Rediscovering James Garfield

From Radical to Unifier

Far from simply being a president who was assassinated weeks after taking office, James Garfield might be the most accomplished American statesman of the 19th century, says author C.W. Goodyear. Garfield was a pragmatic politician who quietly shaped the rise—and fall—of Reconstruction; a national peacemaker whose attempts to heal rifts in the postwar Republican Party resulted in his murder; and a leader whose death brought about the political calm he had spent his life striving to achieve.

Join Goodyear as he shines a spotlight on a forgotten president and progressive statesman who tried both to improve an America in political and cultural flux and keep it intact throughout a contentious time.

Copies of President Garfield: From Radical to Unifier (Simon & Schuster) are available for purchase.

Tues., July 25, 6:45 p.m.; CODE 1L0-522; Members $20; Nonmembers $25

George Washington’s Visit to Barbados

A Journey that Altered History

George Washington left the mainland only once, when he sailed to Barbados in 1751. He accompanied his half-brother Lawrence, who had contracted tuberculosis and hoped that the island’s warm climate would ameliorate the disease. Despite its important consequences, the journey remains one of the lesser-known episodes of Washington’s early life.

The four-month voyage proved to be significant for the then-19-year-old Washington. He spent time with British soldiers and viewed their fortifications and arms, which fascinated him enough to shift his career goals from being a surveyor to a military career path. Visiting sugar plantations and sugar mills gave him a first-hand view of the production of rum, a beverage that had major economic, political, and social implications at the time. And after recovering from smallpox in Barbados, Washington gained an understanding of the benefits of inoculation for the military. Historian Ralph Nurnberger details this remarkable trip and highlights the impact it had on Washington, his career, and the outcome of the American Revolution.

Mon., July 31, 6:45 p.m.; CODE 1D0-019; Members $20; Nonmembers $25

The Epic Story of Wildlife and People in America

Historian Dan Flores chronicles the epoch in which humans and animals have coexisted in the “wild new world” of North America—a place shaped by evolutionary forces and momentous arrivals of humans from Asia, Africa, and Europe. These arrivals precipitated a massive disruption of the teeming environment they found. In telling the story, Flores sees humans not as a species apart but as a new animal entering a place that had never seen our like before.

Flores’s book Wild New World: The Epic Story of Animals and People in America (W.W. Norton & Company) is available for purchase.

Mon., Aug. 7, 7 p.m.; CODE 1CV-019; Members $20; Nonmembers $25

What time does the program end? Unless noted, Smithsonian Associates programs run 1 hour 15 min.–2 hours, including Q&A

Celebrities in Chief

American Presidents and the Culture of Stardom

Americans expect their president to be more than chief executive, commander in chief, chief consoler, and chief crisis manager. In an era in which media stardom is a key part of public life, they also expect our national leader to be our celebrity in chief, says historian Ken Walsh, who as a journalist covered the White House beat for more than 30 years for U.S. News & World Report.

Drawing the distinction between shallow celebrity (simply fame with no larger purpose) and consequential celebrity (fame linked to American values or goals), Walsh surveys presidents across the centuries who made the most effective use of their celebrity—and those who didn’t. Learn why he places Washington, Lincoln, both Roosevelts, Kennedy, Reagan, and Obama in the first category, while Johnson, Nixon, Ford, and Carter represent the second.

Bill Clinton is offered as an example of a president whose celebrity produced a mixed record of success—a category into which Joe Biden also falls, for different reasons. And as Donald Trump seeks another term, Walsh looks at why he believes Trump will need to channel his celebrity in positive directions.

Tues., Aug. 22, 6:45 p.m.; CODE 1D0-022; Members $20; Nonmembers $25

The Only Winner in War Is Medicine

The history of medicine is replete with advances made by hard-working maverick doctors who made astonishing progress against humankind’s deadliest diseases. Yet surgeon Andrew Lam says one factor spurred more medical breakthroughs than any other: war. He reveals how D-Day, Luftwaffe bombing raids, top-secret Liberty ship cargo, and aerial dogfights bequeathed to humanity innovations in surgery, cancer treatment, and trauma care that still serve us today.

