This seminar examines the American experience of World War I. The readings will engage participants in conversation on the rhetoric of making “the world safe for democracy”. We will look at the realities of fighting the war and what influenced the female suffrage movement along with the African American civil rights movements, daily life, civil […]
What was the extraordinary partnership between George Washington and Alexander Hamilton? A wealthy Virginia planter and a brash immigrant from the Caribbean helped to win the Revolutionary War and establish a “new order for the ages.” Indeed, no other founding collaboration was as important to achieving victory and nationhood as Washington and Hamilton’s. Working together, […]
There has been a complex and ongoing struggle for women’s equality in the United States. We will explore how women have challenged legal, social, and economic barriers across nearly four centuries, from the constraints of coverture laws in colonial America to more contemporary debates over reproductive rights and workplace equality. This program will be conducted […]
How did the alliances of World War II break down, and so quickly after 1945? How close were these alliances in the first place, and what differences existed between the United States and the Soviet Union that acted as wedges between these two nations and their respective allies? This seminar focuses on the ideas, events, […]
Seminar participants will play the role-immersion game, Patriots, Loyalists, and Revolution in New York City, 1775-1776. They will enter into the political and social chaos of a revolutionary New York City, where patriot and loyalist forces argued and fought for advantage among a divided populace. In order to play, participants take on historical roles and […]
The global Seven Years’ War (known in America as the French and Indian War) caused Britain, France, and their allies to clash from 1754 to 1763. Although important in its own right, perhaps it is even more significant in that it reordered the world in ways that would prove consequential beyond anyone’s expectations. In colonial […]
One of the enduring puzzles of the American Revolution is how American colonists, once loyal to the king and enthusiastically attached to their status as British subjects, could by 1776 stand willing to declare their independence and wage a war to secure it. This five-session seminar uses primary sources to examine the principles and philosophies […]
This seminar will focus on immigration to the West Coast of the United States from the mid-to-late 1800s to the present day. Using a mixture of primary source documents, memoirs, and short fiction, we will study topics such as Chinese immigration and exclusion, Japanese immigration and internment during World War II, refugees from Southeast Asia […]
Beginning with the upheavals of the 1960s, the United States saw a diverse set of groups pushing for social change. These included African Americans, Native Americans, women, and gays and lesbians. This seminar will focus on the legacy of the 1960s, the intersection of personal behavior with political movements and battles won and lost by […]
This seminar will focus on America’s westward expansion and its “Manifest Destiny” to expand from sea to shining sea. This seminar will consider the purposes for westward expansion, Jackson’s Indian Removal Policy and westward expansion’s impact on slavery. This program will be conducted as a discussion, utilizing primary source documents as the only readings, and […]
