"This course examines the lives, character, political thought and political practice of two of America's leading thinkers and statesmen, viz., James Madison and Woodrow Wilson. Close attention will be given to the relationship between ideas and actions in their political careers."

"This course will examine military aspects of the war, as well as political developments during it, including the political history of the Emancipation Proclamation, the Gettysburg Address and the Second Inaugural. The course also examines the post-war Amendments and the Reconstruction era."

"Even though the powers of the American Executive are controlled and limited, extraordinary acts of statesmanship are possible. This seminar examines two presidents who demonstrated extraordinary political leadership. We will examine these statesmen and the political circumstances in which their prudence revealed itself."

"This course will examine military aspects of the war, as well as political developments during it, including the political history of the Emancipation Proclamation, the Gettysburg Address and the Second Inaugural. The course also examines the post-war Amendments and the Reconstruction era."

"A study of the sectional conflict beginning with the nullification crisis. The course will not only examine the political, social and economic developments in the period leading to the Civil War, but will emphasize the political thought of Abraham Lincoln, Stephen Douglas, and John C. Calhoun."

"What perhaps more than anything else distinguished the Revolution and Founding from European experience was the American transformation of the idea of a social contract from theory to practice. By focusing on the role of the social contract this seminar can shed new light on the old question, 'Was the American Revolution a revolution?' The enormous importance of the idea of a social contract in America after the revolutionary era can be tracked by studying, among other developments, the land reform movement or the uses of the Declaration of Independence, down to Martin Luther King's famous 'I Have A Dream' speech of 1963." Will use primary sources to examine the effects of the American Revolution and the U.S. concept of a social contract, including the Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights, the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen, the English Declaration of Rights, the Gettysburg Address, and Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech.

"A panel discussion featuring Elizabeth Alexander, Natasha Trethewey, and Caryl Phillips."

Professor Diane Mutti-Burke "explores the diversity found within Southern plantations by illuminating how region and the size of slaveholding altered slavery. This lecture is part of the Gilder Lehrman Center Brown Bag Lunch Series."

Scholar Robert Bonner "examines a multi-faceted 'proslavery Americanism' that sought to nationalize Southern slaveholding within the late antebellum U.S. before providing a platform for the Confederate departure of the early 1860s. This lecture is part of the Gilder Lehrman Center Brown Bag Lunch Series."

Author Edward Ball explores Southern memory and interpretation of slavery, as part of the Gilder Lehrman Brown Bag Lunch Series.