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- Dates: Mondays, July 6, 13, 20 and 27
- Time: 10:30 - Noon ET
- From humble frontier beginnings to leadership during America's greatest crisis, Abraham Lincoln's life remains one of the most compelling stories in American history. This four-part lecture series follows his journey from a self-educated young man in Illinois to the president who guided the nation through civil war, emancipation, and transformation. We will examine Lincoln's rise as a lawyer and politician, his complex personal relationships, his opposition to the expansion of slavery, and his emergence as a national figure through the Lincoln-Douglas debates and the election of 1860. At the center of the course is Lincoln's wartime presidency. Facing rebellion, military setbacks, political rivals, and a deeply divided nation, Lincoln struggled to preserve the Union while redefining American freedom. We will explore his relationships with generals, his management of foreign affairs, and the decisions that led to emancipation and the abolition of slavery. More than a political biography, this course is a portrait of a leader under extraordinary pressure and the evolution of the man who helped reshape the United States.
- Dates: Fridays, July 10, 17, 24 and 31
- Time: 10:30 - Noon ET
- This four-lecture series traces Italy's remarkable journey from the heights of the Renaissance to the creation of a unified nation in the nineteenth century. Once the center of European art, science, and culture, Italy later fell under foreign domination and political fragmentation, spending centuries divided among rival states and competing empires. The course explores how the Enlightenment, the French Revolution, and the age of Napoleon awakened new political ideas and inspired a generation of Italian patriots determined to end foreign rule. Secret societies, revolutionaries, and reformers challenged the old order and helped ignite the movement for national unity. At the center of this story stand four extraordinary figures: Giuseppe Mazzini, Giuseppe Garibaldi, Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour, and King Victor Emmanuel II. Through revolution, diplomacy, and war, they transformed a divided peninsula into a modern nation and returned Italy to the center of European history.
- Dates: Mondays, July 6, 13, 20, 27
- Time: 1:00 - 2:00PM ET
- This four-lecture series examines one of the most dramatic and controversial chapters in Hollywood history—the era of the Blacklist from 1946 to 1960. As Cold War fears swept across America, accusations of Communist sympathies shattered careers, divided friendships, and transformed Hollywood into a political battleground. We will explore the origins of the Red Scare and the efforts of figures such as Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, and Gene Kelly to resist the growing climate of fear. Investigations by the House Un-American Activities Committee damaged the lives of rising stars such as John Garfield, Betty Garrett, Larry Parks, Lee J. Cobb, Edward G. Robinson, and Zero Mostel. At the same time, celebrities including John Wayne, Walt Disney, Ginger Rogers, and Robert Taylor supported the anti-Communist cause through organizations such as the Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals. We will also examine the influence of government officials, studio executives, Hedda Hopper, and Walter Winchell in shaping public opinion and careers. Filled with political intrigue, ruined reputations, and fierce debates over freedom and loyalty, this course revisits a turbulent era that permanently changed Hollywood, California, and the nation.