American History Programs

When former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright left Foggy Bottom, she was determined to make the next stage of her life as exciting as those that preceded it. In a lively and frank conversation, she draws on her new memoir Hell and Other Destinations to reveal how she accomplished that goal.

View a familiar urban landscape with new eyes as you join Bill Keene on an illustrated virtual tour of the National Mall that covers its history, design, and architecture from the earliest vision to the latest developments. This session focuses on North Mall sites and Capitol.

Although New York City’s first Gay Pride parade in June 1971 was a key marker in the progress of LGBT+ organizing, a lesser-known pivotal moment took place in Washington, D.C., 20 years later. Nikki Lane of American University examines how the city’s home-grown Black Pride event grew into a national and international model for celebrations of community, inclusion, and diversity.

All aboard for an exciting multi-day rail journey through West Virginia’s breathtaking mountain scenery led by railroad historian Joe Nevin. 

Join Bill Keene on a walking tour to discover the Mall’s history, design, and architecture, from its earliest vision to the latest developments. View and compare a wide range of architectural styles from the Smithsonian’s first building, the Gothic-revival Castle to the capital’s newest landmark, the Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial designed by Frank Ghery. (World Art History Certificate elective, 1/2 credit)

Family Program: (Ages 8 to 14) Go on an interactive exploration of the American History Museum. Then roll out your sleeping bag and dream away in the darkened halls of one of the world’s most famous museums!

Join Bill Keene on a walking tour to discover the Mall’s history, design, and architecture, from its earliest vision to the latest developments. View and compare a wide range of architectural styles from the Smithsonian’s first building, the Gothic-revival Castle to the capital’s newest landmark, the Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial designed by Frank Ghery. (World Art History Certificate elective, 1/2 credit)

The beautiful Brandywine region is an ideal destination for lovers of art, grand houses and gardens, and American history. Join Hayden Mathews, an environmental and cultural history interpreter, in locations in Delaware and Pennsylvania that vividly capture the area’s heritage.

Join Bill Keene on a walking tour to discover the Mall’s history, design, and architecture, from its earliest vision to the latest developments. View and compare a wide range of architectural styles from the Smithsonian’s first building, the Gothic-revival Castle to the capital’s newest landmark, the Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial designed by Frank Ghery. (World Art History Certificate elective, 1/2 credit)

The United States weathered a turbulent first decade of the 21st century, tumultuous years of economic crises, social and technological change, and war. Historian Garrett Peck examimes how the fallout from the Great Recession led to the hyper-polarized society of the years that followed and why timely re-examination of the period between 2000 and 2010 can reveal how we’ve arrived at our current era of cultural division.

Generals during World War II usually stayed to the rear, but not Matthew Ridgway and Maxwell Taylor. During D-Day and the Normandy campaign, these commanders of the 82nd “All-American” and the 101st “Screaming Eagle” Airborne Divisions refused to remain behind the lines and stood shoulder-to-shoulder with their paratroopers in the thick of combat. Military historian Mitchell Yokelson explores their unique style of leadership and how it played out in the most important American campaign of World War II.

Family Program: (Ages 8 to 14) Go on an interactive exploration of the American History Museum. Then roll out your sleeping bag and dream away in the darkened halls of one of the world’s most famous museums!

Author David Taylor looks at some of the artists and writers for whom the Federal Writers’ Project and the Federal Arts Project gave them a new purpose: recording American life. Their works—some of which remain controversial—provide a vivid portrait of a nation struggling for recovery and identity during the Great Depression.

Sign on for a 5-day tour that explores North Carolina’s minor-league baseball revival. Watch games featuring upcoming stars, hear stories from insiders, and enjoy the best of North Carolina barbecue.

From classic chronicles of the settlement of the West to tales of the modern cross-country road trip, travel narratives have infused American history and popular culture. Allen Pietrobon of Trinity Washington University sets off on a literary journey that explores the nature and impact of these stories of adventure and self-discovery.

Spend a summer evening with local historian Garrett Peck and step into the heyday of Washington’s “Black Broadway,” when jazz filled the clubs and theaters of U Street and the nightlife scene rivaled Harlem’s.

