History And Classical Studies

Laurent Dubois, the Marcello Lotti Professor of Romance Studies and History at Duke University, talks about his book Haiti: The Aftershocks of History (2012). He is the author of Soccer Empire: The World Cup and the Future of France (2010) and Avengers of the New World: The Story of the Haitian Revolution (2004), and is currently writing a history of the banjo.

Anthony Grafton, the Henry Putnam University Professor of History at Princeton University, delivers this Lowell Humanities Series lecture, titled “The Florentine Renaissance Portrait: Cultural Origins of a New Art Form.”

Panelists Klaus Scharioth, the ambassador to the United States from the Federal Republic of Germany; Detlef Garbe, director at the Neuengamme (Hamburg) Memorial; Peter C. Hoffmann, the William Kingsford Professor of History at McGill University; Robert Buckley, consultant for the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C.; John Michalczyk, chair of the Department of Fine Arts at Boston College; and Lorenz Reibling, faculty member in Boston College's Woods College of Advancing Studies; discuss the spiritual, military, and philosophical resistance against the oppression of the Third Reich.

Richard Grayson, senior lecturer in British and Irish Politics at Goldsmith, University of London, discusses how a civil war between Unionists and Nationalists over home rule in Ireland was averted when men from both factions enlisted to fight together in the British armed forces during World War I.

Jane Brox, award-winning author Here and Nowhere Else: Late Seasons of a Farm and Its Family, reads from her new book Brilliant: The Evolution of Artificial Light. Brox traces the history and importance of man-made light from the time cave artists used limestone and tallow lamps, through today.

English professor James Smith study of the controversial workhouses where socially marginalized and so-called fallen women and girls were confined throughout the 19th and 20th centuries.

Since its founding, America has been compared to Rome, says Cullen Murphy.

In 1827 the term "medieval" was first coined to refer to the time period between the fall of the Roman Empire and the Renaissance.

When asked by a publisher to write a book about the effect of the U.S. occupation on Iraqi women, Nadje Al-Ali says she wanted to provide a more nuanced picture than the stereotype of "just another Muslim country oppressing its women."

The widespread view that there was a profound conflict between science and theology in 16th and 17th century Europe is based on the controversies over Copernicus and Galileo.

Diarmaid Ferriter, historian and professor at St. Patrick's College in Dublin City University, analyzes the career of John Charles McQuaid, archbishop of Dublin from 1940 to 1972. Ferriter dips into the 1960s archives of McQuaid-who is something of a historian's dream due to his incisive opinions and legible handwriting-to look at McQuaid's authoritarian archdiocese as it wrangled with the social upheaval of the time. Ferriter's books include The Transformation of Ireland (Overlook, 2005), What If? Alternative Views of Twentieth-Century Ireland (Gill & MacMillan, 2006), and, with Colm Toibin, The Irish Famine: A Documentary (Thomas Dunne, 2002).

Eunan O'Halpin, the Bank of Ireland Professor of Contemporary Irish History at Trinity College, Dublin, walks through the recent efforts of his research team to detail every violent death that occurred during and after the Irish War for Independence. To illustrate the discoveries his team has made, O'Halpin reveals details from his own family's exploits during this time period. At Trinity, O'Halpin is also director of the Centre for Contemporary Irish History and a member of the executive committee of the Institute for International Integration Studies. He is the author of five books including Defending Ireland: The Irish State and Its Enemies Since 1922 (Oxford, 1999).

Historian Nikhil Singh discusses the role of race in the formation of U.S. domestic and foreign policy since World War II, as part of the New Directions in African Diaspora Research lecture series. Singh is an associate professor of history at the University of Washington and author of Black Is a Country: Race and the Unfinished Struggle for Democracy (Harvard, 2004). Singh is introduced by Davarian Baldwin, associate professor of history, after introductory remarks by Cynthia Young, associate professor of English and director of the African and African Diaspora Studies Program. Speaker: Nikhil Singh Date: April 27, 2006 Length: 1:39:24

Boston historian Thomas H. O'Connor discusses his 16th book, The Athens of America: Boston, 1825-1845 (UMass, 2006), about leaders of the post-Constitutional generation whose personal talents and financial resources made Boston the nation's cultural, intellectual, and humanitarian center. O'Connor is the University Historian at Boston College, where he began teaching in 1950. Among his recent books are The Hub: Boston Past and Present (Northeastern, 2001), Boston A to Z (Harvard, 2000), Civil War Boston (Northeastern, 1997), and The Boston Irish (Northeastern, 1995). O'Connor is introduced by James O'Toole, professor of history, following welcoming remarks from Ben Birnbaum, editor of Boston College Magazine. This event is a part of "Writers Among Us: Boston College Readings," a series spotlighting recent book publications by Boston College faculty. Speaker: Thomas O'Connor Date: April 19, 2006 Length: 42:22

Gary Okihiro gives the keynote speech during the opening ceremonies of Boston College's Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month. Okihiro is the director of the Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race and a professor of international and public affairs at Columbia University, and a past president of the Association for Asian American Studies. He has written nine books on U.S. and African history, including Common Ground: Reimagining American History (Princeton, 2001) and The Columbia Guide to Asian American History (Columbia, 2001). Okihiro is introduced by Min Song, associate professor of English. Speaker: Gary Okihiro Date: March 31, 2006 Length: 1:02:12

Adam Hochschild presents "Twelve Men in a Printing Shop, May 22, 1787: A Great Human Rights Movement is Born," a lecture on the birth of British abolitionism. This is the subject of his newest book, Bury the Chains: Prophets and Rebels in the Fight to Free an Empire's Slaves (Houghton Mifflin: 2005). Hochschild teaches at the Graduate School of Journalism of the University of California at Berkeley and is the author of five other books, including King Leopold's Ghost, Finding the Trapdoor: Essays, Portraits, Travels and The Unquiet Ghost: Russians Remember Stalin. Hochschild is introduced by Prof. David Northrup, a member of the history faculty at Boston College. Speaker: Adam Hochschild Date: December 1, 2005 Length: 1:14:46