Our October Author of the Month: MARY BEARD

Mary Beard is the author of the best-selling The Fires of Vesuvius and the National Book Critics Circle Award–nominated Confronting the Classics and SPQR. A popular blogger and television personality, Beard is a regular contributor to the New York Review of Books. She lives in England.

In her international bestseller SPQR, Mary Beard told the thousand-year story of ancient Rome, from its slightly shabby Iron Age origins to its reign as the undisputed hegemon of the Mediterranean. Now, drawing on more than thirty years of teaching and writing about Roman history, Beard turns to the emperors who ruled the Roman Empire, beginning with Julius Caesar (assassinated 44 BCE) and taking us through the nearly three centuries—and some thirty emperors—that separate him from the boy-king Alexander Severus (assassinated 235 CE).

Yet Emperor of Rome is not your typical chronological account of Roman rulers, one emperor after another: the mad Caligula, the monster Nero, the philosopher Marcus Aurelius. Instead, Beard asks different, often larger and more probing questions: What power did emperors actually have? Was the Roman palace really so bloodstained? What kind of jokes did Augustus tell? And for that matter, what really happened, for example, between the emperor Hadrian and his beloved Antinous? Effortlessly combining the epic with the quotidian, Beard tracks the emperor down at home, at the races, on his travels, even on his way to heaven. A sweeping account of the social and political world of the Roman emperors by “the world’s most famous classicist” (Guardian).

Discover More Manitoba History

May 2020 will mark 150 years since what is now Manitoba became Canada's fifth province, and we think this anniversary is a great opportunity to look back at different aspects of our province's history. To that end, the Community Classroom is pleased to present our Local History Series—ten classes between January and May that give you the opportunity to learn more about some of the diverse groups of people, stories and developments that made Manitoba what it is today. 

Click on any of the classes below to learn more and to register!

• Manitoba Treaties, Past and Present (January 13)
• Residential Schools and Settler Colonialism (February 5)
• The Haunted History of Manitoba (February 7)
• How Railways Built Manitoba (Starts February 19)
• Not Talking Union: North American Mennonites and Labour (March 10)
• An Explorer's Guide to Abandoned Manitoba (Starts April 1)
• Introduction to Indigenous/Aboriginal Rights (April 7)
• Assiniboine Park: A History of Winnipeg's Iconic Playground (May 5)
• Indigenous Cultural Sensitivity Blanket Exercise - A Historical Tool (May 7)
• The Icelanders in Manitoba (May 14)

The Winnipeg General Strike Centennial Anniversary

The Winnipeg General Strike of 1919 was one of the most famous and influential strikes in Canadian history, and became the platform for future labour reforms. Almost 30,000 workers left their jobs and even essential public employees such as firefighters and police went on strike. The RCMP were called in and the strike came to a violent end on what is referred to as "Bloody Saturday." This year marks the 100th anniversary of the strike, and there are plenty of new books on the subject to explore.

Winnipeg 1919 edited by Norman Penner. Following the strike, union leaders published an account of the events leading up to and during the strike. This book offers the full document in its original format along with an introduction to the 1974 edition by labour historian and activist Norman Penner. This volume also includes a new introduction by historian Christo Aivalis discussing how the lessons learned in 1919 remain relevant today, and key documentary photographs of strike events, including a minute-by-minute sequence showing the final RCMP fatal assault on the strikers.

Find more titles after the jump...

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Excerpts from Ted Barris' Fire Canoe

Ted Barris' Fire Canoe: Prairie Steamboat Days Revisited tells the history of Canadian steamboats, captained by seafaring skippers who'd moved inland and piloted by indigenous peoples who knew the intricacies and dangers of the waterways. These boats, named "fire canoes" by aboriginal people, helped to form the Canadian West, and Barris brings the tales of them alive in this new book.

We will have the pleasure of hosting Barris for a book launch in both our Saskatoon and Winnipeg stores. The Winnipeg launch will take place on October 13th, 2015, followed by the Saskatoon launch the next day.

After the jump you will find two excerpts from Fire Canoe, the first featuring a Winnipeg angle and the second with a touch of Saskatoon.

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