Videos

Author Fred Kaplan talked about Thomas Jefferson’s writings, including his correspondence, his religious and scientific writings, and his inaugural addresses. This program was hosted by the …

American History TV toured the U.S. State Department’s Diplomatic Reception Rooms with director and curator Virginia Hart -- and sat down for an interview about America’s first diplomat, Ben…

National Constitutional Center president and CEO Jeffrey Rosen talked with Jeffrey Goldberg, editor in chief of The Atlantic, about how the Founding Fathers thought about virtue and were inf…

National Constitution Center CEO Jeffrey Rosen sat down with the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) for a discussion on his book, The Pursuit of Happiness: How Classical Writers on Virtue I…

City University of New York professor emeritus Joshua Brown taught a class on the 1863 New York City Draft Riots and Civil War newspapers. He described how citizens across the country saw dr…

Actors read from author Willa Cather’s fiction and letters to mark the 150th anniversary of her 1873 birth. The New York Society Library and the National Willa Cather Center in Red Cloud, Ne…

High school teachers talked about Mark Twain’s novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and its legacy. They discussed the controversy surrounding the book and how perception of the book h…

Douglass Leadership Institute founder Bishop Dean Nelson and Washington and Lee University professor Lucas Morel discussed the life and legacy of abolitionist Frederick Douglass. This progra…

Author Jean Pfaelzer discussed the history of forced labor in California and argued that California owes its origins and prosperity to slavery. The Commonwealth Club of California hosted thi…

Historian Lucas Morel argued that Abraham Lincoln was greatly influenced by his reading of documents and papers of the Founding Fathers. This program was part of the Lincoln Forum’s annual m…

In part eight of Books That Shaped America, Vanderbilt University history Professor Tiffany Ruby Patterson examined Their Eyes Were Watching God, a 1937 novel authored by Zora Neale Hurston …

In part seven of Books That Shaped America, University of Nebraska Professor Melissa Homestead discussed Willa Cather’s 1918 novel, My Antonia," which tells the story of the friendship betwe…

In part six of Books That Shaped America, Butler University Professor Andrew Levy explored Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, authored by Mark Twain. The novel was first published in 1884 and i…

In part four of Books that Shaped America, historian, author, and Howard University professor Edna Greene Medford explored the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, the first autobiog…

Historian H.W. Brands talked about the political differences between founders Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, and John Adams. The James Madison Memorial Fellowship Found…

In part three of Books That Shaped America, Stephenie Ambrose Tubbs explored the Journals of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, which were published in 1814 and recorded the 1804-1806 exped…

English historian Peter Moore discussed the generation that preceded the Declaration of Independence in 1776 and the influence of leading figures on the ideas that started the American Revol…

In part one of Books That Shaped America, an Arizona State University professor and a U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces judge explored The Federalist, an 1788 collection of essays a…

Andrew Jewell from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln talked about some of the holdings in their Willa Cather Archive, including letters to her siblings and her personal copy of My Antonia.

National Willa Cather Center talked about some of the sites around Red Cloud, Nebraska, related to Willa Cather and her writing. Willa Cather moved to Red Cloud as a child, and the land, and…