Humanities in the Village: Alexander Heffner

Description

In an age dominated by disinformation, what are the facts about the history of the U.S.? In A Documentary History of the United States, Alexander Heffner considers the contemporary age of pandemic and cruel feelings … deploying primary sources to tell the unvarnished history of the U.S., including key documents, speeches, letters, tweets, and Supreme Court decisions from the Declaration of Independence to Articles of Impeachment against former president Donald J. Trump. What do we learn from examining these primary sources? Which documents are critical to understanding the past, present, and future of American democracy?

This is a virtual event that will take place via Zoom at https://www.theivybookshop.com/upcomingevent/30971.

This event is part of the Humanities in the Village series hosted by the Alexander Grass Humanities Institute, the Ivy Bookshop, and Bird in Hand.

Heffner is host of "The Open Mind" on PBS. He has covered American culture, politics, and civic life since the 2008 presidential campaign. He is coauthor of bestselling A Documentary History of the United States (Penguin, 2022), and recipient of the University of Denver's Anvil of Freedom Award, Franklin Pierce University's Fitzwater Medallion for Leadership in Public Communication, and Yale University's Poynter Fellowship in Journalism.

A Documentary History of the United States is available on Amazon with a new chapter titled "Pandemic and Insurrection in the USA: An Era of Cruel Feelings," featuring documents by Liz Cheney, Joe Biden, Stephen Vladeck, the Movement for Black Lives, the New England Journal of Medicine, Scientific American, Associated Press, and new selections from Frederick Douglass, Charles Sumner, Fannie Lou Hamer, Barbara Jordan, and U.S. immigration law.