A publication of Mass Humanities Fall 2009 Dressing Down An Interview with

By David Tebaldi

Andrew Bacevich is professor of history and power was an urgent national priority. at . Specific motives varied, but broadly speak- A graduate of West Point and a Vietnam ing all of these groups shared an interest in veteran, he earned a doctorate in diplomatic trying to reverse changes produced by what history from and was a we can loosely call “The Sixties.” All shared Bush Fellow at the American Academy in Ber- the conviction that rebuilding American lin. Bacevich, an eloquent and incisive critic of military might offered a means to that end. the and U.S. foreign policy, is the author The outcome of the followed in of several books, including The New American short order by Operation Desert Storm— Dinner Featuring Militarism (2005) and The Limits of Power: The both perceived at the time as great victories Rachel Maddow End of American Exceptionalism (2008). In The largely attributable to the superiority of New American Militarism, Bacevich traces the American arms—convinced many observers Join us for a reception and ben- evolution and warns of the dangers of using mili- that military power had become America’s efit dinner with MSNBC’s Rachel tary force to project American values globally. In true strong suit. Maddow, to support the public The Limits of Power, he calls for a re-examina- humanities in Massachusetts. tion of the “true meaning of liberty,” and of the DT: You bemoan what you call “the marriage military’s proper role in defending our freedom. of military metaphysics with eschatological Saturday, November 7, 2009 ambition” as contrary to both our and the Boston College, Chestnut Hill Bacevich will be a featured panelist at Mass world’s long-term interests. Why do you use Visit www.masshumanities.org Humanities’ November 7 public symposium at the term “metaphysics” in this context and to buy seats. Boston College, “Soldiers & Citizens: Military what is “eschatological” about U.S. foreign and Civic Culture in the United States.” Mass policy goals? Humanities Executive Director David Tebaldi interviewed Bacevich by email. The following AB: The phrase “military metaphysics” comes In This Issue is an excerpt; the full interview is available from The Power Elite, the book by C. online at www.masshumanities.org. Wright Mills. I appropriated it. The phrase Who Wants You? implies an overweening in the efficacy The Draft, National Service DT: In The New American Militarism, you of force and a tendency to view reality and Democracy argue that out of the defeat of Vietnam through a military lens. In the wake of page 3 emerged “ideas, attitudes and myths the Cold War, when all the talk was about conducive to militarism.” Can you ex- America as the “indispensable nation” (à la Recent Grants page 4 plain briefly what some of these ideas Madeleine Albright) that defined “the right and myths are? side of history” (à la Bill Clinton), there Fall 2009 Humanities Calendar was a tendency to think that military power page 6 AB: After Vietnam, various groups of could enable the United States to deliver Americans—the officer corps, defense history to its intended destination. This intellectuals, neoconservatives, politi- tendency found its ultimate expression in Annual Symposium cally active Protestant evangelicals, the of preventive war and in Soldiers & Citizens: Military the right wing of the Republican Bush’s Freedom Agenda—the aggressive use and Civic Culture in America Party—all came to the conclusion of hard power intended to eliminate tyranny page 8 that reconstituting U.S. military from the earth. Continued on page 5 Mass Humanities Mass Humanities News 66 Bridge Street Northampton, MA 01060 tel (413) 584-8440 fax (413) 584-8454 www.masshumanities.org

STAFF

David Tebaldi Welcome New Board Members Executive Director [email protected] Lois Brown is associate professor of Jim Lopes is an attorney specializing in media and Pleun Bouricius English at Mount Holyoke College. entertainment business law. He is currently adjunct Program Officer Brown’s research and teaching focus professor of entertainment law at Southern New [email protected] on nineteenth-century African Ameri- England School of Law and has been a researcher, Deepika Fernandes can and American literature and writer, and producer of numerous historical proj- Fiscal Officer [email protected] culture, abolitionist narratives, and ects including, The Boston Black Heritage Trail evangelical juvenilia. Brown is also Guide and Race to Execution. Tiffany Lyman-Olszewski the author of the biography Pauline Development and Communications Assistant Elizabeth Hopkins: Black Daughter Kent dur Russell is curator and chief executive [email protected] of the Revolution, published by the University of officer of the Museum of Russian Icons in Clinton. Kristin O’Connell North Carolina Press in June 2008. From 1996 to 2007, he served Assistant Director as executive director of the [email protected]

