Second up in our fall line-up of public programs is a lecture by Pulitzer Prize-winning historian, Alan Taylor. Although the War of 1812 is an oft-forgotten part of American history, it looms much larger in the memory and story of Canada, along the border of which much of the fighting took place. Taylor’s lecture, based on his recent book The Civil War of 1812 (2010), will explore the war in the Canadian-American borderland which threatened either to absorb Canada into the United States or to rupture the American union. By instead fighting to a standstill, the belligerents produced a surprising burst of patriotism on both sides and an enduring coexistence.
Taylor is a Professor of History at UC Davis and specializes in early American history. He has written several books and won both the Pulitzer and Bancroft prize for his micro history of Cooperstown, New York entitled William Cooper’s Town: Power and Persuasion on the Frontier of the Early American Republic (1995).
This public program will take place on October 12 at 7 p.m. It is also serving as the keynote for the Conference on the War of 1812 for K-12 teachers taking place the following day. An earlier post described this conference in more detail.
Come spend a night learning more about the war that launched the careers of many American heroes, including Andrew Jackson and William Henry Harrison.
