party?" The answer to this question - or refusal to answer it - cast hundreds of lives into turmoil at the dawn of the Cold War.  The Red Scare that erupted in the 1940s allowed the House Committee on Un-American Activities to grab headlines by parading prominent Hollywood figures before the cameras.  This presentation, illustrated with film clips, tells the stories from this heartbreaking and scandalous era, and how notables such as Humphrey Bogart, Elia Kazan, and Charlie Chaplin were swept up in the frenzy.  We'll also ask a question: with today's politics at a boiling point, are we living in such as period again?