Lectures in History

La Sierra University professor Alicia Gutierrez-Romine taught a class about laws and policies regarding abortion. Starting in the 19th century, she tracked changes in medical practice and public opinion through court cases and newspaper coverage. She also described abortion restrictions, access to illegal abortions, costs, and health risks in different time periods and states. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Grove City College president Paul McNulty taught a class about the development of the U.S. Constitution and what he believes are its main principles: republicanism, the separation of powers, and federalism. Mr. McNulty served as deputy attorney general in the George W. Bush administration from 2006 to 2007. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Virginia Commonwealth University Professor Nicole Myers Turner taught a class on the lives of formerly enslaved African Americans following emancipation. She explained how they defined freedom for themselves while the federal government debated political and legal definitions. Professor Turner also discussed the important role of religious and educational institutions in newly freed African American communities. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Stony Brook University Professor Nancy Tomes taught a class about the 1918 influenza pandemic and public information efforts in the United States to stop the spread of the disease. She described methods such as canceling public gatherings, social distancing, and propaganda about good hygiene, which are still implemented. This class was filmed on March 10, 2020, during the early stages of the coronavirus outbreak in the U.S. Professor Toms compared the symptoms, economic impact, and national response between 1918 and today. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

White House Historical Association historian and American University lecturer Matthew Costello taught a class on White House myths. He talked about the realities and legends behind often repeated stories such as the tunnel system, a gift alligator, how decorating traditions began, and Dolley Madison rescuing George Washington’s portrait. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

University of North Carolina at Pembroke professor Jamie Martinez taught a class about the Confederacy’s economic policies during the Civil War. She explained how a pre-war focus on cotton exports over food production combined with wartime farm labor disruptions led to food shortages and riots in the South in 1863. This, she said, forced the Confederate government into developing more nationalized policies for food production and resource allocation that ran counter to their constitution’s emphasis on a decentralized government. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Longwood University President W. Taylor Reveley IV and Political Science Professor Emeritus William Harbour taught a class about the presidencies of Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, exploring the major events and policies during their tenures in the Oval Office. They also compared the two men’s backgrounds and leadership approaches. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Utah State University Professor Maria Angela Diaz taught a class on the Civil War in the West and looked at the conflict in states and territories such as Missouri, Kansas, Texas, and Arizona. She explored how the diverse populations of the region reacted to the war and chose between siding with the Union or the Confederacy. Professor Diaz also focuses on the larger role guerrilla warfare played in the West. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill professor William Sturkey taught a class about expanding rights in the 1960s and '70s, looking at women’s liberation and the gay rights movement. He covered topics such as birth control, the Equal Rights Amendment and the Stonewall riots. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

James Madison University professor Andrew Witmer taught a class about the evolution of rural areas after the Civil War. Using his own hometown of Monson, Maine as a case study, he examined rural industry such as slate mining and the rise of country tourism aided by the expansion of railroad networks. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

University of Maryland professor Christopher Bonner taught a class about the concept of “power” in antebellum slave societies. He explored the different ways owners and enslaved people exerted or expressed their will and looks at how these dynamics played out in the context of individual plantations. He also discussed how the invention of the cotton gin and resulting expansion of both slavery and the cotton industry impacted the relationship between owners and the enslaved. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Guilford Technical Community College professor Jeff Kinard taught a class about Civil War weaponry and shared artifacts such as muskets, carbines and revolvers. He described technological advances, such as breech loading and rifled barrels, that allowed soldiers to fire faster and with more accuracy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

University of Minnesota Professor Saje Mathieu taught a class about “neutrality” and what that concept meant in World War I America. She explained how neutrality did not mean inactivity, as the U.S. sold materials to both the Allied and Central Powers, helping both sides continue the fight. She also talked about how the U.S. viewed itself as the defender of democracy and sought to police certain nations and ethnic groups, yet faced criticism for how it treated its own dissenters and minorities. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Grove City College Professor Paul Kengor explored the tense days of October 1962 when the United States and the Soviet Union faced off over missiles in Cuba in one of the “hottest” episodes of the Cold War. He explained how the ideological militancy of Cuban leader Fidel Castro worried leaders in both Moscow and Washington who did not truly desire nuclear conflict despite their tough talk. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Emory University professor Carol Anderson taught a class about efforts in the early 1960s to register African American voters in Mississippi. She described some of the leaders of the movement, their tactics and the opposition they faced from segregationists. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Boston College professor Seth Jacobs discussed President Lyndon Johnson and the factors that led him to escalate the war in Vietnam following the assassination of his predecessor, John F. Kennedy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Clemson University professor C. Bradley Thompson teaches a class about the preamble of the Declaration of Independence. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Iowa State University professor Carmen Bain teaches a class on women's work on family farms during the 20th century. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