Neil Chayet is president of Chayet Communications Higgins Armory Museum in Anne Rogers Group, Inc., a consulting company that specializes Worcester. He is also a former Systems Manager in building coalitions to address difficult societal president of the New Eng- [email protected] public policy issues related to health care, energy, land Museum Association John Sieracki and communications. He is also the author of four and a member of the Ameri- Director of Development and Communications books, including Looking at the Law and Legal can Association of Muse- Editor of mass humanities Implications of Emergency Care. ums Council of Regions. [email protected]

Melissa Wheaton Administrative Assistant/GRANTS ADMINISTRATOR A Spectacle of Suffering: Clara Morris on the American Stage [email protected] Hayley Wood by Barbara Wallace Grossman MassProgram Humanities Officer promotes the use of history,[email protected] literature, philosophy, and the Review by Hayley Wood other humanities disciplines to deepen our understanding of the issues of the day, strengthen our sense of common Barbara Wallace Grossman, who served on the choreographed movements, honed her signature purpose, and enrich individual and board of Mass Humanities from 1992-1998 and is roles, all “victims of social usage.” community life. We take the humani- ties out of the classroom and into the currently Chair of Tufts University’s Department of Drama and Dance and Vice Chair of the Massa- Clara Morris’s decline—caused by chusetts Cultural Council, has contributed an en- chronic pain, morphine addiction, and gaging biography of Clara Morris to the Theater in an unhappy marriage—was long, public, the Americas series published by Southern Illinois and painful, although her persistence University Press. Written with crisp and down-to- as an actress and a writer was remark- earth prose, the book not only conveys the remark- able. Chronicling with intelligence and able life of an acclaimed nineteenth century actress, compassion both Morris’s satisfying hard it recreates the industry of the gas-lit, resident stock work and success as well as her decline theatre company—already in its decline by the time into poverty and illness, Grossman Morris began her stage career at the age of fifteen masterfully weaves details from Morris’s as a lowly “ballet girl” for three dollars a week. large body of work, which includes six books of fiction, three memoirs, count- Clara Morris was known in her heyday as a less newspaper articles, and her fifty-four virtuoso of the “emotional school” of acting, an volume diary. A Spectacle of Suffering is a aesthetic match with the popular contemporary great read and a reminder of the treasure plays of the day, many of which were French trove that a faithfully-kept diary can be. melodramas with complicated plots and maudlin, It doesn’t hurt if that diary records the life hysteria-prone female characters. The actress, of a famous stage actress whose arc of life who excelled in summoning real tears and moving resembles the American dream in both its audiences with a blend of emotional realism and promise and its disenchantment.

2 3 Mass Humanities 66 Bridge Street Northampton, MA 01060 tel (413) 584-8440 fax (413) 584-8454 Who Wants You? www.masshumanities.org

STAFF The Draft, National Service and Democracy

David Tebaldi By Hayley Wood Executive Director [email protected] For those hearkening to the words of America’s First Couple Mass Humanities in 2008 for the Pleun Bouricius Program Officer and to their own consciences, the summer of 2009 was research phase of the project. [email protected] the Summer of Service. This past June, Michelle Obama The topic is huge, encompassing Deepika Fernandes delivered the kick-off speech five wars, the Cold War, and the Fiscal Officer for the Obama Administration’s domestic, social aspects of Ameri- [email protected] Poster for United We Serve initiative. The can life, including the ever-present considerations United States Tiffany Lyman-Olszewski serve.gov website, inviting users of race, class, gender, and sexuality. Even the government effort to recruit soldiers Development and board of directors to find or define their own local most cursory peek beneath the surface of such during World War I. Communications Assistant Painting by James [email protected] volunteer projects, was up and a topic reveals knots of complexity and surpris- President Montgomery Flagg, John Allen Burgess running, just waiting for the ing facts that often counter more commonplace 1916–1917, Library Kristin O’Connell wilmerhale inspired to click on and pitch in. beliefs about who served (and serves) and why. of Congress Prints Assistant Director Vice President and Photographs [email protected] Susan Winston Leff The initiative, overseen by the Division wells fargo bank federally funded Corporation The American War of Independence, prior to the Anne Rogers Treasurer Systems Manager Cynthia Terwilliger for National and Community bureaucratic establishment of the Continental [email protected] citizens bank of massachusetts Service, is defined on its website Army and Navy, was fought by local militiamen who would John Sieracki Clerk as “a nationwide service initia- serve for short periods of time, on an emergency basis, Director of Development and Nancy Netzer tive that will help meet growing fairly close to home. The Civil War brought about the first Communications mcmullen museum of art

