Renewing the Social Heart: Bringing Health to Community Life in America
Light lunch followed by a talk and conversation with historian Karl Fredrickson
Please register below!
As Alexis de Tocqueville saw on his trip through pioneer communities in 1831, Americans have a marvelous ability to come together--despite having no "common bond." They build associations in a spirit of mutual cooperation in a manner, he wrote, that renews feelings and enlarges the heart. We will look together at some of those moments in our history when the community impulse has shone most brightly and hold them as a mirror to our situation in 21st century America.
Four people stand out most strongly in American national history as contributors to the foundations of community and social health: Roger Williams (founding of Rhode Island on personal conscience), John Adams (the defense of the Boston massacre soldiers), Jacob Riis' How the Other Half Lives, and John Lewis and the Nashville sit-ins (Dr. King's Beloved Community). To help us find our way we will draw on the insights of Rudolf Steiner when, at the end of the Great War in 1918, he spoke on the needs and challenges of the social life in the age of the Consciousness Soul.
Karl Fredrickson taught history at the Green Meadow Waldorf High School for 35 years and now writes and speaks on history and Anthroposophical themes. Karl has authored Stories from the American Journey: Men and Women Whose Lives and Deeds Express the Ideals of a Nation.
Image: Roger Williams, first champion of freedom of conscience, expelled by Puritan leaders from the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
Please pre-register for onsite attendance to help us plan.
$20 pre-registration (in-person, includes lunch)
$15 Zoom-only