Monday afternoon 11/16 from 4-5 PM our students in grades 7+ will have a special FPRI opportunity that was just added to the FPRI schedule.  The subject is “Munich 1938: New Revelations from the Czech Archives,” relative to the famous Munich Agreement which permitted Hitler’s takeover of the Sudetenland portion of Czechoslovakia prior to WW II.

The speaker, Milan Hauner, is an associate scholar of FPRI who grew up in Prague and has earned two PhDs at prestigious European universities and who taught at other important institutions.  Hauner has written and co-edited ten books and many scholarly articles and has most recently edited several unpublished manuscripts of the former Czechoslovak president Edvard Benes, as well as reconstructing 3 volumes of this leader’s wartime memoirs.

The lecture will be held at the FPRI library/offices at 1528 Walnut, a smaller venue around the corner from the Union League.  TAA students who are interested in attending should notify Mrs. Anthony; we will need to make reservations.

The American Academy recommends the following events in the greater Philadelphia area:

• From the Wynnewood Institute: Tuesday, 11/7, at Wyndham Hall, Bryn Mawr College, Dr. David Legates, Climatologist, will speak on “The Scientific Perspective on Global Warming.” Dr. Legates is Joint Associate Professor in Physical Ocean Science and Engineering at the University of Delaware College of Marine and Earth Studies.
• Pastor, and prolific author Douglas Wilson of Christ Church, Moscow, ID will debate Christopher Hitchens, outspoken atheist and NY Times bestselling author of God is Not Great.  The topic will be Apologetics in Action: Aesthetics and the Existence of God - Atheism vs. Christianity.  We advise that you arrive early for this lecture, which starts at 6:30 PM on Thursday October 30th at Westminster Theological Seminary. For more information, please see Westminster’s web site.
• Also on Thursday October 30th, the Intercollegiate Studies Institute will present a lecture by Dr. Charles Taylor entitled “A Secular Age.”  This event will begin at 5:30pm at the Greenville Country Club in Wilmington, DE.  Dr. Taylor is the author of a book of the same title, named best book of 2007 by Publishers’ Weekly.  Click here for more details.

Two upcoming events of note to TAA students, family, and friends:

Dr. Allen Guelzo on Bill Bennett’s Radio Show

Tomorrow, Thursday August 21 at 7:30am on 990 am radio listen to our Advisory Board member Allen Guelzo being interviewed on the Bill Bennett radio show on the 150th anniversary of the opening of the Lincoln-Douglas Debates.

StarFest 2008

The Chester-Montgomery County Astronomical Society is holding their annual StarFest this Saturday, August 23, starting at 4:00 PM. The event will be held at Warwick County Park in northern Chester County, just off route 23 about 3.5 miles west of route 100. Admission is free, but the Chesco parks department will collect a $5 parking fee.

Schedule of Events:

• 4:00 to 6:00 Telescope set-up/ Solar Observing
• 6:00 to 7:00 Kids Corner Educational Activities
• 7:00 to 7:30 “How to get your Picture in the NY Times!” by Robert Werkman
• 7:30 to 8:00 “What We’ll See Tonight” by Martin Howe
• 8:00 to 8:30 Dark Sky Preservation by Rob Cordivari
• 8:30 to 9:30 Guest Speaker, Dr. Fronefield Crawford III, Franklin & Marshall College, “Stellar Death”
• 9:30 Drawing of the Grand Prize followed by…
• Public stargazing through Amateur Telescopes

Click here for more information.

We’re starting a new post category called “TAA Top Picks.” This will consist of lectures and cultural events that we recommend or plan to attend. This week, they are:

1. The Heavens are Telling the Glory of God: C.S. Lewis, Narnia, and the Planets - A brief talk by Dr. Michael Ward from Cambridge University, author of the newly released book, Planet Narnia, Sunday, February 3 at 8pm, following the evening service, Fellowship Hall Tenth Presbyterian Church, 17th and Spruce Streets, Philadelphia. See http://www.planetnarnia.com. Author Ward’s thesis is that Lewis secretly based his Narnia books on the seven heavens described in medieval cosmology books, and the link given will lead you to interesting reading on his blog. (HT to the Schevchenko family).
2. Faith, Reason, and the War against Jihadism, by George Weigel. This is a Foreign Policy Research Institute lecture at the Union League of Philadelphia, 140 South Broad Street, Philadelphia, PA on Monday, February 4, 2008 (4:00 reception, 4:30 lecture). From the FPRI website events page: “George Weigel is a Senior Fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington. His other books include Witness to Hope: The Biography of Pope John Paul II (HarperCollins, 1999), The Cube and the Cathedral: Europe, America, and Politics Without God (Basic Books, 2005), and God’s Choice: Pope Benedict XVI and the Future of the Catholic Church (HarperCollins, 2005).” Mr. Weigel gets a “thumbs up” from Mr. Tom Anderson, who hosted a Barnes and Noble event with Mr. Weigel and Fr. John Neuhaus. This event is free and open to the public.
3. Jerry Pinkney: Aesop’s Fables and Other Tails is an exhibition at the Brandywine River Museum from November 23, 2007 through March 9, 2008. From the museum website, the exhibition “features delightful and skillful portrayals of animals from The Tortoise and the Hare, The Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing, and other classic fables by Aesop.” For more information, see http://www.brandywinemuseum.org/news2007/news081.html
4. How Election 1936 gave us Election 2008, a Wynnewood Institute lecture by Amity Shlaes on Thursday, February 21, 7:30 p.m. From the Wynnewood Institute website, “Before the 1930s the role of the federal government in American society was small. There was little federal regulation of the economy. President Franklin Roosevelt, however, changed the course of American history and the very nature of American society by deliberately inaugurating an active role for government in solving the economic problems of society at the time of the Great Depression…” Our students will have a wonderful historic perspective on how the role of government has changed over the last 75 years, and the implications for the upcoming elections. The lecture will be help at Wyndham House, Bryn Mawr College, with a reception after the lecture. TAA students and families, please RSVP as soon as possible to Mrs. Anthony. Others may contact the Wynnewood Institute as described on their contact page. To read more about Ms. Shlaes, visit http://www.amityshlaes.com/index.php

5. 11th Annual Lincoln Symposium: The Image of the Great Emancipator: Abraham Lincoln, the Emancipation Proclamation, and the Battle for Public Memory, featuring keynote speaker Harold Holzer, Co-Chairman, United States Lincoln Bicentennial Commission, Wednesday, February 27, 2008, 4:00 p.m. Reception, 4:30 p.m. Lecture, 5:45 p.m. optional tour of the Union League. This event is sponsored by the Abraham Lincoln Foundation of The Union League of Philadelphia, in cooperation with the Foreign Policy Research Institute’s Marvin Wachman Fund for International Education. This is a wonderful opportunity for our students to celebrate the President’s Day month of February. TAA students and families, please RSVP to Mrs. Anthony as soon as possible.