Sept. 12 talk to compare Oak Ridge, Los Alamos area histories

“Oak Ridge and Los Alamos: The Histories of Two Atomic Cities in Comparative Contexts” is the topic of a free presentation by Mark T. Banker, who will speak on Thursday, Sept. 12, at 6 p.m. at the K-25 Atomic History Center, 652 Enrichment St. in Oak Ridge.

Banker taught Advanced Placement courses in U.S. history for 29 years at the Webb School of Knoxville. He was born in Oak Ridge but grew up in Kingston/Roane County, earned his Ph.D. in history from the University of New Mexico and authored five books, including the 2010 book “Appalachians All: East Tennesseans and the Elusive History of an American Region.”

Thanks to a sabbatical funded by a National Endowment for the Humanities grant in 1994-95, he was able to explore comparatively the histories of Appalachia and northern New Mexico.

Banker writes a weekly column for the Roane County News and teaches courses at the Oak Ridge Institute for Continued Learning.

He gave this summary of his talk.

“In 1942, the Manhattan Project spurred the births of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and Los Alamos, New Mexico. This project unintentionally unleashed an array of aftershocks that disrupted and imprinted almost every facet of life in two, outwardly different, presumably isolated and until then largely overlooked sub-regions of the United States: Southern Appalachia and Northern New Mexico.

“Forty years later, an even more unlikely convergence of circumstances fueled an outpouring of scholarship that challenges much that we think we know about these regions, their peoples and their roles in the American encounter with diversity. This scholarship will inform my talk.”

This article originally appeared on Oakridger: Sept. 12 talk to compare Oak Ridge, Los Alamos area histories