DANBURY, Conn. — Dr. Thomas Balcerski, an assistant professor of History at Eastern Connecticut State University, will examine the nature of friendship in pre-Civil War America in an Author Book Talk at Western Connecticut State University in November. The talk will be at 12:30 p.m. on Monday, Nov. 4, 2019, in Room 127 of White Hall on the university’s Midtown campus, 181 White St. in Danbury. It will be free and the public is invited.
Balcerski, author of “Bosom Friends: The Intimate World of James Buchanan and William Rufus King,” explores the relationship of the nation’s only bachelor president, Buchanan, and King, vice president in 1853. Although today’s Americans might speculate that the men were gay, Balcerski notes that may not be historically accurate. His work reassesses the ideas of friendship, sexuality and politics in the era before the Civil War, allowing us to reconsider how concepts of love and affection change over time.
Balcerski received his Ph.D. from Cornell University.
For more information, contact the Office of University Relations at (203) 837-8486.
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