Politics and History Faculty News

Professor Robert Keighton has published a historical brochure, which will be available to visitors on-site at the Historic Prowse Farm museum, http://www.prowsefarm.org/. The brochure is entitled "Doty Tavern and the American Revolution" and discusses the background to the meeting that took place at Doty Tavern on August 16, 1774.

Delegates met at Doty Tavern at Prowse Farm to protest the British Coercive Acts. This meeting led to the Suffolk Resolves.

It was also at the end of 2009 that The Paintings of Robert Keighton: Landscape Paintings from 1995 to 2008 was published. It's a wonderful collection of Keighton's paintings from the Medfield Marshes, Old Lyme, CT, and the Isle of Shoals. (Melrose, MA: Artopia Editions, 2009). A copy is available at Levin Library.

Professor John E. Hill led a discussion at the Thomas Crane Library in Quincy, MA in which he explored the concepts embodied in the Declaration - political equality, liberty, the pursuit of happiness and justice for all - and the unique, egalitarian implications the founders' vision held for the new nation. Elements of the U.S. Constitution and the Pledge of Allegiance were also discussed. A video promotion of this reading was made available courtesy of Quincy Access Television (QATV).

Dr. Hill also presented a paper - "Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and Capitalism and Anti-Democratic Extremism" - in Assisi, Italy in August 2008 at a conference entitled "The Impact of Worldviews - Secular and Religious - on the Sustainability of Democracies." The conference was sponsored by the Highlands Institute on American Religious and Philosophic Thought.

Professor Hazel L. Varella was the featured speaker at the 60th Anniversary Gala of the Easton Historical Society hosted at Stonehill College. She researched and published a chronology entitled, "A Glimpse of the Past - Easton Historical Society 1948-2008."