All upcoming News, Politics, & Media programs

As the 2024 presidential election approaches, political history curators from the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History are gathering materials and memorabilia to document this election cycle for the national collections. Curator Jon Grinspan covers why he’s been attending Democratic and Republican contests and rallies throughout the year, looking for materials that reflect debates, protests, and on-site and digital campaign activities—and how they provide insights into the evolving spirit and complexity of our political landscape.

Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau are three influential philosophers whose ideas have significantly shaped political theory and the understanding of the social contract. In a fall series, join Georgetown professor Joseph Hartman as he explores these thinkers who offered distinct perspectives on the nature of human beings, the origins of political authority, and the formation of societies. This session focuses on John Locke.

The 2024 presidential campaign and national election are poised to shape America’s trajectory for the next four years and beyond, marking one of the most caustic, bitter and pervasively negative periods in U.S. political history. In a fact-based, non-partisan presentation, veteran White House correspondent, historian, and author Ken Walsh discusses the outcome of this historic election with a focus on explaining what’s ahead for our republic in this age of distrust and division.

As an impending crisis in Europe developed in the 1930s, Winston Churchill—out of government and with little power—turned his country home, Chartwell, into the headquarters of his campaign against Nazi Germany. Katherine Carter, Chartwell’s curator, discusses how the remarkable but little-known meetings with trusted advisers and informants that that took place there strengthened Churchill’s fight against the Nazis.

The principal architect of the party system and one of the founders of the Democratic Party, Martin Van Buren’s unparalleled skills as a political strategist won him the nickname “The Little Magician"—and a series of increasingly high-profile offices. Van Buren scholar James M. Bradley depicts the struggle for power in the tumultuous decades leading up to the Civil War as he charts the eighth president’s ascent from a tavern in the Hudson Valley to the White House.

Poet William Butler Yeats was a key figure in the Irish Literary Revival, the cultural movement that preceded the country’s political independence from Britain. Lucy Collins, editor of the Irish University Review and an associate professor at University College Dublin, explores the cultural politics of early 20th-century Ireland as the crucible within which Yeats’ work was formed and examines how the political and the personal combine in some of his greatest poems.

Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau are three influential philosophers whose ideas have significantly shaped political theory and the understanding of the social contract. In a fall series, join Georgetown professor Joseph Hartman as he explores these thinkers who offered distinct perspectives on the nature of human beings, the origins of political authority, and the formation of societies. This session focuses on Jean-Jacques Rousseau.

The late 18th century was a period rife with revolutionary fervor and transformative ideas that altered the course of history. The American Declaration of Independence, adopted in 1776, and the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, ratified in 1789, were radical manifestos that proclaimed new principles of governance and human dignity and challenged centuries-old political and social structures. Historian Alexander Mikaberidze explores these groundbreaking documents and the individuals who dared to imagine a new order that ignited flames of liberty that spread throughout the world.

By the year 2100, the global population is predicted to be 10 billion, 2 billion more than now. Architect Vishaan Chakrabarti sees this as an opportunity to build a more ecologically healthy and equitable world centered on well-designed communities with new forms of affordable, sustainable housing. Drawing from his new book, The Architecture of Urbanity: Designing for Nature, Culture, and Joy, Chakrabarti says that caring for the character and culture of communities can be the key to solving urgent global and political challenges.

Not everyone is aware that the health care system scoops up our most intimate medical secrets to sell commercially to companies that have nothing to do with our treatment or billing. Adam Tanner, author of Our Bodies, Our Data: How Companies Make Billions Selling Our Medical Records, examines how this lucrative international business extends to doctors, hospitals, pharmacies, and insurers—and even labs that test blood and conduct other deeply revealing tests. He offers insights into how we can best balance the promise big data offers to advance medicine and improve lives while preserving the rights and interests of every patient.