October Signature Event Recap

Thursday, October 1, 2020
 

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The Liberation of Manila
Louis DiMarco

October 6, 2020
1 hour, 12 minutes


The Library’s long and popular partnership with the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth resumed with the first in a new series of online presentations. Military historian Louis DiMarco recounted the horrific battle in 1945 to liberate the Philippine capital of Manila from Japan’s brutal occupation. More than 15,000 Japanese defenders and 100,000 Filipinos perished.


 


Tom Pendergast and the Feud That Changed the Way States Choose Their Supreme Court Judges
Kenneth H. Winn

October 8, 2020
1 hour, 5 minutes

Kenneth H. Winn, Missouri’s former state archivist and former director of library and public services for the state Supreme Court, examined a notable chapter in the state’s history: the defeat of a “Boss Tom” Pendergast-backed candidate for the court and voter approval two years later of an innovative judicial selection plan – the Missouri Plan. It has been copied by more than 30 other states.



 
The Knowledge Machine: How Irrationality Created Modern Science
Michael Strevens

October 13, 2020
50 minutes

Amid today’s attention to the role of science in addressing the pandemic and climate change, among other global challenges, New York University’s Michael Strevens pulled back the curtain on the history and process of science. And he assessed the need for an unfettered empirical search for truth.





 


Black Bottom Saints
Alice Randall, Kaite Stover

October 19, 2020
1 hour, 10 minutes

There’s more to Detroit’s rich musical history than Motown. Best-selling author Alice Randall joined the Library’s Kaite Stover in a discussion of Randall’s acclaimed new novel Black Bottom Saints, which brings to life a once-real, now-lost Black neighborhood that was nationally renowned for its vibrant big band, blues, and jazz scene.






 


The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X
Tamara Payne

October 20, 2020
1 hour, 5 minutes

Tamara Payne, the daughter of Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Les Payne and principal researcher on his authoritative autobiography of Malcolm X, discussed the newly released book and the life of the incendiary and iconic civil rights activist. Tamara Payne finished the book after her father’s death of a heart attack in 2018.