Family Program: (Ages 8 to 14) Go on an interactive exploration of the Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia. Then roll out your sleeping bag and dream away in the halls of one of the world’s most famous museums!

Spend a summer evening with local historian Garrett Peck and step into the heyday of Washington’s “Black Broadway,” when jazz filled the clubs and theaters of U Street and the nightlife scene rivaled Harlem’s.

Spend a summer evening with local historian Garrett Peck and step into the heyday of Washington’s “Black Broadway,” when jazz filled the clubs and theaters of U Street and the nightlife scene rivaled Harlem’s.

Historian Richard Bell examines this musical phenomenon to reveal what its success tells us about the marriage of history and show business. He investigates what the show gets right—and wrong—about Alexander Hamilton, the American Revolution, and the birth of the United States, and why it all matters. 

Blossoming in Vienna and spreading like a mania through Europe, the waltz proclaimed a new freedom of sexual expression and individual liberties in the early 19th century. Classical music and opera expert Saul Lilienstein traces the development of a musical form and a dance that changed history.

Though football is called America's Game, no sport has had as strong an influence on our culture and mores than the National Pastime. Author, ethicist, and lifelong fan Jack Marshall examines how—from the game’s beginnings to this season—baseball has both mirrored and shaped Americans’ ideas of their country and themselves.

Pre-revolutionary America took center stage in the world’s first truly global war in the mid-18th century. Historian Richard Bell examines how this bitter contest among the great empires of Britain, France, and Spain played out on American soil and how it sowed the seeds of the imperial crisis that would culminate in the new nation’s independence.

In the chaotic days after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the Roosevelt administration ordered more than a thousand Axis diplomats living in the nation’s capital and their dependents into detention at luxurious rural resorts including the Greenbrier and the Homestead. Author Harvey Solomon examines the public outrage, diplomatic machinations, and political calculations that stripped away the veneer of pre-war diplomatic bonhomie to reveal deep conflicts among captives and captors.

Family Program: (Ages 8 to 14) Go on an interactive exploration of the American History Museum. Then roll out your sleeping bag and dream away in the darkened halls of one of the world’s most famous museums!

Seventy-five years after U.S. war planes dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the actions that helped bring WWII to a close remain highly contentious. Peter Kuznick, director of the Nuclear Studies Institute at American University, examines the decisions behind these history-changing acts, their legacy, and why we’re still divided about the military and moral justifications that were used to usher in the nuclear age of warfare.

Family Program: (Ages 8 to 14) Go on an interactive exploration of the Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia. Then roll out your sleeping bag and dream away in the halls of one of the world’s most famous museums!

Six months after the devastating attack on Pearl Harbor, the Japanese Imperial Navy suffered a stunning and lopsided defeat at the hands of the American Pacific fleet near Midway atoll. Historian Chris Hamner of George Mason University examines why the encounter was not just the most decisive naval battle of the Pacific War, but one of the most consequential in all of history.

From Little Richard to the Beatles to Bruce Springsteen, many of the greatest songs in rock are filled with keyboard elements that make them so memorable. Former classic-band keyboardist Dave Price explores why pianos, organs, Mellotrons, and Moogs are the essential instruments behind some of rock’s most iconic songs.

Family Program: (Ages 8 to 14) Go on an interactive exploration of the Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia. Then roll out your sleeping bag and dream away in the halls of one of the world’s most famous museums!

Family Program: (Ages 8 to 14) Go on an interactive exploration of the American History Museum. Then roll out your sleeping bag and dream away in the darkened halls of one of the world’s most famous museums!

No other location is as associated with George Washington as Alexandria, a place he considered it his hometown. Join author and historian Garrett Peck as follows Washington’s footsteps through Old Town’s alleyways, rustic taverns, churches, 18th-century houses, and historic waterfront.

No other location is as associated with George Washington as Alexandria, a place he considered it his hometown. Join author and historian Garrett Peck as follows Washington’s footsteps through Old Town’s alleyways, rustic taverns, churches, 18th-century houses, and historic waterfront.

