Most Americans know George Washington's December 1776 crossing of the Delaware from the famous painting by Emmanuel Gottlieb Leutze, which depicts Washington standing bravely in a rowboat on stormy waters. David Hackett Fischer, author of Washington's Crossing, looks beyond the famous painting to the events of that tumultuous month. One of Washington's great strengths was his ability to lead men from different regions and walks of life. He was also known for his humane treatment of British prisoners—treatment that the British did not reciprocate with American prisoners.

In this lecture, historian Mary Beth Norton examines the original court documents from the Salem witchcraft trials; she places these well-known events in the context of the Indian wars and other witch trials in New England. The trials, she concludes, were driven more by politics than by superstition.

According to the Gilder Lehrman Institute, "As inscrutable as he was influential, Thomas Jefferson casts a mighty shadow on American history. In this lecture, Pulitzer-Prize-winning historian Joseph J. Ellis explores Jefferson’s political ideology—his preference for an agrarian nation and a weak national government, his feelings about democracy, his insistence on the separation of church and state, and belief in individual rights—and suggests that as the United States emerges from the 20th century, it may be moving toward a more Jeffersonian ideal of limited government and the primacy of the individual."

According to the Gilder Lehrman website, "Award-winning historian Jean Strouse discusses her research into the life of J.P. Morgan, America's most influential banker. She looks at the reasons for his success and delves into his inscrutable personal life. Strouse's extensive scholarship offers many insights into her subject, whose name is in the financial news headlines once again."

Harriet Tubman was born into slavery in Maryland in 1820. After her escape to the North in 1849, she returned to the South more than a dozen times to ferry other slaves along the Underground Railroad. She later helped John Brown recruit men for his Harper's Ferry raid; and during the Civil War, Tubman served as a Union spy. In this lecture, historian Catherine Clinton details not only Tubman's life but also the quest to uncover new information on Tubman.

Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and Director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute of African American History at Harvard University, speaks about the development of the African American National Biography, the largest African American biographical collection ever published, spanning more than four centuries, with 4,100 entries in eight volumes. The series presents African-American history as told through the lives of its most notable historic actors, documenting and dramatizing the central role played by African Americans in our nation's history, from the 16th through the 20th centuries.

Richard Carwardine is Rhodes Professor of American History at Oxford University, author of Lincoln: A Life of Purpose and Power, and winner of the 2004 Lincoln Book Prize. In this lecture, he discusses different aspects of Lincoln's life. Why is Lincoln a mythic figure? How early in his career did he develop his views against slavery? What role did religion play in his life? Professor Carwardine analyzes Lincoln's greatness as well as his humility.

According to the Gilder Lehrman website, "Henry L. Luce Professor of the Civil War Era and Professor of History at Gettysburg College Allen Guelzo examines Abraham Lincoln's motivations for issuing the Emancipation Proclamation in January of 1863. Guelzo contends that the proclamation is among the most misunderstood of the Civil War era, a necessary and even desperate attempt by Lincoln to enact a form of emancipation that would pass legal muster. Guelzo traces the evolution of Lincoln's views on emancipation with particular emphasis on the strategic and moral calculus that factored into the momentous proclamation of 1863."

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."