Cass Gilbert’s White Bear Cottages
via ZoomWell-known Minnesota architect Cass Gilbert spent much of his early career designing homes and other buildings around the White Bear area. Rheanna O’Brien of the White Bear Lake Area Hustorical Society…
History Study Group
via ZoomThis meeting will cover the last chapters of the book, Destiny Disrupted: A History of the World Through Islamic Eyes, by Tamim Ansary. The author brings his story of Islam up…
Philosophy Study Group
via ZoomWe will conclude our book, Knowledge: A Very Short Introduction , by Jennifer Nagel. The last part of the book covers some of the major issues that are currently being debated…
History Study Group
via ZoomThe book we are tackling this time is From the Ruins of Empire: The Revolt against the West and the Remaking of Asia (2012) by Indian author Pankaj Mishra. A new paperback…
Philosophy Study Group
via ZoomZoom Link For this meeting we will spend our time discussing Three Dialogues Between Hylas and Philonous by George Berkeley. First published in 1713, it has become a part of the…
Annual Picnic
Cherokee Park Picnic Shelter, Chippewa and Winona St., St. PaulThis is our annual summer picnic, resumed after a year off because of the pandemic. MISF will provide the drinks, plasticware, and grills, and St. Paul Parks & Rec will…
History Study Group
via ZoomWe will finish discussing the book From the Ruins of Empire: The Revolt against the West and the Remaking of Asia (2015) by Pankaj Mishra. This will conclude our reading of…
Philosophy Study Group
via ZoomAnother epistemological classic is on the agenda for this meeting – the first and one that philosophers have had to address in one way or another for twenty-four centuries: Plato's…
Resources of the Minnesota State Law Library
via ZoomPresenter: Erica Nutzman will give a brief overview of the history of the library as well as describe the unique resource collections available for research at the Minnesota State Law…
History Study Group
via ZoomWe will begin the book In the Time of Madness: Indonesia on the Edge of Chaos (2005) by Richard Lloyd Parry. A new paperback can be found for as little as $10,…
Philosophy Study Group
via ZoomFor this meeting we are going to have a discussion about aesthetics. We will be using the book Beauty: A Very Short Introduction by Roger Scruton. One can find a new…
Copyright and Sherlock Holmes
via ZoomHow long does copyright protection for fictional characters last? Why are people still suing about Sherlock Holmes whose last appearance in an Arthur Conan Doyle story was in 1927. What…
History Study Group
via ZoomWe are going to conclude our discussion of the book, In the Time of Madness: Indonesia on the Edge of Chaos, by journalist Richard Lloyd Parry. This is a book about the…
Philosophy Study Group
via ZoomWe will conclude our discussion of the book Beauty: A Very Short Introduction by Roger Scruton. In the last half of this book, the author examines what is sometimes termed “serious…
Racial Paradox of the Twin Cities
via ZoomWhy has our famously liberal political culture been at the same time so brutally hard on minorities? Looking at wealth gaps, incarceration, life expectancy etc. we vie with Mississippi, How…
History Study Group
via ZoomThere has been much talk recently of “political bubbles,” where people reinforce their own biases by talking only with those who agree with them, increasing the polarization we already have…
Philosophy Study Group
via ZoomWe are tackling one of the classics for this meeting: David Hume and his An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding. Published in 1748, it has profoundly influenced epistemological studies to this…
History Study Group
via ZoomWe will finish our discussion of History Lessons: How Textbooks from Around the World Portray U.S. History by Dana Lindaman and Kyle Ward. You may also be concerned with how historians…
Philosophy Study Group
via ZoomWe will finish discussing David Hume's classic, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding. In the second half of the book Hume talks about free will and critiques miracles, among other topics. These…
Historic Layers: Russian Alaska
via ZoomAre Asia and America connected? This geographic question occupied Russian explorers, entrepreneurs, and tsars in the 17th century. The answer led them to probe the American coast, trade for furs,…
History Study Group
via ZoomWe will start a new book: Fields of Blood: Religion and the History of Violence (2015) by Karen Armstrong. A new paperback of the book is around $17 and an ebook…
Philosophy Study Group
via ZoomWe will begin a discussion of the book, Philosophy in the Flesh: the Embodied Mind & Its Challenge to Western Thought (1999), by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson. For the 9th we…
Rent Control in Minneapolis and St. Paul: Program features and potential impacts
via ZoomRent control comes in many varieties in the U.S. In this talk, Prof. Edward Goetz of the University of Minnesota describes the range of different approaches that have been used…
History Study Group
via ZoomWe will continue discussing our book, Fields of Blood: Religion and the History of Violence by Karen Armstrong, by reading Part II. This is a book of warfare and conflict followed…
Philosophy Study Group
via ZoomWe will continue with the book, Philosophy in the Flesh: the Embodied Mind & Its Challenge to Western Thought, by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson. This is a long book and…
Futures Study Group
via ZoomA volume that provides a broad overview of the coming webinars. A very good set of studies that deal with anticipation and futures is the series RethinkX (https://www.rethinkx.com/). Many of the series…
Reducing Social, Economic and Ecological Stress with the Genuine Progress Indicator
via ZoomThe dominate economic signal on Earth, the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), is inaccurate and dangerous in relation to our overall well-being and sustainability on Earth, while the Genuine Progress Indicator…
History Study Group
via ZoomWe will be concluding the book, Fields of Blood: Religion and the History of Violence by Karen Armstrong. In Part III, Armstrong covers the modern era, from the Reformation and the…
Philosophy Study Group
via ZoomNote that April 11 is not the second Wednesday of the month, the time we have been meeting recently. We will finish discussing the book, Philosophy in the Flesh: the…
This Was 2020
via ZoomWhat role can the public library play in publishing community voices and creating communitas? The year 2020 was especially difficult for Minnesotans as we weathered the COVID-19 pandemic and George…
History Study Group
via ZoomOur next book is: The Gates of Europe: A History of Ukraine by Serhii Plokhy. We are taking on the 2021 revised edition that is evidently quite popular as it is…
Philosophy Study Group
via ZoomWe will begin reading A History of Philosophy in the Twentieth Century (2001) by Christian Delacampagne. The paperback version retails for around $28 ($23 on Amazon), but there are used books…
Ginny Hanson Poetry Day: The Poetry of Donna Issac
via ZoomDonna Isaac will read from each of her publications as well as new poems she is working on. Teacher and Poet, Donna Isaac holds English degrees from James Madison University…
Philosophy Study Group
via ZoomWe will continue reading A History of Philosophy in the Twentieth Century by Christian Delacampagne. For the 8th we will discuss chapters 2 and 3, in which the author covers the development of…
Minnesota in World War II
Robert H. Rohlf Room at Ridgedale Library, Ridgedale MNWhat was the reality of war for a state so far from Nazi Germany or Imperial Japan? Learn the stories of ordinary people who went to far flung battlefields or…
History Study Group
via ZoomWe are still gaining daylight these days - which means you can enjoy our next book almost anywhere: The Light Ages: The Surprising Story of Medieval Science by Seb Falk.…
Philosophy Study Group
via ZoomWe plan to conclude our discussion of A History of Philosophy in the Twentieth Century by Christian Delacampagne. Early in my study of philosophy I was told that if you really want…
Futures Study Group
via ZoomAs mentioned previously, there was interest in hydroponics of raising commercial plants in houses. A related area that has not been touched on is the raising of fish commercially. The…
Philosophy Study Group
via ZoomFor this meeting we are going to begin a discussion about distributive justice. First, we'll do an overview. Both the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy and the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy have articles on distributive…
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…