Lam’s book on medical history, The Masters of Medicine: Our Greatest Triumphs in the Race to Cure Humanity’s Deadliest Diseases (BenBella Books), is available for purchase.

Wed., Aug. 23, 6:45 p.m.; CODE 1J0-281; Members $20; Nonmembers $25

When Washington Burned

Perhaps no other single day in U.S. history was as threatening to the survival of the nation as August 24, 1814, when British forces captured Washington, D.C. This unique moment significantly altered the nation’s path forward, but the event and the reasons behind it are little remembered by most Americans. Historian Robert P. Watson examines the British campaign and American missteps that led to the fall of Washington during the War of 1812.

He analyzes the actions of key figures on both sides of the conflict, pinpoints why the campaign was such a disaster for the United States, and covers the stories of the courageous young clerks and the bold first lady, Dolley Madison, who risked their lives to save priceless artifacts and documents, including the Constitution, from the flames.

Watson’s book When Washington Burned: The British Invasion of the Capital and a Nation’s Rise from the Ashes (Georgetown University Press) is available for purchase and signing.

Thurs., Aug. 24, 6:45 p.m.; CODE 1K0-390; Ripley Center; Members $20; Nonmembers $25

Thinking Like a Historian: A Practical Guide

Whatever their area of expertise, professional historians draw on a shared set of practical skills—locating primary sources, placing them in context, reading texts closely and precisely, and corroborating multiple accounts—to make sense of the past.

In an innovative hands-on workshop, Christopher Hamner, an associate professor of American history at George Mason University, demystifies this process by guiding you in how to think about and interpret the past. Hamner introduces participants to the skills and thought processes of the historical profession, employing actual primary sources from 300 years of American history. Participants have the opportunity for hands-on work with sources and to practice thinking like a historian themselves.

10 a.m. Historical Thinking Skills

12:30 p.m. Lunch (participants provide their own)

1:30 p.m. How Historians Think About Cause and Effect

Sat., Aug. 26, 10 a.m.–4 p.m.; CODE 1D0-023; Ripley Center; Members $80; Nonmembers $90

The Jesuits in the United States A Modern Perspective on 500 Years

The history of Catholicism in America cannot be told without the history of the Jesuits. David J. Collins, SJ, of Georgetown University offers a panoramic overview of the Jesuit order in the United States from the colonial era to the present and places it against the backdrop of American religious, cultural, and social history.

He compares the historical and contemporary relationship of Jesuit activities in America to those in Europe and other countries, especially in Latin America. Collins also covers the papacy’s suppression of the Jesuit order and its restoration period and reflects on its future in light of its past.

His book The Jesuits in the United States: A Concise History (Georgetown University Press) is available for purchase.

Thurs., Aug. 31, 6:45 p.m.; CODE 1D0-024; Members $20; Nonmembers $25

Indigenous DC

Native Peoples and the Nation's Capital

Washington, D.C., was built on American Indian land, but Indigenous peoples are often left out of the city’s narrative. To redress this invisibility, Elizabeth Rule, an assistant professor at American University and Chickasaw scholar-activist, shines a light on the contributions of Indigenous tribal leaders and politicians, artists, and activists to the history of the District of Columbia.

Rule explores sites of importance to Native peoples throughout the nation’s capital, including Theodore Roosevelt Island, the White House lawn, and Anacostia and the Potomac. She also showcases empowering stories of how the city is a place of tribal history, gathering, and advocacy.

Thurs., Sept. 7, 12–1:15 p.m.; CODE 1J0-283; Members $20; Nonmembers $25

Rebuilding Jewish Life in Postwar Germany

The American Zone of occupied Germany became the haven for about 250,000 Jewish Holocaust survivors from eastern Europe. These displaced persons built a full infrastructure with a Yiddish press, political parties, theaters, sports clubs, schools, and religious institutions on what they called the “blood-stained soil” of Germany. While 90% of them had left for Israel and the United States by the early 1950s, those remaining, together with German-Jewish survivors and returnees from exile, rebuilt Jewish life in postwar Germany.

