On the Importance of Historical Literacy: What Good is History?

On the Road with California Humanities: The Pulitzer Prize Centennial Campfires Initiative

As part of a national celebration of the 100^th anniversary of the Pulitzer Prize, California Humanities will convene a series of discussion forums throughout the state as part of the Pulitzer Prize Centennial Campfires Initiative.  Aimed at deepening the public’s engagement with contemporary issues through a humanities lens, On the Road with California Humanities will connect Pulitzer-prize winning authors, artists, journalists, and other notable thinkers who are helping to guide California along the road to a vibrant future.

This evening is built around a deceptively simple query:  what's the use of American history?  What do history, and the humanities, have to teach us about point of view, context, and the rights and wrongs of our past and our present? 

Alan Taylor, two-time Pulitzer Prize winner joins fellow historian and Pulitzer Prize winner Elizabeth Fenn in conversation on the contemporary relevance of historical writings on the American past.  The answers which these scholars and the audience come up with will inspire and motivate us as we draw from the past to shape the present and the future.