Author Anne Sebba follows the life of American-born Jennie Jerome, wife of Randolph Churchill and father of Winston Churchill. Sebba examines Jennie's early life, the romantic affairs that assisted her husband's career, her relationship with her son, her social reform work, and other aspects of her very active life. The presentation includes slides.
Audio and video options are available.
Library of Congress scholar-in-residence Catherine Parisian details the history of the first White House Library, founded by the 13th U.S. President, Millard Fillmore, and later dispersed. Parisian reconstructs its contents and considers its significance in 19th-century U.S. history. The presentation includes slides.
The lecture can also be downloaded as an MP3.
U.S. Booksellers for Free Expression president Christopher Finan looks at the importance of and struggle to defend freedom of speech and other civil liberties over the 20th century.
The lecture audio can be downloaded as an mp3.
As a part of a bicentennial series celebrating Boston Athenaeum writers, Marshall Moriarty presents orator and statesman Daniel Webster (17821852); Representative Martha M. Walz presents activist Lydia Maria Child (18021880); and Daniel R. Coquillette presents sixth President of the U.S. John Quincy Adams (17671848).
Professor David Wilson introduces the life and times of Thomas D'Arcy McGee (1826-1868), an Irish-Canadian journalist, poet, politician, and critic of Irish republicanism. McGee lived in the United States from 1842 to 1845 and from 1848 to 1857.
Charles Daly, Richard Donahue and Jack McNally, all members of President John F. Kennedy's staff, share stories of working in the Kennedy White House.
The lecture audio can be downloaded separately.
Scholar Jeffrey Matthews explores the life of Alanson B. Houghton, American industrialist, politician, and diplomat (to Germany, 1922-1925, and to Great Britain, 1925-1929). Houghton uses this exploration to examine U.S. foreign policy between World War I and World War II, citing Houghton's criticism of policy under Presidents Harding and Coolidge.
Audio and video options are available.
Anthony J. Badger, author of the new book FDR: The First Hundred Days, talks about FDR's first 100 days and how they have been interpreted by historians across the political spectrum.
Professor Eric Foner argues that the idea of sending African American slaves to colonize Africa (an idea which Abraham Lincoln at times embraced) was part of the larger idea of emancipation for American slaves, but it did not allow its supporters to consider how freed slaves might become part of American society. It was Lincoln's consideration of this very issue, Foner says, that distinguishes him from other advocates of emancipation.
Columbia University Professor Andrew Delbanco discusses the changing and competing images of Abraham Lincoln throughout American history. Lincoln, Delbanco argues, is a cipher of self-perception for Americans of every era, partly a consequence of his pragmatism and ideological flexibility.