Historian Michael Brenner discusses this era, what it means to be Jewish in Germany, and the importance to Germany of a vibrant Jewish community. He also examines the massive Russian-Jewish immigration following the fall of the Berlin Wall, which significantly increased Germany’s Jewish population, and includes the newest immigrant group—Israelis in Berlin.

Tues., Sept. 12, 6:30 p.m.; CODE 1H0-783; Members $20; Nonmembers $25

The Supreme Court: A Preview of the New Term

Each first Monday of October the Supreme Court’s justices begin hearing and deliberating the country’s most important—and often most controversial—legal cases. Each term the court hears cases that have the potential to reshape American law on topics including race, elections, education, and religious protections. And it’s important for engaged citizens to understand the role that the Supreme Court plays in our lives and how its decisions impact us. Join Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of Berkeley Law and one of the nation’s foremost Constitutional scholars, as he previews the critical issues raised in some of the cases the court will take up.

Wed., Sept. 13, 6:30 p.m.; CODE 1H0-786; Members $20; Nonmembers $25

The Impact of Ferdinand and Isabella From Christopher Columbus to Charles III

When Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile married in 1469, they incorporated not only their two kingdoms but also independent Spanish dominions into a large, unified country that wielded political and religious power over much of Europe for years. Tudor scholar and historian Carol Ann Lloyd-Stanger traces the history of this famous couple and their lasting impact on the thrones of several European nations.

Lloyd-Stanger considers the individual accomplishments of Isabella as a rare female ruler at a time of male domination. She also delineates the legacy of Ferdinand and Isabella through royal houses of Europe right up to King Charles III.

Wed., Sept. 13, 6:30 p.m.; CODE 1M2-276; Members $30; Nonmembers $35

What time does the program end? Unless noted, Smithsonian Associates programs run 1 hour 15 min.–2 hours, including Q&A

The Pursuit of Happiness

The African American Diaspora in the Revolutionary War

In return for taking up arms against the patriots in the American Revolutionary War, enslaved people won pledges from British military that they would be freed when Britain won the war. But what happened when Britain lost?

Historian Richard Bell explores these Black fugitives’ extraordinary odyssey through the remainder of Britain’s global empire after 1783 to examine the ways they tried to pursue happiness and forge an African American diaspora.

Bell explores this forgotten chapter of the Revolutionary era through the life of Harry Washington, a loyalist stable hand at Mount Vernon who found his way to Sierra Leone in 1792, where he sought to start a new life as an independent farmer. He traces the forces that led Washington and his fellow settlers to undertake a dramatic 1797 uprising to depose the colony’s British administrators and declare their own independence once and for all. Thurs., Sept. 14, 6:30 p.m.; CODE 1M2-277; Members $25; Nonmembers $30

The Rise and Fall of the Berlin Wall

The Berlin Wall marked the tense epicenter of the Cold War for 28 years. Three decades after its building in 1961, the sudden, unexpected opening of the border symbolized the end of the Cold War. East Germans flooded through the divide into the arms of cheering West Berliners. But the scars it left have not fully gone away.

Nor have the questions it raised: Why was Berlin divided and how did it affect life in the city? What or who brought down the Berlin Wall? How is the legacy of division still visible in attitudes in East and West about Russia’s war on Ukraine?

Historian Hope M. Harrison of George Washington University examines these issues and others, including how the global memory of the Berlin Wall has influenced German memory and how it has joined the Holocaust as a fundamental part of German identity.

Wed., Sept. 20, 6:30 p.m.; CODE 1H0-782; Members $20; Nonmembers $25

New York City in the Gilded Age A Cultural History

The late 19th century in New York City was an era of spectacular architecture, beautiful parks and squares, exquisite mansions, and palatial public buildings—all magnificent markers of what has become known as the Gilded Age and the wealth that made it possible.

