Board Meeting
Highland Park Library, 1974 Ford Pkwy, St Paul, MN 55116MISF Members welcome!
Scholars without Walls: How our book came to be and why
Washburn Library, 5244 Lyndale Ave S, Minneapolis, MN 55419We will introduce our new book, Scholars without Walls: The History of the Minnesota Independent Scholars' Forum. The book, which will be available for purchase at this event, tells how a group of…
History Study Group
Curran's Restaurant, 42nd and Nicollet in MinneapolisWe will discuss Part III – the last part – of John Adams by David McCullough. We will celebrate finishing the book by evaluating Mr Adam's life, comparing it to our…
Philosophy Study Group
Curran's Restaurant, 42nd and Nicollet in MinneapolisWe will continue our discussion of modern Stoicism by reading the rest of chapter five and chapter six in A New Stoicism by Lawrence Becker. Chapter five completes his discussion of norms…
Philosophy Study Group
Curran's Restaurant, 42nd and Nicollet in MinneapolisWe are in the process of reading A New Stoicism by Lawrence Becker. He is continuing his arguments that virtue is the only good, at least for psychologically healthy people. Alas, there's…
MIA Book Tour (**date changed**)
Minneapolis Institute of Art, 2400 3rd Ave S, Minneapolis, MN 55404One of the most popular gallery walks at the Minneapolis Institute of Art is called a Book Tour. That is, a book of fiction or social commentary is selected for…
History Study Group
Curran's Restaurant, 42nd and Nicollet in MinneapolisWe are going to read the book The Second Coming of the KKK: The Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s and the American Political Tradition (2017) by Linda Gordon. This book is…
Philosophy Study Group
Curran's Restaurant, 42nd and Nicollet in MinneapolisWe will conclude our reading of A New Stoicism by Lawrence Becker. This includes chapter 7, “Happiness,” and a couple of appendices. We are especially interested in having people come who consider…
MISF Annual Picnic!
Cherokee Park Picnic Shelter, Chippewa and Winona St., St. PaulCome join us at the small picnic shelter in Cherokee Park in St. Paul's West Side neighborhood for our annual picnic. We will start gathering at 11:30 with serving beginning…
Philosophy Study Group
Curran's Restaurant, 42nd and Nicollet in MinneapolisWe are turning to a classic book this time: The Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus. This is a book that should have lots of used copies floating around, or you can…
Board Meeting
Highland Park Library, 1974 Ford Pkwy, St Paul, MN 55116MISF Members Welcome!
History Study Group
Curran's Restaurant, 42nd and Nicollet in MinneapolisWe will finish reading The Sea Wolves: A History of the Vikings by Lars Brownworth. If the author has done his research properly, this book should end somewhere near Alexandria, Minnesota.
Philosophy Study Group
Curran's Restaurant, 42nd and Nicollet in MinneapolisWe are finishing the book The Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus. While Pollyanna and Dr Pangloss might have some problem understanding Camus' point of view, they – and anyone who feels…
The Woodcut Art of Wolfgang Klein
Washburn Library, 5244 Lyndale Ave S, Minneapolis, MN 55419The program will introduce the topic with a brief description of the history of creating woodcuts. It will then focus on Wolfgang Klein’s art of creating woodcuts from their inception…
Philosophy Study Group
Curran's Restaurant, 42nd and Nicollet in MinneapolisWe will be tackling a book by the contemporary Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Žižek,The Parallax View (2006), which he calls his magnus opus. It can be found new in paperback for about $17…
History Study Group
Curran's Restaurant, 42nd and Nicollet in MinneapolisThe new book we are beginning is King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa (1999) by Adam Hochschild. This was a prize-winning and popular book from…
Minneapolis and Tangletown Neighborhood Landmarks
Washburn Library, 5244 Lyndale Ave S, Minneapolis, MN 55419What is a neighborhood and how does change make it better, lessen it, or make it a different world? Step into the past with a presentation illustrated by maps and…
Philosophy Study Group
Curran's Restaurant, 42nd and Nicollet in MinneapolisWe will discuss the rest of Part I of The Parallax View by Slavoj Žižek. Admittedly, this book can be a challenge. However, for the MISF Philosophy Study Group, challenge is our name.…
Oaxaca: Mexican Discoveries
Washburn Library, 5244 Lyndale Ave S, Minneapolis, MN 55419Oaxaca is a city and state in southern Mexico that today is a popular destination for foreign and domestic tourists and those wishing to spend the winter months in a…
History Study Group
Curran's Restaurant, 42nd and Nicollet in MinneapolisWe will conclude our discussion of the book we are currently reading, King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa, by Adam Hochschild. I hope that you…
Philosophy Study Group
Curran's Restaurant, 42nd and Nicollet in MinneapolisWe will continue discussing The Parallax View by Slavoj Žižek, this time covering Part II. In this part Žižek applies his parallax metaphor to science. Reviewers, in general, think that Žižek does his…
History Study Group
Curran's Restaurant, 42nd and Nicollet in MinneapolisThe book we will begin discussing at that time is Four Princes: Henry VIII, Francis I, Charles V, Suleiman the Magnificent, and the Obsessions that Forged Modern Europe (2018) by John Julius…
Philosophy Study Group
Curran's Restaurant, 42nd and Nicollet in MinneapolisWe will conclude our discussion of The Parallax View by Slavoj Žižek. This involves reading Part III in which Žižek covers how his philosophy works with politics. Žižek is one of the leading…
Board Meeting
Highland Park Library, 1974 Ford Pkwy, St Paul, MN 55116MISF Members Welcome!
