Cancelled: Remaining March 2020 Book Talks
Press Release · Tuesday, February 25, 2020

Washington, DC

All public events are cancelled until further notice. This includes in-person public programs, tours, school group visits, public meetings, external conferences, and facility rentals. For more information, go to: www.archives.gov/coronavirus

Noontime author talks and book signings at the National Archives in March feature author talks on topics including George Washington’s final years; unaccounted Americans of the Vietnam War; a landmark environmental case before the Supreme Court; and women in the Civil War. Each program will be followed by a book signing.

These programs are free and open to the public and will be held at noon in the William G. McGowan Theater of the National Archives Museum in Washington, DC. Attendees should use the Special Events entrance on Constitution Avenue at Seventh Street, NW. Metro accessible on the Yellow and Green lines, Archives/Navy Memorial/Penn Quarter station. Reservations are recommended and can be made online. For those without reservations, seating is on a first-come, first-served basis. The theater doors will open 45 minutes prior to the start of the program. Late seating will not be permitted 20 minutes after the program begins.

Washington’s End: The Final Years and Forgotten Struggle 
Tuesday, March 10; Reserve a seat; watch the live stream on our YouTube Channel
In Washington’s End, Jonathan Horn tells the story of George Washington’s final years. After eight years in office, he had planned to withdraw from public life but ended up being drawn back into military command, feuding with his successors, and became embittered by partisan criticism. 

What Remains: Bringing America’s Missing Home from the Vietnam War 
Tuesday, March 17; Reserve a seat; watch the live stream on our YouTube Channel
For many families the Vietnam War remains unsettled. Nearly 1,600 Americans are still unaccounted for. In What Remains, Sarah E. Wagner tells the stories of America’s missing service members and introduces us to the scientists and others who seek to bring them back home. Through their experiences she examines the ongoing toll of America’s most fraught war.

The Rule of Five: Making Climate History at the Supreme Court 
Friday, March 20; Reserve a seat; watch the live stream on our YouTube Channel
In October 1999, attorney Joe Mendelson delivered a petition to the Environmental Protection Agency asking it to restrict greenhouse gas emissions from new cars. In The Rule of Five, Richard J. Lazarus tells the story of how an unlikely team of lawyers and activists overcame opposition―and their own divisions―to win the most important environmental case ever brought before the Supreme Court.

The Women's Fight: The Civil War’s Battles for Home, Freedom, and Nation
Tuesday, March 24; Reserve a seat; watch the live stream on our YouTube Channel
Historians of the Civil War often speak of “wars within a war”—military combat, home front struggles , and the political and moral battle to preserve the Union and end slavery. In The Women’s Fight, Thavolia Glymph provides a comprehensive new history of women’s roles and lives in the Civil War—North and South, white and black, slave and free—showing how women were essentially and fully engaged in all three arenas. 

Program presented in conjunction with our exhibition: Rightfully Hers: American Women and the Vote. Rightfully Hers is made possible in part by the National Archives Foundation through the generous support of Unilever, Pivotal Ventures, Carl M. Freeman Foundation in honor of Virginia Allen Freeman, AARP, AT&T, Ford Motor Company Fund, Facebook, Barbara Lee Family Foundation Fund at the Boston Foundation, Google, HISTORY ®, and Jacqueline B. Mars. Additional support for National Outreach and Programs provided by Denise Gwyn Ferguson, Maggie and Robert Boroujerdi, BMO Financial Group, The Hearst Foundations, Maris S. Cuneo Foundation, FedEx, Bernstein Family Foundation, and The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation/Ambassador Fay-Hartog Levin (Ret.).