UPCOMING SERIES

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STARTS: Dec. 9, 16, 23 & 30
Mondays, 10:30AM - Noon ET
4 lecture series $60.00
This set of 4 lectures examines the 1980s thru the lens of America’s president during this critical decade. Reagan would transform the Cold War, domestic politics, and do so with an infectious ebullient confidence and style that left a lasting mark. Indeed, historians often refer to this era as the time of the “Reagan Revolution” – but in retrospect, much of this revolution played out very differently than its original authors anticipated. Rather than making the country more conservative, it inaugurated a longer-term transformation of conservatism itself into something both more populist, more angry and less democratic.

STARTS: Thur, Dec. 5, 12, 19 & 26
Thursdays, 1:00-2:30 PM ET
4 lecture series $60.00
This set of four lectures will examine the last of the Julio-Claudian emperors, Claudius and Nero, one the underappreciated ruler saddled with crippling disabilities and the other whose name became synonymous with tyranny, cruelty and “fiddling” while Rome burned. Here we will explore the many dimensions they both inhabited as, even with their many failings, they still led Rome during the waning years of its first “golden age.”

STARTS: Dec 4, 11, 18, 23**
3 Wednesdays & 1 Monday, 1:00 - 2:00 PM ET
4 lecture series $60.00
This set of 4 lectures examines the emergence of modern Connecticut in the mid-20th century with special focus on the rise and decline of major urban centers such as Hartford, New Haven, and Bridgeport. We will also explore how de-industrialization transformed once thriving cities. We will also examine the growing importance of the African American community in places like Hartford where the battled for better education, housing and infrastructure ignited a political revolution.

STARTS: Fri, Dec. 6, 13, 20 & 27
Fridays, 1:00 - 2:30 PM ET
4 lecture series $60.00
This set of 4 lectures will examine the apex era of one of Europe’s most storied dynasties: the Habsburgs in the 16th and early 17th centuries. Ruling from both Madrid and Vienna (among other places), the Habsburgs embraced a nearly sure-fire formula for accumulating crowns, titles and power. But it came at a COST in terms both financial, social and genetic. Centuries of inbreeding and an overdrawn commitment to the Counter Reformation created unique challenges and spelled profound trouble for historic figures such as Spain’s King Philip II and Philip III, and Holy Roman Emperors Charles V, Ferdinand I, and Rudolf II among others.