November 2, Zoom Quarterback Roundtable – 12:30 to 1:45 p.m.
Tom Ricks is our Quarterback.
November 5, Thursday Luncheon Roundtable – 12:30 to 1:45 p.m.
Speaker is Anatol Lieven, professor at Georgetown University’s Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service in Qatar. His topic—How the West Lost, based on an article of the same title in Prospect Magazine (August 31, 2020). After the long standoff against communism, victory seemed as total as it was sudden, but the West has since fractured and is now losing prestige and influence. Is the reversal a moral defeat?
From 1985 to 1998, Anatol Lieven worked as a British journalist in South Asia, the former Soviet Union, and Eastern Europe. From 2000 to 2007, he worked at think tanks in Washington, DC. In addition to his current position with Georgetown University in Qatar, he is a visiting professor in the War Studies Department of King’s College London, a senior fellow of the New America Foundation in Washington, DC, and a member of the academic board of the Valdai discussion club in Russia. He also serves on the advisory committee of the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office
Professor Lieven holds BA and PhD degrees from Cambridge University and has written several books on Russia and its neighbors, including Chechnya: Tombstone of Russian Power? and Ukraine and Russia: A Fraternal Rivalry. His latest book, Climate Change and the Nation State, was published in 2019. His previous book, Pakistan: A Hard Country was published in 2012. A new edition of his book America Right or Wrong: An Anatomy of American Nationalism was published in 2012. His current work focuses on the relationship between nationalism and progress in modern history.
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November 9, Zoom Quarterback Roundtable – 12:30 to 1:45 p.m.
Palmer Hartl is our Quarterback.
November 12, Thursday Luncheon Roundtable – 12:30 to 1:45 p.m.
Speaker is Tom Purdom, Philadelphia science fiction writer. His topic—Looking Back on 70 Years of the Future, based his self-described 70 years of one-way travel into the future and his views on the value of science fiction that accompanied him on the journey.
Tom started reading science fiction in 1950, when he was fourteen, and sold his first short story in 1957. His contributions to the genre include novels, short stories and novelettes, magazine articles, book reviews, and two terms as vice president of Science Fiction Writers of America.He has published two collections of his short fiction: Lovers and Fighters, Starships and Dragons and Romance on Four Worlds, A Casanova Quartet. Outside of science fiction, his output includes magazine articles, essays, science writing, brochures on home decorating, and an educational comic book on vocational safety that was distributed to several million vocational students under the sponsorship of the U.S. Air Force. For the past thirty years, he says he has maintained “a successful impersonation of a music critic,” writing for several Philadelphia publications, four of them edited by Innmate Dan Rottenberg. He has lived in Philadelphia since 1954, mostly in Center City.
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November 16, Zoom Quarterback Roundtable – 12:30 to 1:45 p.m.
Ruth Morelli is our Quarterback.
November 19, Thursday Luncheon Roundtable – 12:30 to 1:45 p.m.
Speaker is Beth Shalom Hessel, executive director of the Athenaeum. Her topic—Cultivating Our Sense of Wonder, Meaning, and Hope at the Athenaeum: the Enduring Value of Independent Libraries.
How do the Athenaeum and other historic member-supported libraries in the United States deepen the curiosity, joy, and purpose of their members and guests? In uncertain times, might independent libraries be engines that drive the connection between a bookish life and an engaged and connected citizenry? Beth Hessel will explore with us the history and purpose of independent libraries from their beginnings in the eighteenth century to show the ongoing value of these institutions for the vitality of our city and its residents.
Beth became executive director of the Athenaeum in July 2019, following Innmate Peter Conn. Before that, she was executive director of the Presbyterian Historical Society, starting in 2015. She received her doctorate in U.S. history from Texas Christian University and holds master’s degrees from Binghamton University and San Francisco Theological Seminary. As an ordained Presbyterian minister and an academic, Beth spent more than 20 years pastoring churches and teaching at colleges across the United States before taking on leadership roles in the nonprofit world. Her research focuses on religion, ethnicity, and transpacific relations, with particular focus on the WWII Japanese American incarceration camps.
New Capability: To see a recording of this presentation, click on Play Event Click on the play button at the bottom left of the screen that comes up to see the presentation. Put your computer into full screen mode to get the best image.
November 23, Zoom Quarterback Roundtable – 12:30 to 1:45 p.m.
Alan Penziner is our Quarterback.
November 26, Thanksgiving Day (no program)
November 30, Zoom Quarterback Roundtable – 12:30 to 1:45 p.m.
Roberta Kangilaski is our Quarterback.