Eighth-grade history teacher Eric Langhorst gives teachers and tourists some advice on walking Boston's Freedom Trail, a tour of 23 Revolutionary War historic sites that stretches for three-and-a-half miles, one way.
From the Library of Congress website:
"Alexander von Humboldt achieved cultural hero status in the United States in the second half of the 19th century. His travels, experiments and knowledge transformed Western science. A lecture at the Library of Congress examined the influence and legacy of the German naturalist and explorer."
The Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery's Laura Simo discusses a life portrait of George Washington by English artist Robert Edge Pine (1730-1788). Simo focuses on Pine's life, looking at his sympathy for Americans and their cause that brought him to the newborn U.S. in 1784 and the events that brought him to paint Washington's portrait.
From the National Constitution Center website:
"With the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, an old-fashioned southern Jacksonian Democrat of pronounced states' rights views became the seventeenth president of the United States. In a surprising turn of events, Andrew Johnson was charged with the reconstruction of the defeated South, including the extension of civil rights and suffrage to African American Southerners. It quickly became clear that the president supported the enactment of 'black codes' and would block efforts to force Southern states to guarantee full equality for African Americans, igniting a fierce battle with congressional Republicans. Acclaimed author David O. Stewart returns to the Constitution Center to discuss the impeachment trial of President Johnson, which became the central battle of the struggle over how to reunite a nation after four years of war."
To listen to this lecture, scroll to "Impeached: The Trial of President Andrew Johnson," which is the June 26, 2009 post.
Donald L. Miller and Louis P. Masur trace the American impulse to reform from 1800 to 1848. They look at the development of political parties, including the Democrats and the Whigs; reform associations and movements, including changes in attitudes toward education, alcohol, and punishment of criminals; women's rights efforts; the fervor of the Second Great Awakening; and the continuing debate over slavery.
Donald L. Miller and Louis P. Masur follow the growth of American capitalism and industry from 1776 to 1861. They look at Samuel Slater's introduction of factories to the U.S.; the textile factory community of Lowell; transportation development and the creation of the Erie Canal; and the growth of Chicago, including quality of life and pollution issues it faced and its integration into the country's rail system.
Donald L. Miller, with Virginia Scharff, Douglas Brinkley, Stephen Ambrose, and Pauline Maier, follows American history from 1803 to 1861. Focusing on Westward Expansion, the presentation begins with the Louisiana Purchase and continues on to examine transportation available in this time and the development of a slave-based economy in the South.
Donald L. Miller, with Virginia Scharff, Louis P. Masur, and Pauline Maier, follows the new United States from 1776 to 1826, examining the development of the new country's government, from the Articles of Confederation to the Constitution.
Donald L. Miller, with Pauline Maier and Waldo E. Martin, Jr., follow American history from the end of the French and Indian War through the American Revolution. On the way, they look at taxation and the Stamp Act, the Boston Massacre, the Boston Tea Party, the Continental Congresses, the Battles of Lexington and Concord, Thomas Paine's Common Sense and its effects, the Declaration of Independence, and the war itself.
Donald L. Miller, with Pauline Maier and Virginia Scharff, follow the growth of the British American colonies from 1663 to 1763, examining the expansion of the economy (and of the slave trade), population increase, the development of slave culture, social structure (particularly in the city of Philadelphia), political trends, the life of Benjamin Franklin, and the French and Indian War.