Should Reconstruction be considered a lost moment when the loyal citizenry of the United States, having defeated the slaveholders’ rebellion and killed slavery, squandered an opportunity to provide full political and social equality for African Americans in the wake of Appomattox? This program explores how the four Reconstruction presidents have been assessed, how Union war […]

                              The Center for Presidential History welcomes Susan Colbourn (Duke University) to discuss her new book, Euromissiles: The Nuclear Weapons that Nearly Destroyed NATO. Colbourn tells the story of the height of nuclear crisis and the remarkable waning of the fear […]

  One of our preeminent historians of race and democracy, Peniel E. Joseph (University of Texas, Austin), argues that the period since 2008 has marked nothing less than America’s Third Reconstruction In The Third Reconstruction: America's Struggle for Racial Justice in the Twenty-First Century, distinguished historian Peniel E. Joseph offers a powerful and personal new interpretation […]

  The Center for Presidential History welcomes Gregory Brew (Yale University) to discuss his new book, Petroleum and Progress in Iran: Oil, Development, and the Cold War.   From the 1940s to 1960s, Iran developed into the world's first 'petro-state', where oil represented the bulk of state revenue and supported an industrializing economy, expanding middle class, […]

William Inboden's (University of Texas, Austin) new book The Peacemaker: Ronald Reagan, the Cold War, and the World on the Brink gives a masterful account of how Ronald Reagan and his national security team confronted the Soviets, reduced the nuclear threat, won the Cold War, and supported the spread of freedom around the world. With decades of […]

The Center for Presidential History presents a discussion the new book Mourning the Presidents: Loss and Legacy in American Culture with speakers Lindsay Chervinsky, Camille Davis, Sharron Conrad, and Matthew […]