A World on Fire: Britain's Crucial Role in the American Civil War 
Thursday, July 14, 2011 
Time: 6:00 PM-7:00 PM 
Place: Lecture Hall

Amanda Foreman, author of the international best seller Georgiana,
Duchess of Devonshire, which won the Whitbread Prize for Best Biography,
will discuss and sign A World on Fire: Britain's Crucial Role in the
American Civil War. The book tells one of the least-known great stories
of British and American history uncovering the pivotal and major role
played by Britain and its citizens during the war. Foreman provides
fresh accounts of Civil War battles and shows how the war spread to
Britain and was fought just as continuously there as it was in America.
The publication of A World on Fire coincides with a date famous in naval
history-the battle between the USS Kearsarge and the CSS Alabama in the
English Channel. At the heart of this international conflict lay a
complicated and at times tortuous relationship between four individuals:
Lord Lyons, the painfully shy British ambassador in Washington; William
Seward, the blustering U.S. secretary of state; Charles Francis Adams
(grandson of John Adams and the son of John Quincy Adams), the dry but
fiercely patriotic U.S. ambassador in London; and the restless and
abrasive foreign secretary, Lord John Russell. For all their
well-meaning efforts, and sometimes as a result of them, America and
Britain came within a whisker of declaring war on each other twice in
four years. In the drawing rooms of London and the offices of
Washington, on muddy fields and aboard packed ships, Foreman reveals the
decisions made, the beliefs held and contested, and the personal
triumphs and sacrifices that ultimately led to the reunification of
America.
 
"Books on Broad" Featuring Charles Shields: Harper Lee and Kurt Vonnegut

Thursday, July 21, 2011 
Time: 5:30 PM-7:30 PM 
Place: The Virginia Shop

Virginia author Charles Shields will join us to discuss his research and
biographical writings about two of the 20th century's most beloved
authors, Harper Lee and Kurt Vonnegut. Light refreshments (wine and
cheese) will be served (5:30--6:15 PM), followed by author talk
(6:15--7:15 PM), and book signing (7:15--7:30 PM).
 
The Virginia Plan: William B. Thalhimer and a Rescue from Nazi Germany 
Thursday, July 28, 2011 
Time: Noon-1:00 PM 
Place: Conference Rooms

Robert H. Gillette will discuss and sign his new book recounting an
untold saga of sacrifice, survival, and hope on two continents. Among
the Jews attempting to flee Nazi Germany before World War II were the
students of Gross Breesen Institute who hoped to secure visas and refuge
in America. The Jewish community in Richmond viewed the Third Reich with
increasing unease and, in a bold plan, department store owner William B.
Thalhimer created a safe haven for the students on a Burkeville farm.
This is the remarkable history of Thalhimer's heroic rescue mission and
the struggle of the refugees to make a new home in rural America. 
 
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The Library of Virginia is located in historic downtown Richmond at 800
East Broad Street. There is free parking for these event in the
Library's underground garage, which is accessible from either Eighth or
Ninth streets. For more information, please call 804-692-3592. 

Nothing says "Virginia" like a gift from The Virginia Shop. Shop online
<blocked::http://www.thevirginiashop.org/>  or call 804-692-3524. 

Have breakfast or lunch in the Positive Vibe Express in the Library of
Virginia.

Follow the Library of Virginia on Facebook
(http://www.facebook.com/LibraryofVA) and Twitter (@LibraryofVA)

For more on other upcoming events at the Library of Virginia, visit
http://www.lva.virginia.gov/news/index.htm
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