Reliving the American Revolution: USA250 Anniversary Program Part 5

Reliving the American Revolution: USA250 Anniversary Program Part 5 comes to the Salt Lake City Public Library on Wednesday, November 18, from 6:30 to 8:00 PM. It's the fifth installment of a series marking the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution, and this one centers on a piece of cinema from the Great Depression.

The evening opens with a screening of Give Me Liberty, a 1936 Warner Bros. film short. It dramatizes Patrick Henry's journey toward his famous 1775 "Give me liberty or give me death!" speech, and since it was made during the Depression, it's as much a product of the 1930s as it is a retelling of the 1770s. After the film, historian Cassie Clark takes the stage for a lecture. She's an assistant professor of history at Utah Tech University in St. George, and her talk looks at how the rhetoric and spirit of the Revolution continued to inspire later generations—from abolitionists and suffragists to Native Americans and ongoing calls for equality from marginalized communities.

There's a nice hand-off between the two halves: the film sets the scene with one of the Revolution's most famous lines, and Clark spends the second half tracing where that line went after the speech was over. The whole thing is introduced by film historian Dr. James V. D'Arc, who is retired from BYU.

The program is presented by the University of Utah Continuing Education and Community Engagement OSHER Program. It all happens in the library's Nancy Tessman Auditorium, 210 East 400 South, Salt Lake City, UT 84111. Parking at the library is free with validation, so you don't have to worry about that part. The screening and lecture run from 6:30 to 8:00 PM on Wednesday, November 18.