A Photo of Abraham Lincoln from "Picturing America"	Humanities Resource Center Speakers Bureau Catalog Video Collection Exhibit Collection Traveling Trunks and Encounter Kits Reading-and-Discussion Program   Beginning In 1983, the Nebraska Humanities Council established a collection of speakers, videotapes, exhibits, traveling trunks, encounter kits and books on a wide variety of humanities subjects. The Speakers Bureau, the most widely used facet of the Humanities Resource Center, includes more than 180 speakers and more than 300 programs. In the Video Collection there are more than 150 videos on topics ranging from archaeology and social justice issues to literature, ethics and Plains history. The only cost is shipping. In its Exhibit Collection, the council has access to nearly 20 exhibits available for loan statewide. Most of the exhibits are housed by other organizations. The only cost is shipping. Traveling Trunks and Encounter Kits are designed to educate Nebraska youth about American and Great Plains culture. The only cost is return shipping. For Reading-and-Discussion Programs, the Nebraska Humanities Council has a collection of books on subjects ranging from Plains literature and multicultural literature to important biographies and autobiographies. The only cost is shipping.   top
	February 2009 New humanities speakers catalog now available   Nebraska’s schools, libraries, museums, senior centers and other nonprofit organizations can experience living history with Abraham Lincoln, a Civil War soldier, Mark Twain, Buffalo Bill, and Sojourner Truth, as well as many notable Nebraskans.   The Nebraska Humanities Council’s new Humanities Resource Center Catalog is now available. This 44-page guide features a speakers bureau, video collection, books for reading and discussion, traveling exhibits, and cultural encounter kits.   More than 150 speakers offer 290 programs covering U.S. history and contemporary topics, global issues and cultures, literature and language, Nebraska and Great Plains history, ethnic history and culture, reading, writing and storytelling, and poetry and music. Forty-three of the programs are presented as living history with scholars portraying historical characters.   Lecture presentations are available featuring the lives of such notables as Malcolm X, Father Flanagan of Boys Town, Crazy Horse, Joan of Arc, and Nelson Mandela.   Nearly 200 videos are available on loan, including three produced by Ken Burns: “The Civil War,” “Lewis and Clark: The Journey of the Corps of Discovery,” and “Not for Ourselves Alone: The Story of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony.”   There is a modest fee for speaker programs. Video, literature, exhibit and encounter kit resources are available on loan for the cost of shipping only.   To receive a copy of the catalog write the NHC at 215 Centennial Mall South, Suite 330, Lincoln, NE 68508, call (402) 474-2131, or visit www.nebraskahumanities.org to view the online catalog.   top
"Picturing America" Application Form (PDF format)	October 2008 "Picturing America" goes to 173 schools and libraries   The Nebraska Humanities Council (NHC) is pleased to announce that 173 schools and libraries in Nebraska have received “Picturing America” from the National Endowment for the Humanities, in cooperation with the American Library Association.   This important initiative helps tell the story of our country through great American artwork and allows students and the public access to American history and culture in a creative, new way. “Picturing America” provides large, high-quality reproductions of 40 selected masterpieces, along with a resource guide and lesson plans. These materials are designed to enhance the study of American history, social studies, language arts, literature and civics.   The reproductions include paintings and photography. Among them are “The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere” by Grant Wood, “The Sources of Country Music” by Thomas Hart Benton, a photograph of Abraham Lincoln by Alexander Gardner, and “Freedom of Speech,” which Norman Rockwell created for The Saturday Evening Post.   To date, more than 26,000 K-12 schools and public libraries nationwide have received “Picturing America.”   Additional K-12 schools and public libraries that are interested in receiving “Picturing America” may apply through Oct. 31 at www.picturingamerica.neh.gov. The previous recipients also are listed on the website.   In conjunction with this effort, the Nebraska Humanities Council will make “Picturing America” available on loan to schools and libraries that have not been awarded the collection and to such other nonprofits as historical societies, museums, senior centers, and other cultural and community centers. The “Picturing America” collection will be loaned for eight-week periods during 2009. The recipient organizations will receive up to two free NHC Speakers Bureau programs to complement the materials.   For the application to borrow the on-loan collection of “Picturing America” click on the link in the left-hand column or contact the NHC at (402)474-2131 for the application. The application deadline for this special NHC program is Dec. 31.   top
