Home > Event Video

Event Video

To view a video recording of a previous Library special event, click the icon. The Library offers recordings only with the permission of the presenter.

  • Preeminent American Civil War scholar Michael Fellman examines the robbery, arson, torture, murder, and raids that characterized this most uncivil of wars in the Missouri-Kansas borderlands during the 1850s-60s.
    Michael Fellman - "I Came Not to Bring Peace, but a Sword"
    Thursday, November 10, 2011
    Central Library

    Michael Fellman, a preeminent scholar of the American Civil War and an expert on the guerilla warfare that characterized the conflict in the Missouri-Kansas borderlands, considers how perfectly ordinary Americans could revise their moral and religious beliefs to justify such extraordinary violence with relative ease. Selectively picking texts from Holy Scripture, they assembled a war God perfectly suited to their actions out of Christian belief.

    Read more
  • Celebrated actor Hal Holbrook discusses his beautifully moving new memoir, Harold: The Boy Who Became Mark Twain, in a special public conversation with Library Director Crosby Kemper III.
    Hal Holbrook Tonight
    Wednesday, November 9, 2011
    Central Library

    Renowned stage and screen actor Hal Holbrook visits the Kansas City Public Library on Wednesday, November 9, 2011 for a public conversation about his beautifully moving new memoir, Harold: The Boy Who Became Mark Twain at 6:30 p.m. at the Central Library, 14 W. 10th St.

    Read more
  • Biographer David O. Stewart discusses his new portrait of Aaron Burr – America’s third vice president and one of the most daring, and possibly deluded, figures in our nation’s history.
    David Stewart - American Emperor: Aaron Burr’s Challenge to Jefferson’s America
    Thursday, November 3, 2011
    Central Library

    Historian and constitutional lawyer David Stewart discusses his new biography of Aaron Burr – America’s third vice president and one of the most daring, and possibly deluded, figures in our nation’s history.

    Read more
  • As a precursor to Global Entrepreneurship Week, Kauffman Foundation CEO Carl Schramm discusses entrepreneurial innovation, job creation, and economic growth.
    A Conversation with Carl Schramm
    Wednesday, November 2, 2011
    Central Library

    As a precursor to Global Entrepreneurship Week, Library Director Crosby Kemper III conducts a public conversation with Carl Schramm, president and CEO of the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation.

    The discussion is part of Kansas City – Cradle of Entrepreneurs, an ongoing series of discussions with some of Kansas City’s most iconic and innovative business founders.

    Read more
  • Meet the Past with Crosby Kemper III launches its second season with a conversation with Mark Twain, as portrayed by veteran Chautauqua performer George Frein.
    Meet the Past: Mark Twain
    Tuesday, October 18, 2011
    Central Library

    Meet the Past with Crosby Kemper III launches its second season with a conversation with Mark Twain, as portrayed by veteran Chautauqua performer George Frein.

    Mark Twain’s novels, including The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, established him as one of the great American writers, while some accounts (like that of Ernest Hemingway) cite him as the source of American literature.

    Read more
  • The third installment in the series presenting public conversations with local entrepreneurs features Mary Carol Garrity, founder of Nell Hill’s and one of today’s most sought-after lifestyle mavens.
    A Conversation with Mary Carol Garrity
    Tuesday, October 11, 2011
    Central Library

    The third installment in the series that focuses on local entrepreneurs features Mary Carol Garrity, founder of Nell Hill’s and one of today’s most sought-after lifestyle mavens.

    After establishing Nell Hill’s in an old bank building in Atchison, Kansas, in 1981, Garrity’s company has become a decorating trend-setter thanks in part to Garrity’s elegant, yet practical tips on everything from holiday decorating to stylish ways to entertain at home.

    Garrity has opened a Nell Hill’s at Briarcliff Village in Kansas City, North.

    Read more
  • Award-winning historian William C. Harris argues that Confederate campaigns and guerrilla activities kept the region in constant turmoil, and that those states preoccupied Lincoln throughout the war.
    William C. Harris: Lincoln and the Border States
    Thursday, October 6, 2011
    Central Library

    Faced with a divided nation, Abraham Lincoln deemed the loyalty of the border slave states crucial to the preservation of the Union. But while most scholars contend that these states were secure by the end of 1861, award-winning historian William C. Harris argues in Lincoln and the Border States: Preserving the Union, that Confederate campaigns and guerrilla activities kept the region in constant turmoil, and that those states preoccupied Lincoln throughout the war.

    Read more
  • American Library Association President Molly Raphael discusses the current social and economic conditions facing libraries and considers some possible changes that will ensure patrons continue to value the services libraries provide.
    Molly Raphael - Libraries: Essential for Learning, Essential for Life
    Wednesday, October 5, 2011
    Central Library

    American Library Association President Molly Raphael explains why current social and economic conditions are forcing libraries of all types to change rapidly in order to survive.

    How can libraries be positioned not just to survive but to thrive? What difficult choices will have to be made in the next few years so that patrons continue to value the services libraries provide? How can libraries ensure that they are seen as both essential for learning and for life in the communities they serve?

    Read more
  • Biographer and financial guru James Grant discusses his new biography of Thomas B. Reed, one of the most powerful House Speakers in history.
    James Grant - Mr. Speaker! The Life and Times of Thomas B. Reed: The Man Who Broke the Filibuster
    Wednesday, September 28, 2011
    Central Library

    Biographer James Grant discusses his new portrait of late nineteenth-century Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Thomas B. Reed, who served with greater influence than any Speaker who came before him.

    Until 1890, members of the House would often filibuster by refusing to answer roll call – even if they were present – depriving the chamber of a quorum. During one such filibuster, Reed directed the clerk to count anyone in attendance as present.

    Grant is editor of Grant’s Interest Rate Observer.

    Read more
  • From hilarious scenes from his youth to the present state his parents helped create, Frank Schaeffer asks what the leading right-wingers and the paranoid fantasies of their “echo chamber” are really about. Here’s a hint…sex.
    Frank Schaeffer: Sex, Mom, and God
    Tuesday, September 27, 2011
    Central Library

    In his New York Times best-selling book, Frank Schaeffer uses his life as a lens through which to view a larger narrative: the rightward lurch of American politics since the 1970s.

    The central character is Schaeffer’s far-from-prudish evangelical mother, who sweetly but bizarrely provides startling juxtapositions of the religious and the sensual throughout Schaeffer’s childhood.

    Schaeffer asks what the leading right-wingers and the paranoid fantasies of their “echo chamber” are really about. Here’s a hint... sex.

    Read more