Allen C. Guelzo Audio & Video

Americans pride themselves on being doers rather than thinkers.

Why did those 13 colonies, with nothing resembling a unified and trained army, and with no navy to speak of, believe they could defeat the most powerful nation on the planet?

This 84-lecture series features three top professors sharing insights into this nation’s past, from European settlement and Revolutionary War through Civil War, 19th-century industrialization, world wars, and today.

The Intercollegiate Studies Institute Lecture Program assists in sponsoring lectures each year at the college, university, and preparatory school levels.

Henry Louis Gates, Jr., discusses President Abraham Lincoln's emancipation of the slaves, his ability to lead the Union during the Civil War, and his personal qualities.

How did the world's great historians create their monumental histories? What are their unique motives and visions in doing so? And what role does the historian's viewpoint play in what you accept as truth?

Lincoln was the central figure in the nation's greatest crisis, the Civil War. His achievements in office make as good a case as any that he was the greatest president in U.S. history.