Speaker Archives	Speakers and books address Sept. 11 and beyond   The Nebraska Humanities Council has created a special group of speakers to address issues surrounding the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the aftermath.  Speakers are available to nonprofit groups statewide.   Roger Bergman, the director of the Justice and Peace Studies Program at Creighton University since 1993, addresses the ethical issues involved in making war — historically and in the current world crisis — in the program “When Is War Just?: Christian Ethics of War and Peace.” Bergman teaches courses in Christian theology and ethics and Catholic social teaching, including just war theory. He has given hundreds of presentations on peace and social justice topics since 1987.   Patrice McMahon offers "Security in the Post-Cold War Era," a program that focuses on changes in international cooperation with U.S. allies and former enemies, weapons of mass destruction, warfare and how we define security and national interest. McMahon is assistant professor of political science at UNL. She is working on a book that looks at the management of ethno-political conflicts in East Central Europe.   Among other speakers is Robert Lind, associate professor of geography at UNK, who offers “Geographical Perspectives on Islam.” John Calvert, assistant professor of history at Creighton University, has three programs: “America in the Eyes of an Islamic Fundamentalist,” “Change and Revolution in the Modern Middle East,” and “Palestine and the Arab-Israeli Conflict.”   All non-profit organizations in Nebraska are eligible for Speakers Bureau programs. The NHC pays the honoraria and mileage expenses for speakers, and the sponsoring agency pays only a processing fee.   Members of the NHC Speakers Bureau also have recommended reading on issues related to Sept. 11 and its aftermath. Recommended books and a brief description follows:   Cindy Combs, "Terrorism in the 21st Century," third edition. Prentice Hall, 2003.  Combs' treatment is well organized, thoroughly researched and easily readable, introducing the reader to the nature and challenges of international terrorism including new threats created by mass terrorism in the form of chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons. Her discussion of state-sponsored terrorism with case studies of Syria, Iran and Libya will help readers understand the ongoing threat to U.S. national security.    Lawrence Freedman, "Superterrorism: Policy Responses," Blackwell, 2002.  "Superterrorism" consists of a variety of essays on the current and future global situation with regard to terrorism. The essays largely focus on key policy or conceptual issues, especially U.S. and British policy, and how the international post-September 11 environment is likely to affect international and multilateral institutions.   Thomas Friedman, "From Beirut to Jerusalem," Harper Trade, 1991. Friedman’s National Book Award-winning study is an absorbing political and social analysis of Lebanon and Israel. Originally written in 1989, his assessment of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict still holds true today.   Stephen Humphreys, "Between Memory and Desire," University of California Press, 2001.  In this sober and highly informative book, Humphreys introduces the nuances of Middle Eastern political and social discourse. He goes behind the headlines and offers a sophisticated but accessible analysis of Islamic polity for Western readers.    G. John Ikenberry, "American Unrivalled: The Future of the Balance of Power," Cornell University Press, 2002.  John Ikenberry has assembled a fascinating collection of essays that examine how the rest of the world deals with America's dominating position in the global balance of power.   Robert Kagan, "Of Paradise and Power: America Versus Europe in the New World Order," Knopf, 2003.  A tour de force that argues that today’s conflict between the U.S. and Europe is not simply a result of the Bush foreign policy stance but reflects America’s realpolitik view of global threats, which make it more willing to use force vs. Europe’s reliance on seeking peace through law and diplomacy, a legacy of the post-WWII world.    Charles Kupchan, "The End of the American Era: U.S. Foreign Policy and the Geopolitics of the 21st Century," Knopf, 2002.  