Simon Schama CBE to speak at Southwark's John Harvard memorial lecture

Ten years after the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington Mr Schama will ask: "Whatever happened to the idea of toleration?" He will pose the simple, painful, question: how did this happen? And asks, what are the prospects for that most fragile plant of cultural co-existence, toleration?

This year's event will take place at the Lyttleton Theatre at the National Theatre on the South Bank on Monday, September 5. The council is particularly keen on students and pupils with an interest in politics to attend and so tickets are being offered for free to local schools and community groups.

Leader of the Council, Cllr Peter John, said, "The John Harvard memorial lecture is now a well established event in Southwark Council's calendar and one that we are very proud of. We are very excited to have attracted another distinguished speaker for this September's event. Simon Schama is one of the nation's most loved historians and instantly recognisable commentators. I fully expect his lecture to be thought provoking and challenging as it holds a mirror up to our society ten years after the horrific events in New York on 9/11."

Event details

The John Harvard memorial lecture 2011 will take place on Monday, September 5, 2011, from 5.45pm to 6.45pm, in the Lyttleton Theatre at the National Theatre on the South Bank.

About the John Harvard memorial lecture

The John Harvard memorial lecture is a chance to celebrate and examine Southwark and London's links with the United States of America.

John Harvard was born in Southwark in 1607 and baptised in his local parish church, which is now Southwark Cathedral. After emigrating to America, Harvard bequeathed his library of books and half of his estate to the local college, which took his name following his death and is now one of the top universities in the world.

Southwark retains strong business and cultural links with the United States in a relationship that is complex and ever-changing.

Biography

Simon Schama is University Professor of Art History and History at Columbia University in the City of New York. He taught history at Cambridge (Christ's College), (1966-76) Oxford (Brasenose College) (1976-1980) and art history and history at Harvard (1980-1993) before going to Columbia University.

His books have won the Wolfson Award for History, the W.H Smith Prize for Literature; the National Academy of Arts and Letters Award for Literature and most recently for 'Rough Crossings' the National Book Critics' Circle Award for Non-Fiction. (2007) . He has been an essayist and critic for 'The New Yorker' since 1994, his art criticism winning the National Magazine Award in 1996. His art essays have also been collected and published as 'Hang-Ups, Essays on Painting (Mostly)'.

His television work for the BBC and PBS as writer-presenter includes two films on Rembrandt; a five part series based on Landscape and Memory, the award-winning, Emmy-nominated 'A History of Britain'; a film on Tolstoy; a ninety minute adaptation of 'Rough Crossings', and the eight part 'Power of Art'. A stage version of 'Rough Crossings' for Headlong Theatre, written by Caryl Phillips and directed by Rupert Goold opened in London at the end of September 2007. His work on a four part series for BBC and PBS, 'The American Future: A History' aired around the presidential election of 2008.

His 'Scribble, Scribble, Scribble: Writings on Obama, Ice Cream and My Mother', a collection of essays, was published in August 2010. He is ccurently at work on a book on Jewish history 

Source: Columbia University http://www.columbia.edu/