Editor of mass humanities social needs resulting from the national draft, and draftees could pay substitutes for their [email protected] Ricardo Barreto massachusetts cultural economic downturn.” With the service—introducing in stark terms the basis by which the council conclusion of the initial launch privileged could evade active duty. The draft’s next incarna- Melissa Wheaton Ben Birnbaum Administrative Assistant/GRANTS boston college period, which ended symbolically tion was the 1917 Selective Service Act, introduced to recruit ADMINISTRATOR Kathryn Bloom on September 11, crafters of the men for World War I. Local draft boards were formed to [email protected] biogen idec foundation program hope to have forged “a make decisions about exemptions and deferments, and along Lois Brown Hayley Wood mount holyoke college collaborative and focused effort with them came draft resistance, a movement energized by Program Officer David Bryant to promote service as a way of life working Americans. [email protected] the trustees of reservations for all Americans.” Bruce Bullen harvard pilgrim health care The draft stayed in force—and was relied upon—for World Joseph Carvalho The national climate, as far as the War II, with 60% of its recruits being draftees. And even for springfield museums association executive branch of U.S. govern- this “good war,” men resisted the draft. (The story of the Neil Chayet chayet communications group ment can influence it, is ripe for 40,000 conscientious objectors is told in an excellent PBS Frances Jones-Sneed reflection and conversation about documentary that also received Mass Humanities funding: massachusetts college of liberal arts national service, military service The Good War and Those Who Refused to Fight It.) Alexa Boer Kimball, M.D. included. Enter Vital Pictures of harvard medical school Boston, whose past work includes The draft remained active for the Korean and the Vietnam Lucia Knoles assumption college Race: The Power of an Illusion. Wars. The word “draft” for many conjures images of scruffy James Lopes The Vital Pictures team is working sixties radicals burning draft cards; popular notions about southern new england school of law on a multi-platform media project the disproportionate populations of poor and African Ameri- Suzanne Maas that will examine the history and can soldiers for that conflict originate with the maas consulting philosophical underpinnings of and pop culture depictions of it. That view is shared today Madelaine Márquez hampshire college national service in general, and the by many of those critical of the wars in Iraq and Afghani- Bhasker Natarajan history of the U.S. military draft in stan, even though racial and class demographics of the U.S. liberty mutual particular. Who Wants You? The Armed Forces are remarkably similar to those of the popula- Sonia Nieto university of massachusetts Draft, National Service and De- tion at large. Recruits from zip codes with median incomes amherst Mervan Osborne mocracy (the documentary’s work- between $35,000 and $79,999 are overrepresented among beacon academy ing title) will examine American 2003–05 wartime enlistees, according to the Heritage Foun- Kent dur Russell conscription history from the Civil dation’s “Who Are the Recruits?” report, issued in 2006. museum of russian icons John Sedgwick War through Vietnam. Vital Pic- writer tures received a “Liberty and Justice In 1973, at the end of the Vietnam War, Congress ended Thomas Trimarco o’neill and associates for All” preproduction grant from the draft and instituted the All Volunteer Army. However, Suzanne Frazier Wilkins the partnership, inc. Continued on page 7 G. Perry Wu staples, inc. 2 3 For application procedures and deadlines, visit: Recent Grants www.masshumanities.org

