Thursday 21 November, 6.30pm-8.30pm

Join Philip Davies, Emeritus Professor of American Studies at De Montfort University as we look at the lives of ‘The Shakers’. Ann Lee and eight followers left Manchester for America in 1774.  The United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing, otherwise known as Shakers, had emerged in the industrialising northwest of England during the later years of that international spiritual ferment, the Great Awakening.

£6/per person – Purchase tickets via Eventbrite here 

Wednesday April 17 2019, 5.30pm 

Early morning on 17 April 1790, Benjamin Franklin died at his home in Philadelphia.  Almost a generation older than most of America’s founders, he was the first to inspire a national, and indeed international, period of mourning.  In arranging Franklin’s memorial, his own and Craven Street family set in place lasting ideas on remembrance and identity.  Dr. Boudreau is a cultural historian focused on 18th century Anglo-America. His his Benjamin Franklin teacher workshops have received numerous grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities and he holds a 2019 post-doctoral fellowship at the George Washington Library at Mount Vernon.  He is author of Independence: A Guide to Historic Philadelphia (2012).

£6 per person. Available via Eventbrite 

Wednesday 12th of June 2019, 6.30pm

As the 2020 presidential race gains momentum, Carol Gould, a political commentator since 2004, will discuss the current state of play in American politics, including race relations, international affairs, and (in the spirit of Benjamin Franklin) freedom of the press. Carol is author of ‘Don’t Tread on me – anti-Americanism Abroad’.

Book Here

Wednesday March 6th at 6:30pm

Introducing his new book, The Rise of Thomas Paine, Paul Myles will tell the story of how the relatively unknown Englishman-Paine- came to be thrust onto the international stage and his literary role in the American War of Independence.

Tickets can be purchased via Eventbrite

Reviews

“This original and scholarly work explains the rise of Thomas Paine, who was chosen by a Commissioner of Excise, George Lewis Scott, to write The Case of the Officers of Excise, a work which identified and condemned the deep corruption within the English excise service, and called for the organization of workers to improve their pay and conditions. The origins of Paine’s links with figures such as Benjamin Franklin, so important when Paine moved to North America, is thereby explained”
-Professor Richard Whatmore University of St Andrews School of History

“Paul Myles has become the custodian of the reputation of Thomas Paine and this book is part of a remarkable job he is making of it.”- Melvyn Bragg