Yet the city was a study in dichotomies, an urban society whose facets were both celebrated and critiqued in the writings of Edith Wharton and Henry James and boldly exposed by Jacob Riis in his photographs of immigrant life.

Lecturer George Scheper of Johns Hopkins University surveys the cultural panorama of New York and the contrasting realities of its inhabitants.

Thurs., Sept. 21, 6:30 p.m.; CODE 1M2-278; Members $30; Nonmembers $35

A New History of the American South

For at least two centuries, the South’s economy, politics, religion, race relations, fiction, music, and foodways have figured prominently in nearly all facets of American life. W. Fitzhugh Brundage, editor of A New History of the American South, discusses how the new book offers a fresh way of looking at a part of the country that many people think they have long figured out.

The volume weaves a new narrative of the South from its ancient past to the era of Black Lives Matter by drawing on wellestablished and new currents in scholarship, including global and Atlantic world history, histories of the African diaspora, and environmental history. It also encompasses individuals and groups whose experiences are absent from or underrepresented in scholarship of the South, including those of Black, Indigenous, and poor communities. Join Brundage in conversation with contributing historians Kate Masur and Martha S. Jones

Copies of A New History of the American South (Ferris and Ferris Books) are available for purchase.

Wed., Sept. 20, 12–1:15 p.m.; CODE 1L0-519; Members $20; Nonmembers $25

Intelligence: The New Cold War

Intelligence was a defining characteristic of the Cold War, and it is again today, amid the geopolitical clash unfolding among the United States, China, and Russia. These shadow wars use disinformation, intelligence networks and the latest in technology to create disruption among the superpowers in the hopes of toppling governments and sowing discord.

Calder Walton, historian of intelligence and global security at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, goes inside the history of Cold War espionage, counterintelligence, and covert action. Using newly declassified records from both sides of the conflict, Walton provides fresh light on some of the most famous and infamous espionage cases in history and offers insights into the clandestine struggles being fought today between East and West—and where we seem to be heading.

Thurs., Sept. 21, 6:30 p.m.; CODE 1H0-787; Members $20; Nonmembers $25

Countering the Myth of the Lost Cause

Truths About the Past

For generations the Myth of the Lost Cause cast a long shadow over the Civil War, America’s watershed event. The persistence of that narrative, created by exConfederates as a social and cultural movement to define the Confederacy’s value and justify the just-concluded conflict, remains part of contemporary America.

The Lost Cause ideology includes fallacies about the relationships between slaves and their masters

Historian Stephen D. Engle rejects that notion and challenges the enduring Southern reverence for the Confederacy. His analysis focuses on how slavery gave rise to the Republican Party that elected Abraham Lincoln, which incited secession and the Confederacy’s creation. Engle covers issues central to the myth over generations by targeting its origins during Reconstruction, its cultural endurance through the 1920s and the Great Depression, its challenges to the civil rights era, and even its symbolism in rallying patriotism today.

Tues., Sept. 26, 6:30 p.m.; CODE 1M2-279; Members $25; Nonmembers $30

The March of the Roman Legions

For nearly a thousand years, the Roman legions were the most successful infantry formation on a large part of the globe, carving out one of history’s greatest empires. In heavy-soled hobnailed boots and precise cadence, they marched from the Atlantic to the Persian Gulf bringing terror and death, as well as order and civilization. What was the secret of their success—and why did they eventually fail?

To answer these questions, author and military historian Barry Strauss of Cornell University examines some of Rome’s greatest battlefield victories, such as Cynoscephalae and Zama, as well as some of its greatest failures, including Cannae and Adrianople. Strauss’s most recent book is The War that Made the Roman Empire: Antony, Cleopatra, and Octavian at Actium.

Wed., Sept. 27, 6:30 p.m.; CODE 1H0-785; Members $20; Nonmembers $25