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Battle Cries: War-Related Lectures & Events

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By Troy Segal

If you thrill to a talk about wartime, there are several activities brewing that are sure to get your blood up over the next few weeks. Here they are, in historical chronological order:

Colonial Days

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The Fraunces Tavern Museum — which was an operating tavern back in the 18th century — hosts a lunchtime lecture on Marinus Willett: New York’s Forgotten Hero, a once-revered Revolutionary War commander, on June 17.

The War Between the States

to-antietam-creek

The Battle of Antietam has the dubious honor of being the bloodiest single-day conflict in American history. D. Scott Hartwig, former historian for Historian for the Gettysburg National Military Park, examines the events leading up to this 1862 conflict at the Bryant Park Reading Room on July 2.

The Greatest Generation’s Fight

In 1941, the Nazis were on the march in Europe — and President Franklin Roosevelt was determined to arm the U.S. Learn how he turned for help not to the military, but to the Detroit auto industry, in this lecture at the 92nd Street Y on June 20… In 1943-5, the Allies’ arduous, deadly push through Sicily and Italy — at the time, a controversial campaign — was essential to winning Europe, argues Pulitzer Prize-winning author Rick Atkinson (Liberation Trilogy) in a lecture at the New-York Historical Society on June 28.

Contemporary Controversies

Co-founder and director of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, Jeff Halper, argues the case for Israel ending its destruction of Palestinian homes and buildings, as a step towards peace in the Middle East, at Alwan for the Arts on June 24.

Social Conflicts

Not all wars are conducted on battlefields. A panel discussion at the New School debates the long-term detriment of the War on Drugs to the inner-city urban neighborhoods it’s trying to protect on June 18… And a lecturer at the Mid-Manhattan wonders, “What Ever Happened to the Gay Revolution?”, asking if increasing acceptance of homosexuals and lesbians in society means their fight for rights is effectively over, on June 18.