Carrie Brown holds a Ph.D. in American Literature and Folklore from the University of Virginia. Working for more than thirty years as freelance history curator, she has developed exhibitions for museums, visitors' centers, and historic sites on a wide range of topics, including industrial history, transportation, and the Civil War. As a curator and speaker, Carrie delights in finding and telling stories about the connections between big historic events and our everyday lives. As a book group facilitator, Carrie guides readers through stories told by others–whether in fiction or nonfiction–exploring how the depth and breadth of human experience can be communicated through the written word.
From Guns to Gramophones: Civil War and the Technology that Shaped America
Carrie Brown explores the technological triumph that helped save the Union and then transformed the nation. During the Civil War, northern industry produced a million and a half rifles, along with tens of thousands of pistols and carbines. How did the North produce all of those weapons? The answer lies in new machinery and methods for producing guns with interchangeable parts. Once the system of mass production had been tested and perfected, what happened after the war? In the period from 1870 to 1910 new factory technology and new print media fueled the development of mass consumerism. While this program tells a broad, national story, it focuses on the critical and somewhat surprising role of Vermont and New Hampshire in producing industrial technology that won the war and changed American life.
Join us as we celebrate 50 years of bringing the humanities to your community!
Perspectives Book Group - Beloved
As part of New Hampshire Humanities' Perspectives Book Groups, we're reading Beloved by Toni Morrison.
Sethe was born a slave and escaped to Ohio, but eighteen years later she is still not free. Sethe has too many memories of Sweet Home, the beautiful farm where so many hideous things happened. And Sethe’s new home is haunted by the ghost of her baby, who died nameless and whose tombstone is engraved with a single word: Beloved. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize.
Pre-registration is required to receive the book prior to discussion.
Join us as we celebrate 50 years of bringing the humanities to your community!
Perspectives Book Group - Deacon King Kong
As part of New Hampshire Humanities' Perspectives Book Groups, we're reading Deacon King Kong by James McBride.
In September 1969, a fumbling, cranky old church deacon known as Sportcoat shuffles into the courtyard of the Cause Houses housing project in south Brooklyn, pulls a .38 from his pocket, and, in front of everybody, shoots the project’s drug dealer at point-blank range. The reasons for this desperate burst of violence and the consequences that spring from it lie at the heart of Deacon King Kong. McBride brings to vivid life the people affected by the shooting.
Pre-registration is required to receive the book prior to the discussion.
Join us as we celebrate 50 years of bringing the humanities to your community!
Perspectives Book Group - The Women With Silver Wings
As part of New Hampshire Humanities' Perspectives Book Groups, we're reading The Women With Silver Wings by Katherine Sharp Landdeck, about the inspiring true story about American women pilots in World War II.
When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in December 1941, Cornelia Fort was already in the air. At twenty-two, Fort had escaped Nashville’s debutante scene for a fresh start as a flight instructor in Hawaii. She and her student were in the middle of their lesson when the bombs began to fall, and they barely made it back to ground that morning. Still, when the U.S. Army Air Forces put out a call for women pilots to aid the war effort, Fort was one of the first to respond. She became one of just over 1,100 women from across the nation to make it through the Army’s rigorous selection process and earn her silver wings.
The brainchild of trailblazing pilots Nancy Love and Jacqueline Cochran, the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) gave women like Fort a chance to serve their country—and to prove that women aviators were just as skilled as men. While not authorized to serve in combat, the WASP helped train male pilots for service abroad, and ferried bombers and pursuits across the country. Thirty-eight WASP would not survive the war. But even taking into account these tragic losses, Love and Cochran’s social experiment seemed to be a resounding success—until, with the tides of war turning, Congress clipped the women’s wings. The program was disbanded, the women sent home. But the bonds they’d forged never failed, and over the next few decades they came together to fight for recognition as the military veterans they were—and for their place in history.
PRE-REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED TO RECEIVE THE BOOK PRIOR TO DISCUSSION. Please contact the host to reserve your spot.
Join us as we celebrate 50 years of bringing the humanities to your community!
Rosie's Mom: Forgotten Women of the First World War
One hundred years ago, a full generation before Rosie the Riveter, American women rolled up their sleeves and entered war industries where they had never been welcome before. They ran powerful machinery, learned new skills, and faced the sullen hostility of the men in the shops. In this illustrated lecture, historian Carrie Brown reveals their courage and their hard work, asks what impact "the Great War" had on their lives, and explores how these women helped shape the work that their more famous daughters would do in the next World War.
Join us as we celebrate 50 years of bringing the humanities to your community!
