

Lectures in History
C-SPAN
Go back to school with the country's top professors lecturing on a variety of topics in American history. New episodes posted every Saturday evening. From C-SPAN, the network that brings you "After Words" and "C-SPAN's The Weekly" podcasts.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Dec 29, 2024 • 1h 4min
SHORT SERIES: Women's Political Power in Early America
York College professor Jacqueline Beatty discussed women’s rights and changing political power during the American Revolution and the early years of the Republic. York College is located in York, Pennsylvania. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dec 29, 2024 • 1h 8min
SHORT SERIES:Women's Sports and Title IX
Georgetown University professor Bonnie Morris talked about discrimination against women in sports and Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. Title IX prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in any federally funded education program or activity. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dec 22, 2024 • 1h 21min
SHORT SERIES: Satchel Paige, Negro Leagues Baseball, and Civil Rights
Professor Donald Spivey talked about the legacy of pitcher Satchel Paige and Negro Leagues baseball. Satchel Paige was the first Negro Leagues player to be inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Professor Spivey also explained the ways that Paige and other Negro Leagues players and owners contributed to the struggle for civil rights, including fighting Jim Crow laws, financially supporting groups like the NAACP, and fostering friendships with white players in Major League Baseball. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dec 22, 2024 • 1h 20min
SHORT SERIES: Baseball in the Gilded Age
Professor Joan Waugh talked about the rise of baseball as a national activity, spectator event, and business. She described the efforts of baseball club owners to codify the rules of the games, establish a national league, and attract a broad middle class audience. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dec 22, 2024 • 1h 2min
SHORT SERIES: Baseball During the Depression
Pepperdine University professor Loretta Hunnicutt taught a class about baseball during the Great Depression. She looked at the role of baseball in American culture and the origins of sports journalism. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dec 15, 2024 • 54min
1893 Lizzie Borden Trial, Part 2
University of Maryland history professor Michael discussed, in the second of a two part lecture, the 1893 trial of Lizzie Borden. She was accused of murdering her father and stepmother with an axe. The murders and trial received widespread publicity at the time and Lizzie Borden became a lasting figure in American popular culture. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

5 snips
Dec 8, 2024 • 55min
1893 Lizzie Borden Trial, Part 1
Explore the infamous 1893 trial of Lizzie Borden, accused of brutally murdering her father and stepmother. Delve into the significant societal impacts of the crime during a time of economic disparity in Fall River. Uncover class struggles within the Borden family, and how Victorian gender norms shaped societal expectations for women. Learn about the tensions brewing in the Borden household leading up to the murders, revealing a web of family conflict and suspicion.

Nov 30, 2024 • 1h 13min
FEED DROP: Booknotes+: Richard Brookhiser, "Glorious Lessons"
Richard Brookhiser has written and edited for National Review magazine for over 50 years. He has also written books about George Washington, James Madison, John Marshall, Alexander Hamilton, and "gentleman revolutionary" Gouverneur Morris. Now comes his latest, "Glorious Lessons: John Trumbull, Painter of the American Revolution." Trumbull, who lived between 1756 and 1843, was most famous for his 4 very large paintings about the Revolutionary War on the walls of the rotunda in the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, DC. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nov 23, 2024 • 1h 10min
FEED DROP: Booknotes+ Erik Larson, "The Demon of Unrest"
In the first week of publication of Erik Larson's latest book, "The Demon of Unrest," sales put it at the very top of the bestseller list. It's about the start of the Civil War, with a focus on the five months between Abraham Lincoln's election and the day of the first shot fired on Fort Sumter, which is off the coast of Charleston, South Carolina. That was April 12, 1861. In his introduction, Erik Larson writes: "I invite you now to step into the past, to that time of fear and dissension…I suspect your sense of dread will be all the more pronounced in light of today's political discord…" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nov 16, 2024 • 1h 5min
FEED DROP: Booknotes+: Howard Blum, "Night of the Assassins"
In 1943, in the middle of World War II, the Allied leaders FDR, Winston Churchill, and Josef Stalin were planning to meet secretly in Tehran. The Nazis wanted to kill them.In his book "Night of the Assassins," author Howard Blum tells the story of "Operation Long Jump," the code name for the Nazi plan to assassinate the Allied leaders. In telling this story, author Blum says: "I wanted to write a suspenseful character-driven story of men, heroes, and villains caught up in a tense, desperate time, who needed to find courage and cunning to do their duty for their countries and to fulfill their own sense of honor." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices