American History

David Blight talks about the carnage of the Civil War and how both sides tried to get back the bodies of their fallen soldiers to bury and memorialize.

Carl Van Vechten, a best-selling novelist, archivist, photographer, and negrophile promoted black culture during the era known as the Harlem Renaissance, and beyond. The Harlem Renaissance was a black movement, but it needed whiteness in order to thrive. Carl Van Vechten embodied that necessary whiteness in ways that were multiple, fascinating, and contradictory. Emily Bernard, Professor of English and Ethnic Studies at the University of Vermont chronicles his life.

Frank Turner, John Hay Whitney Professor of History and the director of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University describes the life and writings of Alexis de Tocqueville, the French political thinker and historian best known for "Democracy in America," published after his travels in the United States in 1825.

Frank Prochaska, author of The Eagle and the Crown: Americans and the British Monarchy, argues in his book that America’s Founding Fathers created an “elective king” in the office of the president.

An autobiographical, historical metaphorical account of the African American experience. Holloway examines the grave epitaph of freed-slave John Jacks: “God wills us free/ Man wills us slaves/I will what God wills/ God’s will be done". He explores the irony of American ideal of freedom defined by slavery.