Sponsored by the National Park Service, Gettysburg College, and Mount St. Mary's University, the Academy presents an in-depth perspective of Dwight D. Eisenhower as president and world leader. Sessions introduce effective strategies for teaching the Cold War in the classroom and include:

* New scholarship on the Eisenhower Presidency.
* Field trips, lectures, and discussion on the 1950s including the Cold War, civil rights, and popular culture.
* A visit to the Eisenhower National Historic Site to get an intimate glimpse into Eisenhower's life and times.
* Opportunities to learn about and use primary source documents, film and video footage, and the World Wide Web as research tools.
* A walk through historic Gettysburg exploring Eisenhower's life and times in the community.

"An NCHE team will explore the topic of the The 60's at this colloquium."

"An NCHE team of Yohuru Williams, Tom Connors, and David Byrd will explore the topic of Postwar America: Civil Rights, the Sixties, and the Rise of Conservation at this Continuity and Change: America in the 20th Century colloquium."

This institute, led by Manisha Sinha of the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, will focus on the creation of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech and its "influence throughout American history and provide teachers with concrete strategies for preparing their students for the MCAS examinations."

"This course will explore the history of black Americans as they strove to secure their dignity as human beings, and rights as American citizens, in the face of racial prejudice. It will examine the diverse viewpoints of leading black intellectuals and activists on human equality, slavery, self-government, the rule of law, emancipation, colonization, and citizenship. Contemporary issues to be considered may include affirmative action, black reparations, racial profiling, and the 'achievement gap' in education."

"What perhaps more than anything else distinguished the Revolution and Founding from European experience was the American transformation of the idea of a social contract from theory to practice. By focusing on the role of the social contract this seminar can shed new light on the old question, 'Was the American Revolution a revolution?' The enormous importance of the idea of a social contract in America after the revolutionary era can be tracked by studying, among other developments, the land reform movement or the uses of the Declaration of Independence, down to Martin Luther King's famous 'I Have A Dream' speech of 1963." Will use primary sources to examine the effects of the American Revolution and the U.S. concept of a social contract, including the Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights, the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen, the English Declaration of Rights, the Gettysburg Address, and Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech.

"This course will focus on key episodes when Southern history and the history of the nation intersected at particularly important points: the emergence and spread of slavery, the Founding, the Civil War, the creation of segregation, and the Civil Rights struggle. The course will be taught in Richmond, Virginia, a city rich in museums and historic sites that we will use to explore the subjects addressed in the seminar."

"This seminar will explore a controversial era shrouded in myths and memories. Among the topics it will examine are the presidencies of John Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, and Richard Nixon; the civil rights movement; the Vietnam War; the New Left; the counterculture; the women's movement; the gay movement; the conservative movement; the international dimension of youth protest; and the legacies of the 1960s. The aim of the seminar is to provide a balanced history of a turbulent time that continues to influence American politics, society, and culture."

This seminar will be "organized around ten commonly taught topics in American history, including: Native Peoples; The Colonial Period; The American Revolution; The Making of a Country; Slavery and Abolition; The Civil War; The Industrial Revolution; Immigration; and The Civil Rights Movement. Teachers will use maps, biographies of important figures, document and activities booklets, as well as multimedia materials such as contemporary music to develop classroom activities and lessons."

Senator Richard Cohen discusses his interest in the Civil Rights Movement and tells stories about his visits to cities core to the movement, including Jackson, Birmingham, Philadelphia, and Selma and his interviews with civil rights activists and opponents.