Lectures on Tap -How Berkshire Farmers Helped Define the First Amendment

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🧠 Lecture: "How Berkshire Farmers Helped Define the First Amendment"

🎤 Speaker: Prof. Dan Breen

Join us for a fascinating evening as Prof. Dan Breen uncovers the remarkable story of how a group of Berkshire dairy farmers helped shape our understanding of the First Amendment.

In the autumn of 1801, the farmers of Cheshire, Massachusetts produced a 1,200-pound “Mammoth Cheese” and sent it more than 400 miles to President Thomas Jefferson at the White House. Why go to such extraordinary lengths? The answer lies in a fierce national debate that still resonates today: how far can states go in maintaining religious establishments and promoting religious ideas?

Through the tale of this colossal cheese, Prof. Breen will explore the political, religious, and constitutional tensions of the early republic, and what this unusual gift still has to say about the meaning of the Establishment Clause.

Dan Breen is a Professor of the Practice of Legal Studies at Brandeis University and has just completed a book on the public monuments of Boston.

Get a drink, connect, and learn at Lectures on Tap! 🙌

Agenda

6:30 PM – Doors open: find a seat (open seating!), order food & drinks, and expect a bar line—arriving early is key.

6:55 PM – Host introduction

7:00 PM – Lecture begins

7:45 PM – Audience Q&A

8:00 PM – Have 1:1 time with the speaker, mingle with fellow guests, and order another round

8:30 PM – Wrap up.

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