In July 1863, Union and Confederate troops met in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania and in three days forever changed the course of American history. Three of America’s most renowned Civil War historians discuss one of the bloodiest and most haunting battles of the American Civil War.
William Henry Seward was one of the most important Americans of the nineteenth century: progressive governor of New York, outspoken federal senator, secretary of state during the Civil War and its aftermath, and a target of the assassins who killed Lincoln. Join us for an illuminating conversation about a complex and pivotal figure, Lincoln’s closest friend and adviser, and an early architect of America’s empire.
Celebrated historian David Nasaw returns to continue his discussion of Joseph P. Kennedy, the patriarch of America’s greatest political dynasty. In part two, Professor Nasaw focuses on Kennedy’s relationship with his son John F. Kennedy, who resurrected the family’s political reputation and captured the imagination of a generation.
SPEAKER BIOS
David Nasaw is a professor of history at the CUNY Graduate Center and the author of The Patriarch: The Remarkable Life and Turbulent Times of Joseph P. Kennedy.
How does the Constitution, an 18th-century document, relate to and dictate the laws of a 21st-century society? Through the analysis of past cases, including those concerning slavery, the Cherokee Indians, and detainees at Guantánamo Bay, Justice Stephen Breyer examines the Court’s arduous—and often turbulent—journey to establish its legitimacy as guardian of the Constitution. Having earned the public’s confidence, he expounds how the Court can continue promoting a workable democracy going forward.