Presenters Neil Ronk and Michael Sheehan are both longtime residents of Lansdowne and have long been involved in the library. Neil, a guide and historian at Christ Church in Philadelphia, is a member of the Library Board of Trustees and Michael Sheehan, an English teacher at Saints John Neumann and Maria Goretti High School in Philadelphia, has worked at the library for 35 years.
The Lansdowne History Forum meets at 7:30 in the Bany Room at the
Lansdowne Public Library on the following Thursdays below:
2011 - 2012
Our theme this year will be dualities in American history, that is to say conflicts between opposing, almost polarized forces, throughout American history. The starting point for this theme is the recognition that the political polarization we are witnessing today between Left and Right, Conservative and Liberal and Democrat and Republican is nothing new in our history, but a continuation and renewal of old and never ending conflicts that have been a part of our nation since the first European settler stepped on to these shores.
September 22
Protestant Reformation and the Enlightenment
These 2 events represent the contradictory initial impulses that drove Europeans to cross the ocean and try to establish and ideal nation on this continent. These divisions still haunt America.
October 20
Hamilton and Jefferson
These 2 men represent the antithetical visions or ideals of a newly emerging nation.
November 17
The Constitution and the Bill of Rights
The Constitution is an essentially conservative document and the Bill of Rights is a liberal addition to that constitution intended to curb the powers of the majority.
January 19
Federalism vs States1 Rights
These warring principles are the basis for our Civil War and many other ongoing disputes.
February 23
Black and White : 2 Americas?
In this roundtable we will look at the racial divides that continue to tear the nation apart.
March 15
East and West : The Great Divide
Historically, because of the Civil War, we have looked at the division between North and South as the great divide, but as great a chasm has existed between East and West.
April 19
Isolationism vs the call to World Leadership
From George Washington's call to distance ourselves from European entanglements, we have struggled to define what America's role in world affairs should be.
May 17
The 1960's and the Rise of the Counter Culture
More directly than any other divisions, it is the quarrels we fought in the 1960's that serve as the basis for our present day polarization.
June 21
Clinton, Bush and Obama: The Problem of Polarization
Today in politics we no longer have the Loyal Opposition. We position ourselves as enemies and the result is a government that can not function.
Click here to view the 2010-2011 History Forum !