A former National Security Council staffer and a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, Kupchan eloquently describes the historical trends and long-term patterns within European and American foreign policy that help reinforce his projections detailing the end of the American era.   Walter Laqueur, "No End to War: Terrorism in the 21st Century." Continuum International Publishing Group, 2003.  "In this excellent review of terrorism, Laqueur dispels the conventional belief that poverty and oppression lie at the roots of the Islamist terrorism threatening America and the West. He argues that the Islamists aim at nothing less than the destruction of Western civilization and that they will acquire weapons of mass destruction.” --  L. Paul Bremer, III: Chairman, National Commission on Terrorism   Bernard Lewis, "What Went Wrong?"  Harper Collins, 2003. A short and controversial survey of how Islamic civilization fell from worldwide leadership in almost every frontier of human knowledge six centuries ago to a "poor, weak, and ignorant" backwater that is today dominated by "shabby tyrannies ... modern only in their apparatus of repression and terror." He offers no easy answers, but does provide an engaging chronicle of the Arab encounter with Europe in all its military, economic, and cultural dimensions.    Amos Oz, "In the Land of Israel," Vintage Books, 1984. Oz’s best-known nonfiction work consists of a series of interviews with various Israeli citizens. It presents a vision of a pluralistic, creatively contentious society. When originally published in 1982 in Israel, Oz was criticized for painting exaggerated portraits of Israelis that were tailored to suit his politics.    Ahmed Rashid, "Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil and Fundamentalism in Central Asia," Yale NB, 2000 An analysis of the Taliban movement in Afghanistan, its background and impact on that country, and the wider regional and geopolitical implications of the Taliban’s rise to power by a correspondent for the Far Eastern Economic Review and the Daily Telegraph.   David Shipler, "Arab and Jew: Wounded Spirits in a Promised Land," Penguin, 2002.  “Nearly 600 pages seem to leave no aspect of the complex Arab-Jewish relationship untouched . . . presented in an abundance of narratives, anecdotes and conversations that never seem hackneyed.” -- NY Times Book Review   top
	U.S. flag is subject of HRC program The Battle of Baltimore in 1814 produced two great symbols of American nationhood: The large flag that is on display at the Smithsonian Institution and the song that became the national anthem. Don Hickey's program "The Star-Spangled Banner: The Flag and the Song" describes the War of 1812 and explains how the British assault on Fort McHenry produced these great symbols. It discusses early flags, traces the history of the Fort McHenry flag and describes the attempts made over the years to preserve this flag from the ravages of time. It will also describe how Francis Scott Key came to write "The Star-Spangled Banner" and how this song ultimately became the official anthem of the United States. Hickey is professor of history at Wayne State College. If you are interested in this program, contact him at (402) 375-7298 or (402) 375-4030 or send e-mail to dohicke1@wsc.edu top
HRC Archives Authors include: Willa Cather Wright Morris Bess Streeter Aldrich Weldon Kees John G. Neihardt Roger Welsch Mari Sandoz James Welch Alice Walker Maxine Hong Kingston Maya Angelou N. Scott Momaday	Book series Humanities Resource Center has perfect reading for any group The NHC has copies of books that can be borrowed by your reading group, English class, church, or any other non-profit organization. Your only cost is shipping. Authors range from Willa Cather, Wright Morris, Bess Streeter Aldrich, Weldon Kees, John G. Neihardt, Roger Welsch and Mari Sandoz to James Welch, Alice Walker, Maxine Hong Kingston, Maya Angelou and N. Scott Momaday. The four-part series, “Lives Worth Knowing,” includes the perspective of a recent East European immigrant, a Native American memoir and African-American and Hispanic-American autobiographies. Other series include “The American Plains” and “Multicultural American Writing.” They have multiple titles and can be borrowed in parts or in their entirety. Nell Irvin Painter’s “Exodusters: Black Migration to Kansas After Reconstruction” and “Sojourner Truth: A Life, A Symbol” also are available. The NHC will provide discussion questions and help to pay for a scholar to lead the discussion. top

For more information, contact the Nebraska Humanities Council. Phone 402-474-2131 or e-mail nhc@nebraskahumanities.org

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