All upcoming News, Politics, & Media programs

President Michael Douglas? President Gene Hackman? President Harrison Ford? Hollywood has long imagined Oval Office leaders, and film historian Max Alvarez guides audiences through nine decades of cinematic presidential portrayals. From failed box office attempts in the 1930s and ’40s, to JFK-era thrillers, Clinton-era dramas, and more complex depictions in “The West Wing,” “House of Cards,” and “VEEP,” Alvarez explores how film and television shaped presidential images. Expect dueling Nixons and LBJs in this lively multimedia lecture.

Historian Alexander Mikaberidze looks beyond the caricature of the frivolous queen to rediscover Marie Antoinette as a complex political actor—a woman negotiating power, motherhood, and identity in an age of revolution. Drawing on art, private correspondence, and contemporary accounts, he re-examines how Marie Antoinette’s image was constructed, weaponized, and ultimately transformed from royal scapegoat to enduring cultural icon.

William T. Sherman, famed Civil War general, and his brother John Sherman, long-serving U.S. senator, experienced the war as a defining event in their lives. The conflict became a true "brothers’ war" as each relied on the other during some of its darkest moments. Historian Bennett Parten discusses how the two Shermans navigated the Civil War together, with both rising to personal and professional heights.

At the start of 1776, few Americans sought independence, grounding their protests instead in the rights of British subjects. By year’s end, independence had become unavoidable. Historian Edward J. Larson chronicles this pivotal year in American history, from the inspiring appeals of Thomas Paine’s Common Sense in January; through midsummer, when the Second Continental Congress grounded independence in the “self-evident” truths of human equality and individual rights; to Paine’s urgent pleas of December, when “the times that try men’s souls” required Americans not to “shrink from the service of their country.”

The title Caesar applied to many rulers over three centuries, from Augustus to Constantine, whose decisions shaped Rome’s rise and decline. Historian Barry Strauss explores this long imperial era, highlighting Rome’s adaptability: its leaders combined conquest with openness to immigrants, promoted talent from humble regions, and wove women into elite power networks. Strauss argues that these emperors offer enduring insights—both inspiring and cautionary—about leadership, ambition, and the forces that sustain or undermine great states.

A Constitutional amendment that took effect in 1920 kicked off the decade by prohibiting the consumption of alcohol. This was supposed to solve some of the nation's most pressing social issues but instead uncorked a cultural rebellion and a host of new social problems. Historian Allen Pietrobon delves into how drinking had become such a problem that the U.S. banned “intoxicating beverages,” why trying to outlaw all alcohol backfired spectacularly, and how American society and culture changed throughout the 1920s.

The 1990 Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum heist saw two thieves posing as police officers steal 13 masterpieces, including works by Vermeer, Rembrandt, and Degas. Art historian Laura Morelli explores why these specific pieces—such as Rembrandt’s only seascape and a rare Vermeer—hold exceptional artistic and historical value. She reflects on how their disappearance continues to trouble scholars and the public, and she examines leading theories about the artworks’ fate, underscoring the enduring mystery surrounding one of history’s most significant art thefts. (World Art History Certificate elective, 1/2 credit)

On Feb. 4, 1794, the legislators of France’s revolutionary government abolished slavery in all its colonies. Their decree made France the first country to end an institution that had been fundamental to the enterprise of European colonization for three centuries. Historian Jeremy Popkin tells how pressure from the enslaved populations of France’s colonies met the idealistic principles of the French revolutionaries.

In the chaotic days after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the Roosevelt administration made a controversial decision. To encourage reciprocal treatment of U.S. diplomats trapped abroad, it sent hundreds of Axis diplomats living in the United States to remote luxury hotels. Already stunned by the attack on Honolulu that killed more than 2,400 service members and civilians, many Americans were enraged by the government’s magnanimity towards its enemies. Writer Harvey Solomon makes this story come alive.

Britain’s so-called “devil’s decade” saw the nation reeling from the 1929 Wall Street crash as unemployment, poverty, and widening class divisions reshaped daily life. Many turned to cinema glamour and theatrical escapism while tabloids fixated on sensational crimes and royal scandal, including Edward VIII’s affair with Wallis Simpson. At the same time, economic despair fueled support for Oswald Mosley’s fascist movement. Historian Julie Taddeo highlights this turbulent era as a clash between lingering Victorian traditions and an increasingly modern, fractured society.