All upcoming American History programs

Even if your knowledge of German is limited to “Ja” and “Nein,” this tour makes it easy to indulge your curiosity about all things German, tracing the roots and influence of Germans, past and present, in Washington with tour leader Kathleen Bashian. Highlights include a visit to the German American Heritage Museum; St. Mary Mother of God Catholic Church; and German-American Friendship Garden.

Abraham Lincoln, a staunch advocate of democracy, believed in the fundamental principles of the government of the people, by the people, and for the people. Two leading Lincoln scholars, Allen C. Guelzo and Harold Holzer, discuss the intricacies of Lincoln's legacy, providing a dual perspective on the challenges and triumphs that defined the nation during the 19th century and drawing parallels to the complexities of the current one.

During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the emerging profession of architecture in America was very much a man’s world. But several talented and tenacious women created doorways into it. Lecturer Bill Keene examines the careers of three of these pioneering women—Louise Blanchard Bethune, Marian Mahony, and Julia Morgan—and their importance in the development of the profession of architecture. (World Art History Certificate elective, 1/2 credit)

Through the 1950s and 1960s, the world witnessed a first in its history: Two global superpowers armed with enough thermonuclear weapons to destroy the planet several times over. While many Americans repeated the idea that nuclear war was too terrible to contemplate, a group of scholars and theorists within the defense and policy worlds thought deeply and carefully about how to wage—and win—such a conflict should it ever erupt. Historian Chris Hamner examines the thinking of scholars like Herman Kahn and those at RAND Corporation as they puzzled out how to deter World War III or, failing that, how the U.S. could emerge victorious—as well as how to understand what everyday Americans were thinking about the monstrous possibility of nuclear war.

Delve into Gen. George McClellan’s 1862 Peninsula Campaign with an emphasis on the Seven Days Battles. Evaluating McClellan’s actions and state of mind, former U.S. Air Force intelligence officer Marc Thompson explains why this bold campaign plan yielded disastrous results.

Drawing on his new book The Demon of Unrest, Erik Larson examines the chaotic months between Lincoln’s election in November 1860 and the Confederacy’s shelling of Sumter—a period marked by tragic errors and miscommunications, enflamed egos and craven ambitions, personal tragedies and betrayals. Using information from diaries, secret communiques, slave ledgers, and plantation records, Larson discusses the five months that led to the start of the Civil War—a slow-burning crisis that finally tore a deeply divided nation in two.

In May 1862, Union Gen. George B. McClellan and his army were on Richmond’s outskirts. Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee was assigned the daunting task of stopping a Union juggernaut capable of ending the Civil War. Thus, the stage was set for what became known as the Seven Days Battles. Led by Civil War tour guide Col. Marc Thompson, this tour travels to five of these battlefields plus other significant related locations.

For roughly a decade beginning in the late 1940s, NBC and CBS offered viewers live original dramas. These anthology programs, such as “Kraft Television Theatre” and “Ford Television Theatre,” launched the careers of directors like Arthur Penn and John Frankenheimer, actors like Paul Newman and James Dean, and playwrights like Paddy Chayefsky and Rod Serling. Media historian Brian Rose looks at the forces that made this golden age such an intriguing chapter in TV history.

June 6, 2024, will mark the 80th anniversary of the greatest amphibious operation in history: D-Day. Kevin Weddle, professor emeritus of military theory and strategy at the U.S. Army War College, traces the development, execution, and aftermath of the cross-channel invasion that signaled the beginning of the end of Nazi Germany.

Barbara Walters was a force from the time TV was exploding on the American scene in the 1960s to its waning dominance in a new world of streaming services and social media. Drawing from her new biography of Walters, Susan Page, Washington bureau chief of USA Today, examines the woman behind the legacy—one whose personal demons fueled an ambition that broke all the rules and finally gave women a permanent place on the air.