Winter History Lecture Series with Michael McNaught

Tuesdays at 3pm
January 19th, 26th and February 2nd with a snow date of February 9th

This series promises to be popular and reservations are strongly recommended by calling the Library at 508-548-4709. Donations will be accepted at the door.

Tuesday, Jan 19th – Presidential Wives: Three First Ladies
It has been said that behind every famous man stands a strong woman. This lecture will discuss the impact of three First Ladies – Abigail Adams, Mary Todd Lincoln, and Eleanor Roosevelt – on their husbands’ presidencies and their times.

Tuesday, January 26th – Women Spies of the Civil War
Little recognized by Civil War historians, a number of women spied for their respective causes with great success; a few of them gave their lives for those causes. This lecture will discuss a number of these women, as well as some of the women who served in the Union and Confederate armies disguised as men.

Tuesday, February 2nd – Gallipoli, 1915
The Gallipoli campaign of 1915 was perhaps the Allies’ worst disaster, and most bungled operation, of the First World War. It is noted particularly for the valor of the Australian and New Zealand forces that participated in the campaign – the Anzacs, as they have been forever known. A pet project of the young Winston Churchill, the campaign’s failure almost derailed his promising career.

Bio: Michael McNaught earned BA and MA degrees from Oxford University (where he specialized in Military History and the Theory of War) and an MA from Columbia. An independent school teacher and administrator for 44 years, he retired to Falmouth in 2004. He has lectured extensively in the Joy of Learning program at the Falmouth Public Library , the Eldredge Library in Chatham, at the Falmouth Historical Society, at Falmouth Academy, and a guest lecturer at the Academy of Lifelong Learning at Cape Cod Community College.