Talks and Workshops

Val Coleman will argue that the American constitution, indeed the United States itself, was finally secured and ratified by a rail-splitting prairie intellectual named Abraham Lincoln. Val is generally acknowledged as the poet laureate of Sandisfield, regularly publishing poems in The Sandisfield Times and elsewhere.  His previous presentations on the history of poetry, and also [...]

The Perfectionists How Precision Engineers Created the Modern World The New York Times bestselling author, Simon Winchester, traces the development of technology from the Industrial Age to the Digital Age to explore the single component crucial to advancement—precision—in a superb history that is both an homage and a warning for our future. The rise of manufacturing [...]

The Alamo was conceived in the middle of the 18th century as a mission to convert native Americans to Christianity like several other contemporary missions along the San Antonio River. The structure took its prominent place in history on 6 March 1936 when the several thousand strong Mexican army attacked the building complex and its [...]