Greater Boston Northeast

$5,000 to the Archaeological Institute $9,750 to Documentary Educational of America for the 3rd annual AIA- Resources for a trailer and script for MOS Archaeology Fair at the Museum Down the Fort, a multi-media project of Science in Boston, October 16 and documenting the Sicilian fishing com- Tom Plant, local historian, in colonial 17, 2009. munity in an area called “the Fort,” garb watching the Patriots Day activities at the First Church in Roxbury. Photo adjacent to the Gloucester harbor. by Derek Lumpkins. $7,900 to Discover Roxbury for a resource guide and a script for a trolley $2,025 to the Peabody Institute Library Below: Peter Yarrow giving a car tour, called Roxbury Then and for In These Imperiled Times: The Civil Pillow Talk at Jacob’s Pillow. Photo by Christopher Duggan Now. CED War Correspondence of the Men of South Danvers, to support public pro- $10,000 to the Independent Produc- gramming to accompany the exhibit. tion Fund for a trailer and script for Harvard’s Black 17, a documentary $1,500 to the Methuen Historical film about the African-American men Commission to inventory and catalogue enrolled in the class of 1963 under the Civil War-related materials in the Harvard’s first program of affirmative city’s historical collection. RIG action.  LJA Western Massachusetts $8,274 to the Museum of Science in

Boston for one of six U.S. consensus $5,000 to the Ashfield Historical Soci- conferences for laypeople on the issue ety for World War II Veterans’ Voices, of global warming.  LJA to expand the focus of an oral history and photography project beyond Ash- $10,000 to Primary Source of field to include five other hill towns. Watertown for Teaching for Global Understanding in the 21st Century, a $5,000 for the Hampshire Shakespeare week-long summer institute for K-12 Company’s Youth and Shakespeare: teachers in Massachusetts.  LJA Reconstructing the Connection summer program for high school students in $1,500 to the Schwamb Mill Holyoke and Springfield. Preservation Trust, Inc. of Arlington to prepare for creating a database of Right: Local youth $5,000 to Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival working together on all known workers at the Schwamb of Becket for free Pillow Talks, presen- a puzzle featuring the framing mill. RIG Dillaway-Thomas tations about the colorful history and House. Courtesy Dis- varied forms of dance. cover Roxbury. $10,000 to Theatre Espresso of Jamaica Plain for The Nine Who $5,000 to Springfield Public Forum to Dared: Crisis in Little Rock, an interac- Below: Theatre support a series of programs on two Espresso’s play The tive play for middle and high school themes: equal access to quality educa- Nine Who Dared: Crisis students about the desegregation crisis in Little Rock. Photo by tion; and India in cultural, historical, of 1957, presented at the John Adams Wendy Lement and geopolitical perspectives.  LJA Courthouse.  LJA

$10,000 to the University of Massachu- setts at Amherst for archival research and the acquisition of WWI footage shot by the U.S. Army Signal Corps for a documentary, Yankees Fight the Kaiser. Below: “Creating Podcasts”—Teachers develop their own video podcasts during an Apple Education workshop.

Right: Participants at the Merengue exhibit at the Museum of the National Center of Afro-American Artists, Roxbury. Photo by Derek Lumpkins

