American History

Premiering Aug. 28, The Choice, produced by Dialogue Vanderbilt and featuring Pulitzer Prize–winning author and presidential historian Jon Meacham and Vanderbilt professor, polling expert and political scientist John Geer, will discuss the key moments and the many implications of the 2024 presidential election. Read More

On May 3 and 4, the Vanderbilt Policy Accelerator for Political Economy and Regulation and the Vanderbilt University Department of History hosted “How the New Deal Was Run,” a conference about the implementation of the New Deal programs that transformed American life in the 1930s and beyond.  Read More

Eli Merritt, research assistant professor of political science, will discuss his new book, Disunion Among Ourselves: The Perilous Politics of the American Revolution, at the Vanderbilt Bookstore from 2 to 4 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 9. Co-sponsored by the Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries, the event will include a book signing following the discussion. Books will be available for purchase. Read More

Vanderbilt University joined Nashville community leaders to pay tribute to the life and Nashville legacy of U.S. Rep. John Lewis with the formal dedication of Rep. John Lewis Way and a public celebration at Ryman Auditorium. Read More

More than 150 years after the Battle of Franklin, Military Science Professor Brandon Hulette uses the battleground, and innovative technology, to teach students military tactics and the realities of war. Read More

Imagine Europe with Communist governments in Germany, France and Italy, all satellites of the Soviet Union. If the D-Day invasion, which happened 75 years ago June 6, had failed, then it is conceivable that Stalin’s Soviet Union would have liberated all of Europe from Hitler and ended up controlling… Read More

Issues of race and government are explored in law professor Dan Sharfstein's new book, "Thunder in the Mountains." Read More

Scripture has played a pivotal role in shaping the United States’ justification for going to war from the nation's earliest beginnings, according to research from James P. Byrd, assistant professor of American religious history at Vanderbilt University Divinity School. Read More

Watch video of Marshall Eakin, professor of history at Vanderbilt University, speaking April 27 on “The Americas in the Age of Revolution, 1776-1836,” as part of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute. The revolution that created the United States was only one of many American revolutions. From 1776 to 1836, wars for… Read More

Watch video of Stephen Ash discussing “William G. Brownlow, Saint or Sinner? A Fresh Look at one of Tennessee’s Most Controversial Civil War Figures” April 21. Ash, professor of history at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, is author of The Black Experience in the Civil War South and Firebrand of Liberty: The Story of… Read More

Watch video of Marshall Eakin, professor of history at Vanderbilt University, speaking April 20 on “The Americas in the Age of Revolution, 1776-1836,” as part of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute. The revolution that created the United States was only one of many American revolutions. From 1776 to 1836, wars for… Read More

Watch video of Marshall Eakin, professor of history at Vanderbilt University, speaking April 13 on “The Americas in the Age of Revolution, 1776-1836,” as part of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute. The revolution that created the United States was only one of many American revolutions. From 1776 to 1836, wars for… Read More

Watch the April 7 talk by Bobby Lovett, professor of history at Tennessee State University, “Nashville and the Civil War, 1860-1866, and the Economic, Social and Political Transformations.” Lovett’s areas of expertise include African-American history and Tennessee as well as Nashville history. His books include The African American History of… Read More

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Watch video of Marshall Eakin, professor of history at Vanderbilt University, speaking March 30 on “The Americas in the Age of Revolution, 1776-1836,” as part of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute. The revolution that created the United States was only one of many American revolutions. From 1776 to 1836, wars for independence… Read More

Watch video of the talk “Gods and Devils Aplenty: Robert Penn Warren’s Civil War,” by David Blight. Blight, professor of American history and director of the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance and Abolition at Yale University, delivered the Harry C. Howard Jr. Lecture March 24. Blight… Read More

Watch video of Marshall Eakin, professor of history at Vanderbilt University, speaking March 23 on “The Americas in the Age of Revolution, 1776-1836,” as part of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute. The revolution that created the United States was only one of many American revolutions. From 1776 to 1836, wars for independence… Read More

Watch video of the March 17 talk, “Antigone’s Claim: Gender and Treason in the American Civil War,” by Stephanie McCurry. McCurry is a professor of history at the University of Pennsylvania whose areas of expertise include the American South and the Civil War era, and the history of women and… Read More

Watch video of a lecture by Thavolia Glymph, associate professor of history at Duke University, on enslaved women who disappeared during the Civil War. The talk was sponsored by a College of Arts and Science interdisciplinary course on the Civil War. Read More

Watch video of the talk, “The Civil War as a Political Crisis.” On Feb. 17, George Rable, professor and Charles G. Summersell Chair in Southern History at the University of Alabama, spoke on “The Civil War as a Political Crisis,” as part of a series of lectures on campus… Read More