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Free online lectures: Explore a world of ideas

Funding provided by:

Atlanta History Center

Atlanta History Center, founded in 1926 as the Atlanta Historical Society, includes permanent and traveling exhibitions in the Atlanta History Museum, two historic houses (Tullie Smith Farm and Swan House mansion), archives/special libraries, and 33 acres of beautiful gardens and wooded trails. The Atlanta History Center offers historical experiences for all ages, integrating history, education and life enrichment programs.

http://www.AtlantaHistoryCenter.com

Spartacus: The Man and the Myth

Wed, Mar 25, 2009

Barry Strauss talks about his new book, *The Spartacus War*, the real story of the Hollywood hero and revolutionary icon. Strauss depicts a Spartacus with parallels of insurgency and counter-insurgency between then and president-day wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Forum Network

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Atlanta History Center
Sam Richards' Civil War Diary

Sun, Jul 12, 2009

Georgia State University professor Wendy Hamand Venet discusses her book, *Sam Richards's Civil War Diary: A Chronicle of the Atlanta Home Front*. Richards' diary includes the period from October 1860 to August 1865. His observations cover the Union bombardment of Atlanta, the evacuation of Confederate forces, and the entry of the Union Army into the city.

Forum Network

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Atlanta History Center
Seth Grahame-Smith: Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter

Wed, Mar 17, 2010

Seth Grahame-Smith discusses his book, *Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter*. While Abraham Lincoln is widely lauded for reuniting the North with the South and abolishing slavery from our country, no one has ever known about his valiant fight against the forces of the undead. That is, until Seth Grahame-Smith, author of the bestselling novel *Pride and Prejudice and Zombies*, stumbled upon *The Secret Journal of Abraham Lincoln*, and became the first living person to lay eyes on it in more than 140 years. Using the journal as his guide, Grahame-Smith has reconstructed the true life story of our greatest president for the first time - all while revealing the hidden history behind the Civil War, and uncovering the role vampires played in the birth, growth, and near-death of our nation.

Forum Network

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Atlanta History Center
Theda Perdue: Race and the Atlanta Cotton States Exposition of 1895

Wed, Mar 24, 2010

Theda Perdue, Professor of Southern Culture at the University of North Carolina, discusses her book *Race and the Atlanta Cotton States Exposition of 1895*. The book examines the world's fair held in Atlanta, where white organizers - in order to attract business to the area - hoped to demonstrate they had solved problems of race in the city. The exposition featured American Indians, African Americans, and other racial, ethnic, and gender communities as part of the event's installations. Perdue finds that this turn-of-the-century performance of race played out in surprising ways, particularly in terms of the voice this event gave to the minorities who took part.

Civil Rights Movement Series

Partner:

Atlanta History Center
The Bonfire: The Siege and Burning of Atlanta

Wed, Aug 19, 2009

Reporter Marc Wortman depicts Atlanta's siege and fall in *The Bonfire*, a narrative history told through the eyes of Confederate and Union participants. The only American city to have been besieged and destroyed, Atlanta’s destruction during the Civil War is an iconic moment in American history.

Forum Network

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Atlanta History Center
Taylor Branch: The Clinton Tapes

Tue, Oct 13, 2009

Taylor Branch talks about his book, *The Clinton Tapes: Wrestling History with the President*, an account of President Bill Clinton's confidential diary project, aimed at preserving the fullest record of his administration. The book is based on 78 diary sessions between 1993 and 2001.

Forum Network

Partner:

Atlanta History Center
James Cothran: Gardens of Historic Charleston

Wed, Oct 13, 2010

Landscape architect and garden historian, James Cothran discusses his new book, *Gardens of Historic Charleston*. This volume provides a fascinating account of the life and career of renowned landscape architect Loutrel Briggs, the individual most directly responsible for the development of the distinctive Charleston garden style.

Forum Network

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Atlanta History Center
John Stauffer: Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln

Thu, Sep 30, 2010

John Stauffer, Harvard professor of English discusses his book, *Giants: The Parallel Lives of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln*. Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln were the self made men of their time. One man was a former slave and a radical reformer who became one of the nation’s most brilliant writers and speakers. The other was an outsider, born dirt-poor, who became one of America’s greatest presidents. While the Civil War raged, the two titans—Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln—formed an unlikely friendship that changed the nation’s course. Stauffer traces how each man used the other—and how their political game ultimately led to mutual admiration and respect.

Forum Network

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Atlanta History Center
Lords of Finance: The Bankers Who Broke the World

Tue, Jun 9, 2009

Liaquat Ahamed discusses his book, *Lords of Finance: The Bankers Who Broke the World*, and covers the 2009 financial crisis.

Forum Network

Partner:

Atlanta History Center
Impeached: The Trial of President Andrew Johnson

Tue, Jun 23, 2009

Writer David O. Stewart delves into his latest work, *Impeached: The Trial of President Andrew Johnson and the Fight for Lincoln's Legacy*. The chronicle traces the impeachment trial of President Andrew Johnson to its roots in the social and political revolutions that rocked the south with the end of slavery and the Civil War. Stewart is also the bestselling writer of *The Summer of 1787: The Men Who Invented the Constitution*.

Forum Network

Partner:

Atlanta History Center