Washington, DC . . . In December, the National Archives and Records Administration presents lectures and booksignings on a wide variety of subjects including Senator Edward Kennedy, George Washington, and the history of computers.
The programs are free and open to the public and will take place at the National Archives Building, Pennsylvania Avenue between 7th and 9th Streets, NW. The public may verify times and dates by calling the National Archives public events line at (202) 501-5000. TDD users may call (202) 501-5404.
Thursday, December 2-70th Anniversary of the Depression
Stanford history professor David M. Kennedy will discuss his book Freedom From Fear. Kennedy focuses on the years of the Great Depression and the Second World War and how the American people coped with those events. The New York Times Book Review calls it "an engrossing narrative of a momentous time, the best one-volume account of the Roosevelt era currently available." Noon and 7 P.M. Room 105.
Tuesday, December 7-Biography
Adam Clymer will discuss his book, Edward M. Kennedy: A Biography. The Washington editor of the New York Times serves up this thorough, generous analysis of the life and political career of the senior senator from Massachusetts. Clymer spent seven years digging through archives and conducting some 400 interviews, including nearly 24 with his subject. Noon. Theater.
Wednesday, December 8-Abraham Lincoln series
Lincoln, Joshua Giddings, and the Push to End D.C. Slavery in 1849. The national shame of slavery in the District of Columbia had been troubling Abraham Lincoln since 1837, when he publicly denounced it as "injustice and bad policy." In 1849, during the last three months of his only congressional term, Lincoln seized on a slim opportunity for legislative action. According to speaker Paul H. Verduin, newly discovered evidence indicates Lincoln collaborated with antislavery radical Joshua Giddings and Washington civic leaders in a risky and fragile effort to get Congress to emancipate the District's 3,700 slaves. The failed attempt was a political blunder that may have deprived Lincoln of a sub-Cabinet appointment he coveted. Co-sponsored by the Abraham Lincoln Institute of the Mid-Atlantic. Noon. Room 105.
Thursday, December 9-History of Computers
Charles Petzold will discuss his book, Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software, in which he provides an illuminating narrative for anyone who's ever wondered about the secret inner life of computers and other smart machines. He gives readers a context for that understanding in brief summaries of historically important events and inventions, in clear explanations of number systems and symbols, and in problems from everyday life. Noon. Theater.
Thursday, December 16-George Washington
Commemorating the 200th anniversary of George Washington's death, Richard Norton Smith will discuss his book Patriarch: George Washington and the New American Nation, a dramatic portrait of George Washington in his Presidential years. In his eight years as President, Washington would need every ounce of his countrymen's well-known adulation as he presided over a government torn by factionalism and still threatened by European imperialism. Richard Norton Smith is the Director of the Gerald R. Ford Museum. 7 P.M. Room 105.
For additional PRESS information, please contact the National Archives Public Affairs staff at (301) 837-1700 or by e-mail.
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