Enlightened by the Rockets' Red Glare: The Meaning of "The Star-Spangled Banner"

This seminar is currently full. To join the waiting list, email Caryn Koplik, Assistant Director of Education Programs.

Date: Thursday, Jan. 20, 2011 Time: 7:00-8:30 p.m. (EST) Registration Deadline: Jan. 13, 2011

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We think we know "The Star-Spangled Banner." But how many of us realize that Francis Scott Key was not looking at the flag we now revere as the original and that he never set foot inside Fort McHenry? An instant success in 1814, the anthem, or at least its first stanza, opens so many sporting events today that some Americans think it ends with the words "Play ball!" Yet as we anticipate the first pitch or the kickoff, we often fail to pay attention to what our anthem actually says, to its expression of doubt, anxiety, danger, and the difficulty of envisioning a new and unformed republic. And what of the three verses we don't sing? Explore the context and meaning of "The Star-Spangled Banner" to show students how it illuminates Enlightenment thought and America's early struggle to define itself as a nation. Leader: Robert A. Ferguson, George Edward Woodberry Professor in Law, Literature, and Criticism, Columbia University; National Humanities Center Fellow