More Info »

Author John Shelton Reed discusses his book “Dixie Bohemia: A French Quarter Circle in the 1920s.” In it, he examines why artists and authors, including William Faulkner, flocked to the French Quarter during that era, and how the neighborhood influenced their art. Flyleaf Bookstore in Chapel Hill, North Carolina hosted this event.

More Info »

Architectural historian Barry Lewis speaks about New York City skyscrapers and apartments, highlighting both their German origins and American interpretations during the 1920s. This program took place at the New-York Historical Society.

More Info »

Virginia Commonwealth University professor Deirdre Condit teaches a class on the history of reproductive law in the U.S. Professor Condit touches on the 1965 U.S. Supreme Court case Griswold v. Connecticut, about the prohibited use of contraceptives and the right to marital privacy. The class also examines rights and access to abortion, looking at the 1962 story of actress Sherri Finkbine, who had taken medication she later discovered causes birth defects, prompting her to fly to Sweden for an abortion. Also discussed is the historic 1973 Roe v. Wade abortion case.

More Info »

Florida Atlantic University professor Stephen Engle teaches a class on the evolving nature of the Civil War. Among the issues discussed: President Lincoln’s decision to issue the Emancipation Proclamation in the middle of the war -- and to use former slaves as troops – and how these ideas changed the Civil War from a fight to preserve the Union, to one about abolishing slavery, thus altering the nation forever. Florida Atlantic University is in Boca Raton. 
 

More Info »

University of Kansas professor Shawn Leigh Alexander teaches a class on the period following the end of slavery to the beginning of segregation. Professor Alexander discusses the failed Civil Rights Act of 1875, the Supreme Court ‘s 1896 “separate but equal” ruling in Plessy v. Ferguson, and African American journalist Ida B. Wells work to expose the horrors of lynching in the United States. The University of Kansas is in Lawrence.
 

More Info »

Oregon State University professor Christopher McKnight Nichols teaches a class on Post-Cold War U.S. Foreign Policy, focusing on the period between 1989 and 2001. The class looks at military engagements by the United States during the George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton administrations, including Sierra Leone, Bosnia, Haiti and Serbia -- as well as the Battle of Mogadishu in Somalia and Operation Desert Storm in the Persian Gulf. Oregon State University is in Corvallis.

More Info »

Goucher College professor Jean Baker teaches a class on the Civil Right Movement, from Rosa Parks refusal to move to the back of the bus in 1955, to the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968. The class also engages in a discussion on a book of oral histories by journalist Howell Raines titled, “My Soul is Rested: The Story of the Civil Rights Movement in the Deep South.” Goucher College is in Baltimore, Maryland. This class is an hour and 15 minutes. 

More Info »

New York University professor Michael Gomez teaches a class on the transatlantic slave trade from the 16th century into 19th century. Professor Gomez discusses the countries involved and the methods used in the procurement of slaves, such as raiding and kidnapping. He also discusses the complex history of Africans dealing in the slave trade to pay debts and to punish neighboring factions.

More Info »

Metropolitan State University professor Douglas Rossinow teaches a class on the Iran-Contra affair, which took place in the mid-1980s during the Reagan Administration. The Iran-Contra affair stems from Reagan administration officials funding the Contras - who were fighting against the Sandinista regime in Nicaragua - with money from the sale of arms to Iran. The arms were being sold to Iran in the hope of gaining the release of American hostages held in Lebanon - hence the reason the affair is sometimes called as the “arm-for-hostages” scandal. Metropolitan State University is in St. Paul, Minnesota.

More Info »