“A Republic Amidst the Stars”: political astronomy and the intellectual origins of the stars and stripes

Eran Shalev, a historian of the early republic at the university of haifa, Rome rebornon western shores: historical imagination and the creation of the american
republic (charlottesville: university of virginia press, 2009).

His talk will demonstrate how throughout the republic’s history, the configuration
of the state-as-star and the consequent image of the united states as a
“new constellation” provided a powerful and overlooked vocabulary to
articulate and express Americans’ shifting attitudes toward, and
understanding of their federal republic.

Shalev is a powerful thinker and an engaging speaker. and a light
lunch will be served!

hm 1/29/11