Class 16, Homefronts and Battlefronts: The Social Impact of Total War
Homefronts and Battlefronts: The Social Impact of Total War. In this DeVane Lecture Series course, Professor David Blight examines the impact of slavery and racism on American institutions, past, present, and future. This course works from an assumption that racial slavery was a central theme of the history of the Americas, and its many endings and legacies live with us still. The course will pose the question “can it happen here?” In the 1930s, the “it” was fascism. The “it” in this case is intended to mean not only slavery and its myriad forms of enduring inequalities, but also the very existence of a pluralistic, democratic, multi-ethnic government and society rooted in the rule of law and living under a common constitution. There have been many pivot or hinge points in American history when the nature and existence of the American experiment, as well as human freedom and rights were on the line. The course will specifically examine slavery and Yale, the Civil War, and the many legacies of that period – political, constitutional, racial, economic, and commemorative – as they have shaped American life and polity ever since. To view all the classes as they are posted, please visit this playlist: Can It Happen Here Again? Yale, Slavery, and Legacies: 2024 DeVane Lecture Series • Can It Happen Here Again? Yale, Slavery, a...
Class 17, Who Freed the Slaves: Lincoln, Leadership and Emancipation Policy
Class 19, Wartime Reconstruction and the Ends of War
Howard Zinn at MIT 2005 - The Myth of American Exceptionalism
How the Aftermath of the Civil War Helps Us Understand Trumpism with David W. Blight
The Second World Wars: People
Class14, Terrible Swift Sword: Confederate Ascendency and Ultimate Defeat
Prof. John Mearsheimer: 250 Years of American Foreign Policy
The Epic of Gilgamesh, Lecture by Andrew George
Class10, “Mexico Will Poison Us”: War of Conquest, the Compromise, and Kansas-Nebraska
Class 24, Legacies of Reconstruction and the Origins of Jim Crow Society
Gary W. Gallagher - Civil War Turning Points
Class 20, Andrew Johnson, the Radicals, and the Second American Revolution
An in-depth interview with the late Sir Alex Younger, the longest-serving MI6 chief | The Economist
H. W. Brands, "How the Rich Got Rich: The Gilded Age in America," (Austin, June 5, 2011)
Who Was Josephus? Jewish Biography as History Dr. Henry Abramson
A Conversation with Eric Foner (History with David M. Rubenstein)
Class12, John Brown’s Holy War, 1860 Election, and the Secession Crisis
Class15, Never Call Retreat: Military Turning Points and Why the North Won the War
But There Was No Peace: The Aftermath of the Civil War
