Títulos em Política e Ciências Sociais

This lecture will examine the transformational presidency of Franklin Roosevelt and show how domestic policy was connected to foreign policy, particularly President Roosevelt's successful efforts to defeat fascism and remake the international order. It will investigate President Roosevelt's ideas, his leadership style, and his legacies for contemporary American domestic and foreign policy.

On a sun-kissed island in the West Indies, a young boy named Alexander Hamilton began a most unlikely journey in the 1750s. His meteoric rise from Caribbean obscurity to American founder has long captivated historians and, more recently, Broadway audiences. Yet one crucial aspect of Hamilton's life has remained submerged for centuries: the weight of the evidence suggests that he was in fact Jewish. Drawing on untapped sources in the West Indies, Professor Porwancher makes the case for Hamilton's Jewish ancestry and explores his ongoing relationships with Jews throughout his lifetime.

Throughout American history historians, political scientists, and policymakers have frequently lamented the trajectory of the Presidency and argued for institutional reform. Some presidential observers argue that the Presidency is too powerful, while others claim it's too constrained. This lecture will assess the health of the Presidency, forecast its likely future, and offer prescriptive renovations.

Few at the founding could have ever imagined the Supreme Court becoming one of the most powerful policymaking institutions in the United States. Yet today, the Court has the power to sidestep public opinion, upend federal legislation, constrain state governance and even bring down the president. Professor Alison Gash will take us back to the Court's humble beginnings, charting how the Court amassed its power under Justice Marshall's leadership.

Most of us know that America's Founding Fathers attended the Constitutional Convention of 1787 in Philadelphia and drafted the Constitution of the United States. The delegates decided to replace the Articles of Confederation with a document that strengthened the federal government, with the most contentious issue being legislative representation. Eventually, a compromise established the bicameral Congress to ensure both equal and proportional representation. But a lot more happened as well - much of it underreported or misunderstood.

The same medical technologies that have brought us miracle drugs and unprecedented longevity are also forcing us to confront increasingly difficult ethical dilemmas. Thirty years ago, debates in medical ethics focused on the same questions that had once puzzled Hippocrates and Galen many centuries earlier. How society ultimately resolves these questions is not simply an abstract matter for debate by philosophers and ethicists. Rather, the outcome of these controversies is likely to affect each and every one of us when we or our loved ones become ill.

Almost no evidence of successful, long-term female leaders exists from the ancient world. Only the female king of Egypt, Hatshepsut, was able to take on formal power for any considerable length of time, and even she had to share power with a male ruler. Given this social reality, how then did Hatshepsut negotiate her leadership role? This lecture will work through the ample evidence for Hatshepsut's reign in an attempt to find the woman behind the statues, monuments, stelae, and obelisks.

The Cold War's end was supposed to bring about a new era of East-West cooperation. But the promised post-Cold War peace did not endure. The West's triumph brought the average citizen in the former Soviet Union a shorter life-span, a lower standard of living, and a long list of new grudges. As Boris Yeltsin gave way to Vladimir Putin by the 20th century's end, the stage was set for what some are now terming a new Cold War, replete with hacking, election influence, annexations, and new East-West tensions.

The Founding Fathers likely could not have ever imagined the Supreme Court becoming one of the most powerful policymaking institutions in the United States. Yet today, the Court has the power to sidestep public opinion, upend federal legislation, constrain state governance, and even bring down the president. Professor Gash will demonstrate why the Court's makeup can make or break American public policy.

He was our longest-serving president and also our best. Washington set precedents. Lincoln preserved the union. But only Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected to the nation's highest office four times. Only Roosevelt faced an economic crisis so severe it remains our benchmark today for calamity. The solutions he made public forged the country, and in large part the world, we live in today.

As we've seen increased participation in online dance parties, workouts, and other gatherings, a little-mentioned growing community is that of reading groups. As the pandemic deepens and all of us feel the desire to escape, it is logical that these communities would expand. But what is it about literature that brings people together during terrible circumstances? How does a catastrophe shape our understanding of the power of great literature? This audio lecture discusses the importance of literature and community throughout the world and addresses how these groups better us as people.

Award-winning literature professor Joseph Luzzi will guide viewers through a fascinating presidents' library, as we explore the books and the presidential reading list that shaped six of the most powerful men ever to sit in the Oval Office.

The rise and fall of ancient Rome is one of the greatest stories in the history of the world. From a group of settlements huddled along the Tiber in Italy, Rome rose to conquer much of the Mediterranean world and Europe. At the height of the Roman Empire, one in every five people in the world lived within its territory. For Americans, Rome's unlikely ascent, spectacular ambitions, and gruesome decline have provided endless fuel for our national self-examination.

The American presidency is the most powerful political office in the world. Surprisingly, most contemporary presidents have found themselves severely constrained in their ability to pursue their chosen agendas for domestic and foreign policy change. This lecture will explain why, focusing on the nature of government bureaucracy, the range of American challenges and commitments, and the development of the modern media.

Robert Bly looks beyond the individual psyche to the problems of our public life, explaining why we as a culture are so adrift. What he finds is an infantilized society in which the battle between youth and age has been won by youth. Bly argues that in the collapse of the old patriarchal worldview, we are becoming a world of "siblings" who do not look up to heroes, leaders, or God, but only sideways at an army of siblings like ourselves. Through the psychological lessons embedded in ancient folk tales, Bly challenges us to move beyond our own adolescent envy and fantasy.

Robert Bly, poet, storyteller, and mythologist, takes us on an imaginative and disturbing journey in this live recording. Disturbing both personally and historically, the commentary reminds us that the mythology we have inherited is often defective.

In this recording, Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh lectures on the Heart of the Prajñaparamita Sutra, which is regarded as the essence of Buddhist teachings. To this day, the Heart Sutra is recited daily in Mahayana temples and practice centers throughout the world.

This volume contains just under 50 key speeches presented by 44th US President Barack Obama, as delivered during his two-term presidency (2009-2016) - from the passage of healthcare reform to State of the Union addresses and speeches before the United Nations.

With a goal of expanding the minds of lifelong learners, celebrated philosophy professor Kevin Corcoran engages thinkers from Descartes to David Foster Wallace to help you discover truth and tackle the big questions of our existence. Through this compelling 15-lecture course, you’ll develop critical thinking skills that will bring clarity and focus to your daily life. Prof. Corcoran begins with Aristotle’s maxim that “philosophy begins in wonder.”

Kroft conducted more one-on-one television interviews with Barack Obama than any other journalist, from a January 2007 conversation on the eve of his unlikely candidacy to the 44th president’s final White House interview a decade later. Collected here on audio, in chronological order, these conversations reveal Obama’s evolution from idealistic young senator to galvanizing candidate to two-term president. They also capture the development of the remarkable, decade-long dynamic between journalist and subject.