All upcoming News, Politics, & Media programs

For millennia, predicting the future was the province of priests, prophets, astrologers, and seers. Then, in the 20th century, futurologists emerged, arguing that data and design could make such forecasting a certainty. Historian Glenn Adamson offers insight into how the world was transformed by such forecasts of the future—whether in the imagining of new cities, the projection of novel technologies, or the pervasive anticipation of economic and political risks.

From World War II through the Cold War, Winston Churchill and Dwight D. Eisenhower maintained a friendship unlike any other in history, an alliance and camaraderie that defeated Nazism and kept communism at bay. Although occasionally testy, their connection remained close until Churchill’s death. Historian Mitchell Yockelson discusses the personal story of these heads of state and their lasting influence on the world.

As he confronted the most violent and challenging war ever waged on American soil, Abraham Lincoln issued a proclamation freeing the 3.5 million enslaved Americans without whom the South could neither feed nor fund their armed insurrection—ultimately dooming the rebellion led by Jefferson Davis. Historian and author Nigel Hamilton discusses how two Americans faced off as the fate of the nation hung in the balance and how Lincoln came to embrace emancipation as the last best chance to save the Union.

Presidential speechwriters provide a unique lens through which to view the nation’s chief executives. Learning about how presidents prepared their speeches and who helped them can reveal much about their views of the job. Author Robert Schlesinger explores the evolving role that presidential speechwriters have played over the last century and by extension how presidents have approached the bully pulpit.

In 2023, Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour became the highest-grossing tour of all time, with revenue exceeding $1 billion. While Swift clearly benefits the most, the tour also gave a financial boost to host cities around the world and a wide range of industries. Economist Kara Reynolds explores the unique economic issues associated with Swift and her impact on the music industry.

As part of the most visible household in the nation, china used in the White House offers a comprehensive overview of the changing styles, tastes, and modes of entertaining across almost 250 years of American history. Philadelphia Museum of Art curator David Barquist explores the history of the porcelain tableware chosen by American presidents and their families for public and private dining. He also looks at the changes over time in the ceramics available to Americans. (World Art History Certificate elective, 1/2 credit)

The year 1965 was a pivotal moment in history, marked by consequential social, political, and cultural developments. In the United States, the civil rights movement gained momentum, culminating in the Selma to Montgomery marches and leading to the passage of the Voting Rights Act. The assassination of Malcolm X, a former Nation of Islam leader, shocked the nation. A panel of three Smithsonian curators delves into objects that symbolize these events.

The 1950s in America is thought of as a pleasant and placid decade, an era of conformity and good cheer, Leave It to Beaver, men in gray flannel suits and women in the kitchen. But it was also the decade of Emmett Till, the Little Rock Nine, Little Richard, Joseph McCarthy, air-raid drills, and Rebel Without a Cause. Leonard Steinhorn, a professor at American University, examines the politics, music, media, popular culture, and race relations of a far more complex decade than memory might suggest.

Americans who worked on farms and in factories once had little choice but to work until death. As the nation prospered, a new idea was born: the right to a dignified and secure old age. The fight to deliver that right has been enormously successful, but it is still unfinished: Today, millions of older people lack the resources to live with dignity and security. Historian James Chappel explains how we got here and what the future might bring for an aging America.

Although writer James Baldwin and his queer contemporaries had to keep their sexuality at least partly hidden during the 1950s and ’60s, they could fight openly for civil rights. An exhibition at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery This Morning, This Evening, So Soon: James Baldwin and the Voices of Queer Resistance captures the spirit and times of the activists who created a historic and enduring force for equality. Rhea Combs, co-curator and the gallery’s director of curatorial affairs, provides an overview.