Joseph T. Glatthaar of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill describes President Abraham Lincoln's military policy, focusing on his emphasis on saving the Union and the place of race issues in this philosophy.
Historian Harold Holzer compares Lincoln's 1861 Address at Independence Hall and Obama's Race Speech at the Constitution Center.
To listen to this lecture, select "Historian Harold Holzer compares Lincoln's Address at Independence Hall and Obama's Race Speech at the Constitution Center" under "Supplemental Materials" in the right sidebar.
Historian Harold Holzer compares Abraham Lincoln's 1860 Cooper Union Speech and Barack Obama's 2008 Race Speech at the Constitution Center.
To listen to this lecture, select "Historian Harold Holzer compares Lincoln's Cooper Union Speech and Obama's Race Speech at the Constitution Center" from the sidebar on the right side of the page.
Maurice Jackson discusses Anthony Benezet, the founder of the antislavery movement in America in the mid-1700s. Benezet believed the British ban on slavery should have been extended to the colonies, and worked to convince his Quaker brethren that slave-owning was not consistent with Christian doctrine.
Dr. Michael Klarman of the University of Virginia School of Law analyzes and interprets the Brown case and its impact on the Civil Rights Movement. He annotates Justice Douglas's conference notes on Brown, tells stories about the justices, details how justices decide cases, explains why Brown was a hard case for many of the justices, and makes conclusions on why they were nonetheless eventually able to reach a unanimous outcome. He discusses the various ways in which Brown mattered and did not matter by linking Brown with the rise of southern massive resistance, violence, and ultimately the enactment of civil rights legislation in the mid-1960s. Klarman includes lessons on how and why Court decisions matter, how historians tend perhaps to overemphasize the importance of the Court's contributions to racial change in the U.S., and important reminders about how violence was necessary to prompt most whites to care about the civil rights of southern blacks.
Dr. Scot French of the University of Virginia looks at Nat Turner's Rebellion, the slave uprising of 1831—considering how the historical narrative and understanding of the Rebellion were formed and continue to be shaped.
To listen to this lecture, select "Part 2" under the February 1st listing.
Dr. Scot French of the University of Virginia looks at Nat Turner's Rebellion, the slave uprising of 1831—considering how the historical narrative and understanding of the Rebellion were formed and continue to be shaped.
To listen to this lecture, select "Podcast Part 1" under the February 1st listing.
Don Vitale of Archiving Early America narrates an overview of Benjamin Franklin's early life and his scientific, social, and inventive accomplishments prior to the Revolutionary War.
Captioned and uncaptioned versions of the film are available.
Associate editor and professor of history at Indiana University, John Nieto-Phillips speaks with Professor James Meriwether about his article, "'Worth a Lot of Negro Votes': Black Voters, Africa, and the 1960 Presidential Campaign." When John F. Kennedy telephoned Coretta Scott King to express sympathy for her jailed husband, he had little idea that his two-minute call would move to center stage in the 1960 presidential election. That call, James H. Meriwether argues, has obscured Kennedy's broader efforts to secure the support of black voters while not alienating white voters in the no longer "solid South." Kennedy drew on the growing transnational relationship black Americans had with an ancestral continent undergoing its own freedom struggles, revealing that he was more interested in Africa than in civil rights. Africa, the newest frontier for Kennedy, became a place where he could show his Cold War credentials, find common ground with black American voters, and strengthen his chances to win the presidency.
Julie Novkov, Associate Professor of Political Science and Women's Studies at the University of Albany, SUNY, provides an overview of 230 years of struggles for equality, focusing on the role of the Constitution and the courts in movements for African American and women's rights.
Audio and video options are available.