On September 28, 2009, Dr. John J. Fry—chair of the history department at Trinity Christian College in Palos Heights, IL—will be speaking in the Sticht Lecture Hall of the Hall of Arts and Letters on the Grove City College campus. His lecture, “The Politics of Laura Ingalls Wilder,” is free, open to the public, and will run from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m.
In this lecture, Dr. Fry will review Wilder’s life and writings, especially the Little House books, in order to piece together what is known about her political views. Along the way, he will consider a number of recent books and articles about Wilder and her daughter, Rose Wilder Lane, who collaborated in the writing of the Little House Books and later became a noted Libertarian writer and thinker. Finally, Dr. Fry will assess one recent scholar’s argument that the Little House books may have led to the resurgence of conservative ideas in the late twentieth century and to the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980.