4  LJA: Funded through the Mass Humanities initiative, Liberty and Justice for All Continued from page 1

CED: Awarded through the DT: You call for a thorough DT: In your Memorial Day appearance on the radio show “On thematic initiative, Cultural Economic Development “revision of the way that Point,” you identified the really essential questions that the values defining the Americans need to face: “What is the true meaning of free-  RIG: Research Inventory Grant military ethic are formed dom, and how does that affect how I live my life person- and inculcated.” What are ally?” “What does it mean to be fully human?” “What are the values that define the our responsibilities as citizens?” Where do you think we military ethic today? Do might look for answers to these questions? they need to be replaced with different values? AB: We are a pluralistic society. There is no one definitive answer to the question of freedom’s true meaning. I simply AB: Fundamentally, I favor an abandonment of the notion insist that conspicuous consumption and radical autonomy that our national security policy requires us to maintain don’t qualify for inclusion. a global military presence, to configure U.S. forces for global power projection, and to persist in our penchant DT: How did you come to be familiar with ’s for global interventionism, using overt or covert means. writings, and what is it about his thinking that appeals The true interests of our nation will be served by having a to you? Again, I am interested in where you think people more modest apparatus and more modest objectives. who are ready to think critically about the true meaning of freedom and the responsibilities of citizenship might turn DT: Force projection/global hegemony seems more like a for insights. strategic objective or a goal rather than a value. What are the values that define the military ethic (duty? courage? AB: Years ago, I picked up a used copy ?) and what, if anything, is wrong with the way of Niebuhr’s Irony of American they are inculcated today? History at a yard sale. I read it about three times before I got AB: The military professional ethic is defined by the values it. I’ve been using it for several of “Duty, Honor, Country,” the motto of my alma years in a course I teach, and year mater. The ideals are admirable. However, I’ve come by year have become ever more to question the approach used at West Point (and other convinced that it’s an essential such institutions) to inculcate those ideals. Places like text. I might add that the course West Point specialize in sending mixed messages, turn- also includes writings by the likes ing a blind eye to practices that actually subvert the of Mark Twain, Randolph Bourne, values that the institution claims to celebrate. The prob- Eugene Debs, Robert LaFollette, William Appleman lem is not unique to the military. One could probably Williams, Martin Luther King, Wendell Berry, and Stanley make the same charge against most churches. Hauerwas—all of whom have much to teach conservative Catholics and just about anyone else. DT: The Limits of Empire is a Niebuhrean lamentation focusing on three interconnected “crises.” The first has DT: I thought your analysis of the social costs of reliance on a to do with how we live our individual lives; the second professional army rather than a citizen army was spot on has to do with how we see ourselves as a nation; and and assumed you were about to conclude with an appeal the third has mainly to do with what we take to be for a return to conscription. So I was surprised by your our nation’s role in the world. The first crisis, what equally incisive critique of the idea of reinstating the draft. you call the Culture of Profligacy, appears to be the Your solution to this dilemma, in the chapter entitled most crucial . . . “Common Defense” in The New American Militarism, is really compelling. Could you summarize it for us? AB: The crisis of profligacy—which is both economic and cultural—underlies everything. It’s especially danger- AB: The draft is not politically feasible so there’s really no ous because it has infected and perverted our common point in discussing it. I favor trying to resuscitate some understanding of freedom. It’s especially resistant form of the citizen-soldier, which implies getting Ameri- to change because we are blind to its existence. can elites to see service as something that they are called Americans want to blame the country’s troubles on upon to do and therefore choose to do. We need to figure “them”—whether distant enemies like Osama bin out the right mix of incentives to encourage that choice. Laden or those slightly nearer like a corrupt and inept governing class. They resist recognizing that the real Read the full interview online at problem may be “us.” www.masshumanities.org.

