Reconstruction after the Civil War was America's first attempt at an interracial democracy. DeWitt Clinton Professor of History at Columbia University Eric Foner explains why an understanding of Reconstruction—and why it failed—is critical to understanding the civil rights movement of the 20th century.

Newsweek columnist Jonathan Alter and Columbia University Provost Alan Brinkley discuss the first 100 days of Franklin Roosevelt’s presidency, the subject of Alter's recent book, The Defining Moment: FDR’s First Hundred Days and the Triumph of Hope. The book contends that the first 100 days were not only the beginning of the New Deal, but also "the climax to a piece of political theater," which had begun years earlier when Roosevelt overcame polio and public perceptions of him as an elitist lightweight.

According to the Gilder Lehrman website:

"Distinguished American historian and counselor to presidents, Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. had a ringside seat to the most pivotal moments of the 20th century. Schlesinger's Journals: 1952-2000, the second volume of his journals, were published in 2007 to great acclaim. The Gilder Lehrman Institute presents a 2001 Historians' Forum that he delivered on the first volume of his journals, A Life in the Twentieth Century: Innocent Beginnings, 1917-1950. Schlesinger focuses particularly on how perceptions of progress, government, and human nature changed in the face of the two World Wars and the rise of government forms that challenged democracy."

From the Bowery Boys website:

"The Rockaways are a world unto its own, a former resort destination with miles of beach facing into the Atlantic Ocean, a collection of diverse neighborhoods and a truly quirky history. Retaining a variant of its original Lenape name, the peninsula remained relatively peaceful in the early years of New York history, the holding of the ancestral family of a famous upstate New York university.

The Marine Pavilion, a luxury spa-like resort which arrived in 1833 featuring 'sea bathing', opened up vast opportunities for recreation, and soon Rockaway Beach was dotted with dozens of hotels, thousands of daytrippers and a even a famous amusement park. Not even the fiasco known as the Rockaway Beach Hotel could drive away those seeking recreation here, including a huge population of Irish immigrants who helped define the unique spirit of the Rockaways.

The 20th century brought Robert Moses and his usual brand of reinvention, setting up the Rockaways for an uncertain century of decreased tourism, urban blight and uncommon solutions to preserve its unique heritage.

ALSO: Pirate attacks, the inferno in Irishtown, the Cabaret de la Morte, the Ramones and the legend of New York's very own Atlantis!"

From the Library of Congress Webcasts site:

"William Faulkner and Ernest Hemingway, both winners of the Nobel Prize in Literature, carried on a nuanced and complex literary rivalry. At times, each voiced a shared professional respect; at other times, each thought himself the superior craftsman and spoke disparagingly of the other. Their relationship is discussed by author Joseph Fruscione."