History Study Group
Curran's Restaurant, 42nd and Nicollet in MinneapolisWe are reading the book Four Princes: Henry VIII, Francis I, Charles V, Suleiman the Magnificent, and the Obsessions that Forged Modern Europe by John Julius Norwich. Join us as we…
Minnesota Swedes Raising Cane
Washburn Library, 5244 Lyndale Ave S, Minneapolis, MN 55419In the early years of the 20th century, a Swedish-American doctor invested in a large tract of land in eastern Cuba. Using his doctor's office on Nicollet Avenue in Minneapolis as…
Philosophy Study Group (Rescheduled!)
Curran's Restaurant, 42nd and Nicollet in MinneapolisFor this meeting we have chosen to read a philosophical novel rather than our usual diet of books and articles by philosophers. The Confidence-Man: His Masquerade (1857) was the last novel written…
History Study Group
Curran's Restaurant, 42nd and Nicollet in MinneapolisWe will start talking about the book, The Swerve (2012), by Stephen Greenblatt. You can find this book new in paperback for $12 - $17 and as an ebook for $10 -…
Minnesota Women: First in the Nation to Vote in 1920
Washburn Library, 5244 Lyndale Ave S, Minneapolis, MN 55419At 6 a.m. on the morning of August 27, 1920, the City of South St. Paul held the very first election conducted on the day following ratification of the 19th Amendment to the U.S.…
Philosophy Study Group
Curran's Restaurant, 42nd and Nicollet in MinneapolisBecause this is an election year, we have decided to read what many say is the first modern political treatise: The Prince, written in the early 16th century by Niccolò Machiavelli. Being…
History Study Group
Curran's Restaurant, 42nd and Nicollet in MinneapolisWe will conclude our book, The Swerve, by Stephen Greenblatt. After reading the first half of the book, we feel that it deserves all the major awards and prestigious endorsements it…
Philosophy Study Group
Curran's Restaurant, 42nd and Nicollet in MinneapolisCancelled (to be rescheduled) We will begin a discussion of the book, The Sunflower: On the Possibilities and Limits of Forgiveness (revised second edition, 1998) by Simon Wiesenthal. This book consists…
Minnesotans and the Ultra-Resistance
Washburn Library, 5244 Lyndale Ave S, Minneapolis, MN 55419CANCELLED (will be rescheduled later this year) Based on his 2018-2019 oral history project, "We Won't Go, and We Don't Want You to Go Either," Peter Simmons will talk about…
Annual Poetry Day (Rescheduled!)
via ZoomVicki Mickelson is a retired educator with thirty-eight years experience in the classroom, most of them in the Minneapolis Public Schools. Her writing journey began in Anna Maria, Florida, her winter…
Bold Vision: ERA 2020
via ZoomOn the 100th Anniversary of Women’s Right to Vote, another 100-year struggle to gain constitutional equality through ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment for women is one state away from passage.…
Saving Lives: Stories From Minneapolis Pioneers and Soldiers Memorial Cemetery
At the Cemetery: 2925 Cedar Ave S, MinneapolisMinneapolis Pioneers and Soldiers Memorial Cemetery (formerly Layman’s) is the oldest existing cemetery in Minneapolis and the first in Minnesota to have been listed as an individual landmark in the…
Maritime Heritage Minnesota: Who we are and what we do
via ZoomSince 2005 MHM has been working to document Minnesota's submerged heritage. They will detail their findings from side and down-imaging sonar surveys, underwater archaeological dive reconnaissance projects, Minnesota small craft…
Sinclair Lewis: The Centenary of “Main Street”
via ZoomMr. Coleman is the acquisitions librarian at the Minnesota Historical Society. He writes and lectures on topics related to Minnesota culture and history. He served as president of the Library…
Philosophy Study Group
via ZoomFor this meeting we have chosen a book that was very popular some years ago and has managed to retain its popularity. The book is Why Bad Things Happen to Good…
History Study Group
via ZoomBefore our Covid-19 delay, we were in the process of reading the book, The Swerve (2012), by Stephen Greenblatt. This book won many awards, including both a Pulitzer and a National…