Lectures in History

University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee visiting professor John Prevas teaches a class at IMG Academy about the First and Second amendments to the U.S. Constitution, using court cases to demonstrate how these rights have been interpreted. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Flagler College professor Michael Butler teaches a class about music in the post-Civil Rights era, highlighting artists such as James Brown, Marvin Gaye and George Clinton. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

University of Texas at Arlington professor Stephanie Cole teaches a class on the life and work of antebellum social reformer Lucretia Mott. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

University of Mary Washington professor Christine Henry talks about the history of roadside attractions and her own experience travelling to a freshwater pond in Ohio called the Blue Hole. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Eastern Connecticut State Univ. professor Thomas Balcerski teaches a class on the relationship between two prominent 19th century politicians: James Buchanan, elected president in 1856, and William Rufus King, who served briefly as vice president in 1853. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

University of Maryland, Baltimore County professor William Blake teaches a class about New Deal-era politics and the role of public opinion on issues such as court packing and executive power. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Emory University professor Patrick Allitt teaches a class about President Richard Nixon, his National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger and some of their key foreign policy initiatives, including overtures toward the Soviet Union and China. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

University of Utah Political Science Professor James Curry taught a class about the creation of the Electoral College and explained how it works as a part of the presidential election process. Professor Curry taught the class prior to the 2020 vice presidential debate, which took place October 7 at the University of Utah.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mary Ellen Pethel and Jennifer Duck of Belmont University teach a class on the history of presidential campaign advertising, from the print and cartoon ads of the 19th century to the Internet and social media content of the present day. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

University of Utah political science professor David Buhler teaches a class about presidential debates and their influence on voters. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rider University professor Myra Gutin teaches a class on presidents and communications in both their campaigns and while in office, starting with Teddy Roosevelt in the early 20th century and continuing to the present day. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Brigham Young University professor Jay Buckley teaches a class about Lewis and Clark’s expedition across the American West after the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Brooklyn College Professor KC Johnson taught a class on Presidents Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon’s Supreme Court nominations. He described Johnson’s plan to fill the bench with liberal justices and the difficulties he ran into getting them confirmed. He outlined the resistance from conservative senators in the confirmation hearings and concluded with background on some of Nixon’s nominations to...

Professor Heather Cox Richardson talked about the new roles women assumed in the workforce and in politics during the late-19th century. She described the gains women made in fields such as nursing, teaching, and social work. She also spoke about the growth of political organizations run by women that focused on issues such as Prohibition and women’s suffrage.  Learn more about your ad choices. Vi...

Professor Maria Cristina Garcia talked about the United States' refugee policy since World War II. She spoke about qualifications to be a refugee and how those have changed as well as legislation governing quotas and procedures. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Professor Thomas Balcerski talked about the culture of Congress in the Antebellum Era. He described how members of Congress in the early 1800s bonded across party lines through tobacco use, social clubs, and living together in boarding houses. However, he said these friendships and alliances disintegrated as the Civil War approached, revealing the sectional divisions in national politics at the ti...

University of Minnesota professor Erika Lee talks about Asian immigration to the West coast from 1830 to 1930, including the role of San Francisco Bay’s Angel Island in the 20th century. She compared the Angel Island and Ellis Island experiences, describing how Asian immigrants in California had more extensive background checks and longer holding times than European immigrants in New York. This cl...

Professor Jack Rakove talked about some of the issues debated during the Constitutional Convention of 1787, such as the number of representatives for each state and the method of presidential elections. He described the arguments put forth by James Madison and how delegates tried to reach compromises despite competing State interests. This class was from a course called “The Constitution: A Brief...

Professor Martha Jones talked about the mid-19th century court case of Celia, a female slave who killed her master after repeated sexual assaults. Topics included what options Celia may have had, and the involvement of her fellow slaves and her master’s white neighbors in her court case. This episode may contain content that is sensitive to some listeners. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit m...

University of California, Davis Professor Alan Taylor spoke on alcohol use in the early American republic. By 1830, annual alcohol consumption in America reached four gallons per person, the most in the history of the nation before or since. Professor Taylor talked about why Americans drank so much, the consequences of so much drinking, and how it spawned the temperance movement in the 1830s. Lear...

Davidson College professor Sally McMillen talked about the polio epidemic in the United States in the early to mid-20th century. Fear of contracting polio grew following a series of outbreaks, including one in 1916 that started in Brooklyn, New York, and eventually killed more than 6,000 people. She also spoke about the efforts of President Franklin Roosevelt to help find a cure, in part by starti...

Professor Michael Kazin taught a class about culture and society in the 1920s. He spoke about Prohibition and the exploits of the gangster Al Capone, who eventually went to prison on tax evasion charges, the motion picture industry and the new production codes that sought to reduce sexuality in films, and the 1925 State of Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes trial, in which a high school teacher faced...

Phyllis Schlafly, founder of the Eagle Forum and author or editor of 20 books - talked about the roots and development of the modern conservative movement, as well as the role of women’s issues in conservative politics. Phyllis Schlafly was a guest lecturer at The Citadel Military College in Charleston, South Carolina, in a course called “The Conservative Intellectual Tradition in America,” taught...

Columbia University history professor Eric Foner examines the rise of socialism in America in the early 20th century. He talks about the Socialist Party in New York City and Milwaukee, and looks at the Socialist Party of America presidential campaigns of Eugene Debs. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

American History Professor Quintard Taylor looks at the Civil Rights Movement from the 1940s through the 1960s. Professor Taylor focuses on the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court Decision on Brown v. Board of Education and the 1957 integration of Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. This two-hour class took place at the University of Washington in Seattle.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit me...