5 Fall 2009 Humanities Calendar

Greater Boston Transformative Power of Words.” Northeastern Web: www.peabodyibrary.org Presented by the Abraham Lincoln Massachusetts Phone: (978) 531-0100 Portugal’s Shakespeare Bicentennial Commission. Cost: free Join the University of Massachusetts When: Saturday, October 3, Yankee Correspondence  Dartmouth Center for Portuguese 10:00 am Dr. Nina Silber, associate profes- The Civil War: From Studies and Culture to celebrate the Where: ALBC National Town Hall sor and director of Undergradu- Cause to Cost publication of a new – Boston Student Center Ballroom, ate Studies in the Department of The Civil War was the great cru- bilingual translation Northeastern University, History at Boston University, will cible that forged our nation. Music of poems by Luís 360 Huntington Avenue, Boston present an overview of Yankee cor- accompanied each stage of the Vaz de Camões. Web: www.lincolnbicentennial.gov/ respondence during the Civil War. War. Jim and Maggi Dalton will The program will calendar/town-hall-boston-10-3-09.aspx When: Thursday, September 24, examine the issues leading up to feature a presenta- Cost: free 7:00–9:00 pm the War, trace the progress of the tion by Helen Where: Eben Dale Sutton Room, War with song, and touch upon the Vendler, the A. Abolitionism in Black & White: Peabody Institute Library, aftermath, incorporating songs of Kingsley Porter University Professor The Anti-slavery Community of 82 Main St., Peabody the time into their performance. in the Department of English and Boston and Cambridge Web: www.peabodylibrary.org When: Thursday, October 8, American Literature and Language The Underground Railway Theater Phone: (978) 531-0100 7:00–8:00 pm at Harvard University. presents a staged reading of a por- Cost: free Where: Eben Dale Sutton Room, When: Thursday, September 24, tion of a new play about abolitionist, Peabody Institute Library, 6:30–8:00 pm fugitive slave, and author Harriet “In These Imperiled Times”: 82 Main St., Peabody Where: Orientation Glass Room, Jacobs. Playwright Lydia Diamond, Civil War Correspondence of Web: www.peabodylibrary.org/history/ Boston Public Library, Boston Boston University, and historian South Danvers  events.html Cost: free David Blight, Yale University, discuss While most Massachusetts towns Phone: (978) 531-0100 slave narratives and using drama to during the Civil War held aboli- Cost: free Presidential China Gallery Talks communicate history. tionist views, many of the soldiers Join Concord Museum curator When: Friday, October 23, fighting in the war held contrary Traces of the Trade  David F. Wood for a gallery talk 7:00–8:30 pm views. This exhibit presents letters This is the story of one Rhode in the special exhibition, “Set- Where: C. Walsh Theatre, Suffolk sent home by the men fighting in Island family’s discovery that most ting the President’s Table: Ameri- University, 55 Temple St., Boston the war, letters which reveal the of their family fortune came from can Presidential China from the Web: www.abolitionisminblackandwhite.com complexity of beliefs in a typical the slave trade. After the film, McNeil Americana Collection at Cost: free but registration required New England town during the war. Holly Fulton, who was involved in the Philadelphia Museum of Art.” When: Thursday, September 24– its creation, will The exhibition showcases over one Abolitionism in Black & White: Thursday, December 31 facilitate a dis- hundred pieces of porcelain used by The Anti-slavery Community of Where: Peabody Institute Library, cussion with the American presidents over the years. Boston and Cambridge 82 Main St., Peabody audience about When: Saturday, September 26, A symposium of scholars will Web: www.peabodylibrary.org/history/ the film, race, 11:00 am explore the many aspects of the events.html and the legacy Where: Concord Museum, anti-slavery movement in Boston Phone: (978) 531-0100 slavery has left in on Cambridge Turnpike at and Cambridge. Cost: Free our country. Lexington Road, Concord When: Saturday, October 24, When: Thursday, Web: www.concordmuseum.org 9:00 am–5:00 pm A Visit with Harriet Beecher October 15 Email: [email protected] Where: C. Walsh Theatre, Suffolk Stowe  7:00–9:00 pm Phone: (978) 369-9763 University, 55 Temple St., Boston Enjoy living history performer Jan Where: Eben Dale Sutton Room, Cost: Free with Museum admission: Web: www.abolitionisminblackandwhite.com Turnquist as she becomes Harriet Peabody Institute Library, $10 for adults, $8 seniors, Cost: free but registration required Beecher Stowe. Listen as she dis- 82 Main St., Peabody $8 students with valid id, cusses the letters which influenced Web: www.peabodylibrary.org $5 youth 6-18 Soldiers & Citizens: Military and her in the creation of her famous Phone: (978) 531-0100 Civic Culture in America  book, Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Cost: free ALBC National Town More details can be found on When: Thursday, October 1, Hall—Boston page 8. 7:00–9:00 pm A town meeting with When: Saturday, November 7 Where: Eben Dale Sutton Room, the theme “Lincoln, Where: Robsham Theater, Peabody Institute Library, Douglass, and the Boston College, Chestnut Hill 82 Main St., Peabody

Calendar submissions can be made online at 6 www.masshumanities.org 7  Funded by Mass Humanities

Logo for AmeriCorps Week 2009, Courtesy of the Corporation Western for National and Community Service Massachusetts

