History Forum Takes a Deeper Dive Into the Politics of the Peanuts Gang

Charlie Brown’s America event at the Minnesota History Center takes place February 10

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ST. PAUL, Minn (Feb. 5, 2024) – The History Forum at the Minnesota History Center has explored the richness, expansiveness, and complexity of American history with some of the nation’s best scholars for the past 20 years. This Saturday, historian Blake Scott Bell will teach attendees about the political history of some of Minnesota’s favorite comic strip characters. 

For nearly fifty years, Charles Schulz's Peanuts was a mainstay of American popular culture, with many arguing that it was beloved precisely because it was apolitical in a postwar period of social and political turmoil. Ball challenges that common perception, showing us how Peanuts has always been political. 

Through fan letters, interviews, and behind-the-scenes documents, Ball reveals how Schulz's beloved comic strip was a daily, decades-long conversation about the rapidly changing politics of his time, including the battles over the Vietnam War, racial integration, feminism, and the future of a nuclear world.

This History Forum lecture will be offered in person at 10 am and 2 pm at the Minnesota History Center with a virtual option at 10 am. Live captioning will be available at the 2 pm lecture. MNHS members save 20% on event tickets and free student rush tickets will be available day-of with student ID (as space allows). For additional series information and to purchase tickets, visit our website. 

To set up an interview, please contact Jack Bernstein at jack.bernstein@mnhs.org. Additional event information can be found here.

About the Minnesota Historical Society

The Minnesota Historical Society is a non-profit educational and cultural institution established in 1849. MNHS collects, preserves, and tells the story of Minnesota’s past through museum exhibits, libraries and collections, historic sites, educational programs, and book publishing. Using the power of history to transform lives, MNHS preserves our past, shares our state’s stories, and connects people with history.