The Stono Rebellion
The Stono Rebellion has been called the most important slave revolt in North American history. In this lecture, Damian Costello examines the events and the deep African roots of the 1739 uprising in South Carolina.
An Evening with Walt Whitman
The audience is a visitor in Walt Whitman’s room as he prepares for his seventieth birthday celebration and questions his success as a man and a poet. Through Whitman’s poetry and letters, actor Stephen Collins helps us experience the poet’s growth into a mature artist who is at peace about “himself, God and death.”
That the People May Live: The Life and Legacy of Nicholas Black Elk, Holy Man of the Lakota
This lecture explores the life and legacy of Nicholas Black Elk (1866-1950), the Lakota holy man made famous by the book “Black Elk Speaks.”
The Middle East
This multimedia presentation by Mohamed Defaa provides an analytical framework to understand the histories, social identities, and cultures behind this complex concept of “Middle East.”
Soup to Nuts: An Eccentric History of Food
Rebecca Rupp reveals the rocky evolution of table manners, the not-so-welcome invention of the fork, the awful advent of portable soup, and the surprising benefits of family dinners.
Bees Besieged: A History of Beekeeping
Bill Mares, writer, and a beekeeper for 45 years, tells of the origins and evolution of beekeeping, with a particular emphasis on his research in Vermont.
Double-Talk on Doubleday: How a Dead Civil War General Invented Baseball Without His Permission
Norwich University Professor Rowly Brucken explores the founding myths of baseball’s real and fictional origins, and considers the broader context of the age of imperialism in America, New England sports history, and Victorian scandals.
First Impressions: 19th Century New Englanders and the Origins of American Perceptions of Islam
Philip Crossman tells the story of Middlebury College graduates Pliny Fisk and Levi Parsons, who set out to the Middle East to serve as Christian missionaries in the Islamic world in 1819.
How Did Germany’s Weimar Democracy Become the Third Reich?
Jack Mayer recounts the origins of the Third Reich through the story of Ernst Werner Techow, a right-wing assassin who reversed his politics while on trial for his life.
A Playground for Empire: Historical Perspectives on Cuba and the U.S.A.
Tim Weed explores Cuba’s long struggle for sovereignty, from the Spanish-American war of 1898 to the 1959 Cuban Revolution.
