1970s

More than disco. Lecture covers the political transformations leading to the rise of the New Right; Carter presidency; and the Iranian hostage crisis.

Vietnam War (part II)

Destroy the country in order to save it.

Vietnam War (part I)

Not a good war.

Civil Rights II

Direct action and other new tactics for the civil rights campaigns.

War on Poverty

Lecture covers the "rediscovery of poverty" and Johnson's effort to "make war" (sort of) on economic inequality. We look at the modest successes and long-term inadequacies of the anti-poverty measures.

Civil Rights in the 1950s

The second Reconstruction. This lecture addresses the origins of the Civil Rights movement in the 1950s.

Cold War III

Massive retaliation! This lecture examines the foreign policy of the Eisenhower years, with a focus on the emergence of the Middle East as a region of special importance to the US after WWII.

The beginning of the lecture makes reference to "Duck and Cover," a short animated clip that can be watched here. We also watch part of a documentary on "Operation Cue," which took place in 1955. You can watch part of that film here.

Cold War II

I hate talking to myself. This is a short lecture covering the domestic politics of the 1940s and early 1950s -- Truman, McCarthyism, and suburbanization especially.

Cold War

Long time, no see. I was out of town last week and had to record this lecture in my elaborate home studio. For some reason I was having trouble loading the audio to the server, which explains the delay.

This lecture covers the early years of the Cold War -- the doctrine of containment, the increasingly tense rivalry between the US and the Soviet Union, and the Korean War are among the topics examined . . .