Forum Network

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

Partner:

Atlanta History Center
Hog and Hominy: Soul Food from Africa to America

Tue, Oct 14, 2008

Fredrick Douglas Opie, associate professor of history and director of the African Diaspora Studies Program at Marist College, discusses his book, *Hog and Hominy: Soul Food from Africa to America*. Opie’s culinary history is a portrait of the social and religious relationship between African Americans and their cuisine. It begins with the Atlantic slave trade and concludes with the Black Power movement of the 1960s and 1970s.

Forum Network

Food and Wellness

Partner:

Atlanta History Center
History of the CIA

Wed, May 28, 2008

Tim Weiner discusses his new book, *Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA*. The agency's failures have handed us, in the words of President Eisenhower “a legacy of ashes.” *Legacy of Ashes* is based on more than 50,000 documents, primarily from the archives of the CIA itself, and hundreds of interviews with CIA veterans, including 10 Directors of Central Intelligence. Tim Weiner is a reporter for *The New York Times*. He has written on American intelligence for 20 years, and won the Pulitzer Prize for his work on secret national security programs. He has traveled to Afghanistan and other nations to investigate CIA covert operations firsthand. This is his third book.

Forum Network

Partner:

Atlanta History Center
The Challenge: Hamdan v. Rumsfeld

Tue, Sep 9, 2008

Jonathan Mahler describes his new book, *The Challenge: Hamdan v. Rumsfeld and the Fight Over Presidential Power*. It is the authorized account of a landmark court case on presidential power and the rule of law in the history of the Supreme Court. After confessing to being Osama bin Laden's driver, Salim Hamdan was transferred to Guantánamo Bay and he was designated by President Bush for trial before a special military tribunal. Mahler explores the stories of Hamdan's attorney Lt. Commander Charles Swift and his assistant Neal Katyal, a young constitutional law professor at Georgetown University. Mahler is a writer for *The New York Times Magazine* and the author of *Ladies and Gentlemen, the Bronx is Burning*.

Forum Network

Partner:

Atlanta History Center
The Irregulars: Baker Street Spies in Wartime Washington

Thu, Sep 11, 2008

Jennet Conant discusses her new book, *The Irregulars: The Baker Street Spies in Wartime Washington*. It is an account of deceit, double dealing, and moral ambiguity; all in the name of victory. Conant's narrative is based on never-before-seen wartime letters, diaries, and interviews. **Jennet Conant** is the author of the 2002 *New York Times* bestseller *Tuxedo Park: A Wall Street Tycoon* and *The Secret Palace of Science That Changed the Course of World War II*. A former journalist, she has written for *Vanity Fair*, *Esquire*, *GQ*, and *Newsweek*. She lives in New York City and Sag Harbor, New York.

Forum Network

Partner:

Atlanta History Center
Saving Savannah: The City and the Civil War

Wed, Oct 29, 2008

Jacqueline Jones discusses her new work, *Saving Savannah: The City and the Civil War*. The book is a panoramic portrait of the city of Savannah before, during, and after the Civil War, drawing on military records, diaries, letters, newspapers, and memoirs.

Forum Network

Partner:

Atlanta History Center
Magnificent Catastrophe: The Tumultuous Election of 1800

Sun, Nov 11, 2007

Edward J. Larson discusses his book, *A Magnificent Catastrophe: The Tumultuous Election of 1800, America's First Presidential Campaign*, which tells the fascinating story behind the fierce election battle between Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, the first true campaign for the presidency and one that almost broke the back of our democracy. The election of 1800 ushered in the party system, drawing the lines of partisan battle that would reshape our politics, while also preserving the institution of democracy. Edward J. Larson holds the Darling chair in law at Pepperdine University and is the Russell professor of American history at the University of Georgia. He is the recipient of the 1998 Pulitzer Prize in history for his book *Summer for the Gods: The Scopes Trial and America's Continuing Debate over Science and Religion*.

Forum Network

Partner:

Atlanta History Center
How War in Iraq Strengthened America's Enemies

Tue, Nov 11, 2008

Peter W. Galbraith describes the storm our next president will inherit in his latest book, *Unintended Consequences: How War in Iraq Strengthened America's Enemies*. As former US ambassador to Croatia and one of Washington’s leading authorities on Iraq, Galbraith’s analysis carries much weight in DC and in the media. The Iraq war was intended to make the US more secure, bring democracy to the Middle East, intimidate Iran and Syria, help win the war on terror, consolidate American world leadership, and entrench the Republican party for decades.

Forum Network

Partner:

Atlanta History Center
Nixon and Kissinger: Partners in Power

Wed, Jun 20, 2007

Robert Dallek discusses his new book *Nixon and Kissinger: Partners in Power*. This epic biography is about two unlikely leaders who came together to dominate American and world affairs. Tapping into recently disclosed documents and tapes, Robert Dallek uncovers fascinating details about Nixon and Kissinger's tumultuous personal relationship, their collaboration and rivalry, and the extent to which they struggled to outdo each other in the reach of foreign policy achievements. *Nixon and Kissinger: Partners in Power* gives us a new understanding of just how important and consequential these two men were in affecting world history.

Forum Network

Partner:

Atlanta History Center
Almost a Miracle: America's War of Independence

Tue, Aug 7, 2007

John Ferling discusses this chronicle of America's struggle for independence, an eight-year conflict filled with heroism, suffering, cowardice, betrayal, and fierce dedication. As Ferling demonstrates, it was a war that America came much closer to losing than is now usually remembered. General George Washington put it best when he said that the American victory was "little short of a standing miracle."

Forum Network

Partner:

Atlanta History Center