University of Nebraska-Lincoln professor William G. Thomas III teaches a class on some of the lawsuits brought by enslaved people who sued for their freedom in the antebellum period. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Wofford College professor Mark Byrnes teaches a class about U.S. public opinion, the rise of radio, and the debate about whether to enter World War II. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Johnson County Community College professor Tai Edwards teaches a class about the expansion of the United States during the Spanish-American War and the acquisition of Hawaii. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Gettysburg College professor Timothy Shannon teaches a class on Colonial-era diplomatic ties between the Iroquois Confederacy of the eastern Great Lakes region and European settlers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Daniel Richter of the University of Pennsylvania teaches a class on 18th century power struggles between Native Americans, colonial settlers and European empires. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

U.S. Air Force Academy professor Stephen Randolph teaches a class about President Richard Nixon, his National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger, and their strategy for the U.S. withdrawal from Vietnam. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Loyola University Chicago professor Michelle Nickerson teaches a class on the deindustrialization of the U.S. in the 1970s and '80s and how music and popular culture of the period reflected these economic changes. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Tulane University professor John "Ray" Proctor teaches a class about playwright August Wilson, his contribution to African American theatre and his Pulitzer prize-winning play, [Fences]. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Emory University professor Deborah Lipstadt teaches a class about anti-Semitism in America and Holocaust denial. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

University of Arkansas professor Elliott West lectures on the environmental impact of the California Gold Rush, part of a seminar for high school teachers hosted by the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

University of Colorado Denver professor Sarah Fields teaches a class about the 1981 Jean Harris trial, also known as the "Scarsdale Diet" doctor murder case. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Colorado College professor Santiago Guerra teaches a class on marijuana regulation in U.S. History. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Texas Christian University professor Gene Allen Smith teaches a class about George Washington's character. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Stony Brook University professor Paul Kelton teaches a class about Abraham Lincoln and Native Americans. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Stevenson University professor Jamie Goodall teaches a class about female activists and the 1960s civil rights movement. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Andrew Slap of East Tennessee State University teaches a class on Abraham Lincoln, Andrew Johnson and the Constitution. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Karen Markoe of State University of New York Maritime College teaches a class on the 1920s. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

University of Texas at Austin professor Peniel Joseph teaches a class on the life & career of Civil Rights pioneer Ronald Walters. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

University of Utah professor Eric Hinderaker teaches a class about western settlement before, during and after the American Revolution. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

William Woods University professor Craig Bruce Smith teaches a class about the American Revolution and the Continental Army. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Lafayette College professor Robert Weiner teaches a class on the origins of World War II in Europe. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

American University professor Ibram Kendi teaches a class about Malcolm X's views on Africa. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Providence College professor Edward Andrews teaches a class on early English missions in Colonial America. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dickinson College professor Jim Hoefler taught a class about end of life care and perceptions of death in the United States since the 1800s. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Georgetown University professor Katherine Benton-Cohen teaches a class on the Progressive Era. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rick Kennedy of Point Loma Nazarene University teaches a class about Mexico's governance and plans for California in the decades leading-up to the 1848 Mexican-American War, in which Mexico lost California to the U.S. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Weber State University professor Branden Little teaches a class about the role of American factories during World War II and military vehicle innovations, with a focus on types of amphibious vehicles used in the Pacific. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Baylor University professor Julie Anne Sweet teaches a class on the American military during the Revolutionary War, including a look at the equipment and capabilities of both the Continental Army and militia troops. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

American University professor W. Joseph Campbell teaches a class on myths about William Randolph Hearst, Yellow Journalism & the lead-up to Spanish-American War at the end of the 19th century. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Georgetown University Professor Joseph McCartin teaches a class on the post-industrialization transformation of work starting in the 1960s and continuing through the end of the 20th century. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Tulane University professor Karissa Haugeberg teaches a class about the legal history of abortion in the United States from the 1840s through 2016. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Triton College professor Edward White teaches a class on lessons learned from the Vietnam War. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices