Great Moments in Polar Exploration – Antarctica
with Professor Dan Breen
A 5-PART SERIES: Sundays: January 22nd, 29th, February 5th, 12th, 26th from 2-4 pm in the 1st floor meeting room. This a hybrid (live and virtual) program – see links below.
Part 1: JANUARY 22 at 2:00-4:00 pm:
Watch on our YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/lTNTRh1grBU
The first known human encounters with Antarctica did not happen until the late eighteenth century, but by the beginning of the twentieth, the continent had become to capture the imaginations of people around the world. That story has a lot to do with an Englishman, a Russian and in particular, with a seal hunter from Connecticut.
Part ll: JANUARY 29 at 2:00-4:00 pm:
Watch on our YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/2IsxOkFSEpQ
In this session we will meet the two men who more than any others, would be forever associated with the quest for the South Pole: Robert Falcon Scott, and Ernest Shackleton. The two could hardly have been more different–but in 1902, the two would embark together upon one of the great epic marches of the history of polar exploration.
Part III: FEBRUARY 5:
WITH SHACKLETON ON THE NIMROD
Watch on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HQ9re_FkgI
In what was called ‘the Great Southern Journey,’ Shackleton and a small group of companions nearly reach the Pole in 1908 becoming the first humans to travel on the Polar Plateau.
Part IV: FEBRUARY 12:
THE RACE TO THE POLE (PART ONE)
Watch on our YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/G-0vnGAXAko
In 1910, Captain R. F. Scott sets off again on an attempt to reach the South Pole. To everyone’s surprise, however, Scott would have a competitor in the formidable form of Roald Amundsen, already famous as the first person to navigate the Northwest Passage.
Part V: FEBRUARY 26
THE RACE TO THE POLE (PART TWO)
Watch on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVP3d55RoFc
While Scott’s attempt at the Pole ended with the most storied tragedy in the history of polar exploration, Amundsen would triumph magnificently, only to find his achievement widely vilified on his return to Europe.
This a hybrid (live and virtual) program.
Dr. Daniel Breen is a professor of Legal Studies at Brandeis University. In the past fifteen years, Dr. Breen has a BA from the University of Wisconsin, a JD from the University of Georgia and a PhD in History from Boston College. He has taught at Framingham State University and Newbury College.
Winter Lecture Series Programs: (All with Professor Daniel Breen)
| 2006 |
World War I |
| 2007 |
The Great Depression |
| 2008 |
World War 2 Part 1 |
| 2009 |
World War 2 Part 2 |
| 2010 |
The Civil War Part 1 |
| 2011 |
The Civil War Part 2 |
| 2012 |
Prohibition |
| 2013 |
Landmark Supreme Court Decisions |
| 2014 |
Modern Chinese History |
| 2015 |
Great Moments in Science: A Tale of Six Countries |
| 2016 |
The Roosevelts: An Intimate History |
| 2017 |
Little Known Presidential Elections in American History |
| 2018 |
Getting to the Moon: American Space Exploration 1945-1969 |
| 2019 |
The Hundred Years War: A Century of Native American Resistance 1790-1890 |
| 2020 |
History of the U.S. in Six Songs |
| 2021 |
Five Real Life Murder Cases |
| 2022 |
Great Moments in Polar Exploration – Arctic |
Thanks to the Friends of the Bedford Free Public Library for sponsoring this program. Free and open to the public.
