Pilgrims and Gangsters at Warren Library this week

On Thursday, November 7 at 7 pm, actor David Emerson will portray Stephen Hopkins from the Mayflower. Hopkins was no Saint (as the separatist founders of Plimoth Colony referred to their congregation, the Church of Saints), but his previous experience in the New World made him a useful and respected member of the group of New England settlers popularly known as “the Pilgrims.” Find out about the politics, religion, economics, Native American relations, and social life of the first permanent settlement in New England from his unique perspective. To register online please click on this link http://bit.ly/1apoRi3.

On Saturday, November 9 at 2 pm, master storyteller Marc Mappen applies a generational perspective to the gangsters of the Prohibition era, who came to power with the Eighteenth Amendment.  Today the names of these young men - Al Capone, Lucky Luciano, Nucky Johnson- are more familiar than ever, thanks in part to movie and cable TV programs such as Boardwalk Empire. Making use of FBI and other government files, trials transcripts, etc. Mappen's book provides a lively narrative of shootouts, car chases, courtroom clashes and rub-outs in the roaring 1920s, the Depression of the 1930s and beyond. 'Prohibition Gangsters' was featured in the New York Times.  To read about it click on this link http://nyti.ms/15VqDbZ.

Marc Mappen is the Executive Director of the New Jersey Historical Commission, a professor at Rutgers University and the author of a number of books and articles about NJ.  To register for this program online please click on this link http://bit.ly/186a7on.

Patrons with further questions may call the Warren Township Library at 908-754-5554 or visit the website at http://www.sclsnj.org.  The Warren Twp Library is located at 42 Mountain Boulevard, Warren, NJ 07059. The Somerset County Library System has branches in Bridgewater, Bound Brook, Hillsborough, Manville, at the Mary Jacobs Library in Rocky Hill, North Plainfield, Peapack & Gladstone, Somerville, Warren Township and Watchung.