Education Revolution: The Zone Project  Learn how Geoffrey Canada, president and CEO of the Harlem Continued from page 3 Children’s Zone, and his team are revolutionizing education and ex- mandatory registration with the Selective (GIVE) Act, H.R. 1388, “updating and pectations for students in Harlem Service persists: all 18-year-old males must strengthening” (not to mention funding) na- by creating an education safety net register or risk a fine of $250,000 and/or five tional service programs administered by the “woven so tightly that no child years’ imprisonment. No male U.S. citizen Corporation for National and Community can fall through.” may receive federal financial aid for college Service. The Congressional Budget Office When: November 4, 7:30 pm without registering. estimates that the implementation of this Where: Springfield Public Forum, law will cost $6 billion over the 2010–2014 Symphony Hall, Springfield With real and perceived threats to American period. A quick Internet search on this bill Web: www.springfieldpublicforum.org security, the question of conscription and and its passage will give a whiff of the fear Phone: (413) 732-2020 whether or not the All Volunteer Army is of mandatory service—a model that the U.S. Cost: free an effective means of defending the United public is far from embracing. States (however one defines “defending”) is Planet India  a complicated one. One core that the Focusing on a small set of families whose Mira Kamdar, foreign affairs Vital Pictures team will address was written members have served in America’s armed expert, award-winning author, in 1783 by George Washington in a docu- conflicts from World War II to the current and international commenta- ment prepared for Congress entitled “Senti- wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Vital Pic- tor, brings the Far East close to ments on a Peace Establishment”: “It must tures team will merge a historical overview home. This Senior Fellow at the be laid down as a primary position and the of the draft with personal accounts of how World Policy Institute will dis- basis of our democratic system, that every military service experiences affect individu- cuss the rise of India and U.S./ citizen who enjoys the protection of a free als and their families. With their strong track India relations. government owes not only a proportion of record as documentary filmmakers and cre- When: November 18, 7:30 pm his property but even his personal service to ators of enduring educational websites about Where: Springfield Public Forum, the defense of it.” complicated social issues, there’s no doubt Symphony Hall, Springfield that their efforts will contribute to national Web: www.springfieldpublicforum.org It may be this ethos that fuels the Obama conversations about service of all kinds. As Phone: (413) 732-2020 Administration’s service initiatives—and Christine Herbes-Sommers puts it, “it could Cost: free it may also be an implicit faith in the place the notion of service in historical con- responsibility of the collective to address text, deflect some of the uninformed criti- collapsing services. On March 18 of this cism and hostility, and help more Americans year, Congress passed the Generations see service in its many forms—military and Invigorating Volunteering and Education civilian—and its promise more clearly.”

Coming to a community near you… An (Un)Civil Action:

Late fall, look for A Closer Look at Violence in Massachusetts History our Mass History Featuring excerpts from John Brown’s Holy War and a fresh look at local history. programming. When is civic violence terrorism, and when is it revolution? When is it justified to rise up and take This year we explore a stand? Does the end justify the means? Where does keeping law and order shade into state when violent action is suppression? How culpable are we when we do nothing while violence happens in our name? justified, and when it Join us for film and discussion about local historical events and our civic responsibilities. constitutes terrorism or suppression. For more information, contact Pleun Bouricius at [email protected]. 7 Non-profit Organization U.S. Postage PAID 66 Bridge Street, Northampton, MA 01060 Permit #1528 masshumanities.org Spfld, MA

Annual Symposium

Soldiers & Citizens: Pictured above from left to right: Nathaniel Frank; Military and Civic Culture in America Lt. Col. Isaiah Wilson III; Missy Cummings; Rick Atkinson

Saturday, November 7, 2009 panelists include: 12:30–5:00 pm Col. Charles D. Allen (U.S. Army, Ret.), U.S. Army War College Boston College, Robsham Theater Christian Appy, University of Massachusetts Rick Atkinson, author, The Long Gray Line Our 2009 fall symposium will examine the ways in which military culture Andrew Bacevich, Boston University and civil society interact over time in the United States. Three interrelated Missy Cummings, Massachusetts Institute of Technology conversations will focus on: Major Tammy Duckworth*, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Session I Diversity in Uniform: Race, Gender, Class, and Nathaniel Frank, author, Unfriendly Fire in the Armed Forces Chuck Hagel*, former U.S. Senator Session II United We Serve: The All-Volunteer Force, National Lawrence Korb, Center for American Progress Service, and Democracy Rachel Maddow, MSNBC Session III Cultural Influences: The Military, Politics, and Society Cullen Murphy, Vanity Fair in 21st-Century America Paul Rieckhoff, Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America Senator Jim Webb* (D-VA) For more information and to register, visit www.masshumanities.org. Lt. Col. Isaiah Wilson III, West Point *invited Free and open to the public.

8 masshumanities.org