No other location is as associated with George Washington as Alexandria, a place he considered it his hometown. Join author and historian Garrett Peck as follows Washington’s footsteps through Old Town’s alleyways, rustic taverns, churches, 18th-century houses, and historic waterfront.

The rugged landscape of western North Dakota was the setting against which Theodore Roosevelt transformed himself from an asthmatic 24-year-old into a robust outdoorsman—and a passionate lifelong conservationist. Experience that corner of the West—filled with dramatic vistas, vividly colored canyons, and wandering herds of wild bison—on an extraordinary tour that brings you into the heart of Roosevelt’s Badlands and the national park that bears his name.

In early 1902, a potentially devastating strike by anthracite coal miners in Pennsylvania escalated a legal and personal clash between President Theodore Roosevelt and financier J.P. Morgan over the government’s role in regulating big business. Author Susan Berfield recounts the story of a banker and a president thrown together in the crucible of national emergency, and discusses why the lessons of Roosevelt and Morgan’s time have taken on a renewed urgency today.

The end of the Great War ushered in a decade of economic prosperity and cultural dynamism unprecedented in America. Stef Woods, a popular speaker on cultural topics, looks at the explosion of new directions in the 1920s, and considers what comparisons may be drawn between that still-resonant era and today, as our ’20s begins. 

Building the Panama Canal was either a bold, decisive diplomatic stroke that claimed America’s rightful place on the world stage or a crude display of arrogance and corruption. Historian Ralph Nurnberger examines the sweep of the canal saga, with elements that include intrigue in the halls of Congress, a revolution, and Teddy Roosevelt’s vision of American global power.

In the 1950s, the spotlight on New York City’s abstract expressionist movement nearly always fell on male painters. Art critic Judy Pomeranz takes an in-depth look at five gutsy but overlooked women whose work in the groundbreaking Ninth Street Art Exhibition of 1951 boldly claimed their places in the postwar avant garde. (World Art History Certificate elective, 1/2 credit)

Nathan Raab, the preeminent American dealer in rare documents, tells the fascinating story of how he learned to tell the difference between real and forged artifacts, and of many amazing finds that were nearly lost to the ages.

The 1970 Apollo 13 mission almost ended in tragedy when an explosion occurred on its way to a moon landing. Learn how a possible disaster was turned into a global rescue mission.

In 1952, naval architect William Francis Gibbs completed the finest, fastest, and most beautiful ocean liner of his time, the S.S. United States, hailed as a technological masterpiece in period when “made in America” meant the best. Historian Steven Ujifusa tells a tale of ingenuity and enterprise as he examines how Gibbs and his vision transformed an industry.

Thousands of disparate women were connected by their experiences amid the horrors of the Civil War’s bloodiest battle. Author Chuck Raasch retells their often-overlooked stories of bravery and life-changing actions at the sites on which they unfolded at Gettysburg National Military Park.

Historian Charles Ingrao compares democracy with competing forms of government, examines the attributes of healthy democracies, and considers how to strengthen modern democratic institutions in danger of retreat.

Garrett Peck, author of The Smithsonian Castle and the Seneca Quarry, leads a countryside excursion that centers on the role that the once-thriving Maryland quarry played in the building of 19th-century Washington.

Sold as prefabricated kits during the first half of the 20th century, affordable dwellings from Sears Roebuck and Company defined the character of countless American communities. Join historian Dakota Springston on a bus tour through historic Virginia neighborhoods to view the distinctive exteriors of Sears homes.

Sold as prefabricated kits during the first half of the 20th century, affordable dwellings from Sears Roebuck and Company defined the character of countless American communities. Join historian Dakota Springston on a bus tour through historic Virginia neighborhoods to view the distinctive exteriors of Sears homes.

Naval historian David Rosenberg and three retired U.S. Navy officers examine the tensions and strategies that grew out of the face-off between America and the Soviet Union over Russia’s decision to place nuclear missiles in Cuba. They reveal how the USS Sam Houston, a Polaris submarine deployed in the Mediterranean, played a significant but little-known role in assuring European security against potential Soviet aggression.

Historian Allen Pietrobon explores American food culture since 1850 and how, throughout American history, food has been a battleground where culture, ethnicity, race, and identity clash.