Lecture Date: April 18, 2013 Certainly one of the greatest of all American lives, Abraham Lincoln has been the subject of more historical inquiry than any figure in the nation’s history. Almost 150 years after his death, Americans are still drawn to him, as evidenced by the popularity of the recent Steven Spielberg film, […]
Lecture Date: April 16, 2013 The very name Rasputin evokes mystery – a whiff of the occult. Rasputin is famous for compelling eyes, mystical powers and a great sexual appetite. His death has become legendary. No other Russian has penetrated so deeply into urban folklore and pop culture. Born a peasant in Siberia in […]
Lecture Date: April 11, 2013 Ernest Hemingway was one of the most captivating personalities of the 20th century, not only because of his extraordinary literary achievements, but because of his headline-catching behavior. Hemingway served as an ambulance driver in World War I, and lived afterward for a time among the expatriate community in Paris; […]
Lecture Date: April 9, 2013 Born behind a hotel bar in East Dorset, Vermont in 1894, Bill Wilson grew up with a severe drinking problem. In solving it for himself, he found a way to solve it for others, and he ultimately cofounded Alcoholics Anonymous in 1935. Although his name is not famous—he resisted […]
Lecture Date: April 2, 2013 As a child, “Lilibet,” as she was called, became the “heiress presumptive” to the British throne when her uncle abdicated. As a teenager she was photographed repairing Army trucks during World War II and standing with Winston Churchill on the balcony of Buckingham Palace on VE Day. Since ascending […]
Lecture Date: March 26, 2013 Only four men in American history have been accorded the five-star rank of Fleet Admiral. Interacting with one another over four decades, Chester W. Nimitz, William F. Halsey, Jr., William D. Leahy, and Ernest J. King, not only rose to the top and won World War II, but also […]
Lecture Date: March 19, 2013 Winston Churchill was, by any standards, one of the greatest lives of the 20th century. During his half-century career as a military and political leader in Great Britain, Churchill endured numerous vicissitudes and controversies, reaching his zenith as Prime Minister during World War II. His steadfastness in the face […]
Lecture Date: March 12, 2013 Born in Missouri but raised mainly in Texas, Walter Cronkite worked as a UPI reporter in Europe during WWII. He then moved into TV journalism eventually becoming anchor of CBS news in 1962 and working in that capacity until 1981. In the course of that time, he covered major […]
Lecture Date: February 28, 2013 In 1939 Marian Anderson was at the peak of her career as an opera singer, yet she was denied the opportunity to present a concert at the DAR’s Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C.—not because of anything she had done, but because she was black. That incident resulted in a […]
Lecture Date: February 26, 2013 A photograph of a dreamy-eyed Marilyn Monroe among a group of Hollywood starlets captures vividly the description of herself in My Story, the autobiography she collaborated on with screenwriter Ben Hecht. The true dimensions of Monroe’s ambitions only began to be apparent when Norman Mailer wrote about her Napoleonic […]
Lecture Date: February 21, 2013 Tennis great Arthur Ashe transcended his victories on the court to become one of the iconic figures in the history of American sports. Born in 1943, Ashe grew up in segregated Richmond, Virginia, where he learned to play tennis. As a student at UCLA he won the NCAA singles […]
Lecture Date: February 14, 2013 “Don’t insult me by calling me a magician,” Harry Houdini once told reporters. “I am an escape artist.” Much has been written describing his extraordinary feats: how he freed himself from cunningly designed handcuffs and leg-irons; how he escaped from massive packing crates, office safes and bank vaults, the […]
Lecture Date: February 12, 2013 Springing from a somewhat unorthodox and never legalized union between an Anglo-Irish petty lord and his governess, Thomas Edward Lawrence combined an elite Oxford education, wartime opportunity, and an impressive knack for self-promotion to emerge as one of the most famous characters of the Great War. Symbolic of Britain’s […]
Lecture Date: February 7, 2013 Brigham Young at age forty lived in western Illinois, was a faithful disciple of the Mormon prophet Joseph Smith, and had but one wife. He was known for his spiritual fire, collegial leadership, and tireless missionary service. Within ten years, much had changed. By then, Young had led thousands […]
Lecture Date: January 9, 2013 Cleopatra VII of Egypt (69-30 BC) was the last of a dynasty that went back 300 years and is arguably one of the most famous women in history. Although best known for her relationship with the Roman commander Mark Antony and her eventual suicide that caused her kingdom to […]
Lecture Date: January 24, 2013 More than two thousand years after his death, Julius Caesar is still one of the great figures of history. He is best known as the general who conquered the Gauls and overthrew the Roman Republic, but he was also a brilliant orator, accomplished writer, and skilled politician. Born into […]