Washington History Seminar
The Washington History Seminar: Historical Perspectives on International and National Affairs provides a forum for the in-depth discussion of important new historical research and perspectives in international and national affairs.
The weekly seminar brings together Washington area and visiting historians and researchers from the worlds of academia, journalism and government. The Washington history seminar is co-sponsored by the National History Center (an initiative of the American Historical Association) and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, with support from the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations (SHAFR).
Wm. Roger Louis, director of the National History Center, and Christian F. Ostermann, director of the Wilson Center’s History & Public Policy Program are the co-chairs.
Bureaucracy, Citizenship and Remembrance in Wartime Iraq
Apr 18, 2013The Iraq war was a form of everyday bureaucratic governance with the Iraq government managing resistance and religious diversity and shaping a public culture in which soldiering and martyrdom became markers of privileged citizenship. The men and families of those who fought and died during the Iran-Iraq and First Gulf wars have memories not only of the political, social, and cultures changes in Iraq but also of the “normalization” of war.
Six Moments of Crisis: Inside British Foreign Policy
Apr 12, 2013Gill Bennett, former Chief Historian of the British Foreign & Commonwealth Office leads a discussion entitled "Six Moments of Crisis: Inside British Foreign Policy."
Historical Perspective on the Arab Spring
Apr 05, 2013In the Middle East, a parallel pattern can be seen in the history of the first Middle Eastern constitutional revolutions in the political movements of the 1870s. What does an examination of the role of constitutionalism in the Arab revolutions of 1923-2011 reveal about prospects for constitutional governments in the Middle East?
The Way the Wind Actually Blew: Weatherman Underground Terrorism and the Counterculture, 1969-1971
Mar 19, 2013The most famous terrorist group in modern American history was the Weatherman Underground, later called the Weather Underground Organization. An outgrowth of Students for a Democratic Society, Weather was active in 1969 through the 1970s. Arthur Eckstein will argue that this is misleading and that the true history of Weather is much grimmer and more ambiguous.
A Muslim Weimar? Istanbul between the Wars
Feb 27, 2013One reading of modern Turkish history focuses on the country's perpetual race to catch up with Europe. In the often forgotten world of interwar Istanbul, Muslims were the powerful hosts and Europeans the unwanted migrants.
The Arab Revolution
Feb 11, 2013Arab academics and activists call the uprisings that started in early 2011 across the Arab world “revolutions.” Yet the “Arab Revolution” is both similar and dissimilar to the French, Russian, and other great revolutions that molded the history of the Western world, as described by Crane Brinton in his classic, The Anatomy of Revolution.
CANCELLED: Britain – the Question of Written Constitutions and the World Since 1776
Jan 28, 2013After the American and French Revolutions, new-style written constitutions gradually came to be viewed as an essential symbol of a modern state. Britain fought against these two revolutions and has famously retained its un-codified constitution.
Six Months in 1945: The Origins of the Cold War
Jan 24, 2013The Cold War effectively began in 1945, as soon as Americans and Russians encountered each other in the heart of Europe. But nobody, not least Stalin, wanted the Cold War.
The Significance of Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation for America
Jan 17, 2013What were Lincoln’s motives in deciding for general emancipation? The emancipation itself changed the nature of the war. It reflected a fundamental change in Lincoln’s own thinking about the relationship of slavery to the war as well as the future place of blacks in American life.
Was the Mexican Revolution of 1910 a Success?
Dec 03, 2012The Mexican Revolution of 1910 had dramatic effects on both Mexico and the United States that have endured to the present day. This presentation deals with its armed phase (1910-1920) and its institutional, reformist, and state-building phase (c.1920–c.1940), as well as its longer-term legacy.
Women, Ecumenism, and Interracial Organizing
Nov 29, 2012Bettye Collier-Thomas explores the ways in which black and white ecumenical Protestant women grappled with issues of race and ethnicity in the early twentieth century and how in doing so they contributed to laying the groundwork for the modern civil rights movement.
Leak: How (and Why) Mark Felt Became Deep Throat
Nov 09, 2012Deep Throat, the most fabled secret source in American history, was regarded for decades as a conscientious but highly secretive whistleblower who shunned the limelight. But when the FBI’s former no. 2 executive, W. Mark Felt, came forward in 2005 to claim the mantle, questions about his true motivation began to be raised. Max Holland will discuss the Deep Throat puzzle, revealing for the first time in detail why Mark Felt leaked and his inadvertent place in history. In the process, Holland will lay bare the complex and often-problematic relationship that exists between the Washington press corps and federal officials.
The Remarkable Past and Present Fate of UNESCO
Nov 09, 2012The United Nations Educational, Scientific, Cultural, and Communications Organization (UNESCO) grew from seeds planted during World War II and enjoyed bipartisan Congressional support as it joined the UN family in the 1940s. But controversy overtook it; the United States withdrew by 1984. It re-entered nearly twenty years later, but objecting to the agency’s 2011 vote to admit the Palestinian Authority, it began extracting itself once again. Barring a political miracle, the United States will assume observer status by this time next year. What will be the consequences?
Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty: The CIA Years and Beyond
Oct 01, 2010Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty examines the first twenty years of the organization, policies, and impact of Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty, arguably one of the most important and successful policy instruments of the United States during the Cold War.
POSTPONED--The Worlds of Joseph Conrad
Oct 16, 2012What were the historical circumstances behind Joseph Conrad's history of the fin-de-siècle as a turning point in international history? In his novels Heart of Darkness (1899), Lord Jim (1900), Nostromo (1904), and The Secret Agent (1907)--each set on a different continent, each engaging with a different imperial power, each anchored in real-world incidents and in his own personal experience--Conrad anticipated some of the defining themes of the twentieth century.
Reform Without End: Europe’s Welfare Traditions
Sep 28, 2012Surveying Europe’s welfare traditions since 1500, in this seminar session Tom Adams will discuss characteristics of the modern European welfare state, many rooted in long-held values and centuries of experience. Profound social changes have repeatedly challenged communities to re-examine and reshape institutions and practices. The diversity of arrangements across Europe has contributed to an ongoing exchange of observation, experiment, and aspiration – in short, to reform without end.
The Future of American Coasts
Sep 28, 2012America began as a coastal country, and, after a century of identifying with its heartland, is now returning to the sea demographically, economically, and culturally. Today, more of us live on coasts, but few know how to live with them in a sustainable manner. Coastal futures depend on the recovery of the oldest form of intelligent human life, homo littoralis. In this talk John Gillis will explore the ways humans have shaped shores and how shores have shaped humanity.
Hollywood Left and Right: How Movie Stars Shaped American Politics
Sep 24, 2012Steven Ross challenges the commonly held belief that Hollywood has always been a bastion of liberalism. The real story, he argues, is far more complicated. First, Hollywood has a longer history of conservatism than liberalism. Second, and most surprising, while the Hollywood Left was usually more vocal and visible, the Right had a greater impact on American political life, capturing a senate seat (Murphy), a governorship (Schwarzenegger), and the ultimate achievement, the Presidency (Reagan).
Thirteen Days and More: A Soviet Perspective on the Cuban Missile Crisis
Sep 24, 2012Fifty years ago, the world spent thirteen days transfixed as the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. engaged in a contest of wills over placement of Soviet missiles in Cuba. Svetlana Savranskaya will discuss behind-the-scenes maneuvers by Soviet second-in-command Anastas Mikoyan, revealing that the crisis lasted into November and involved plans by the U.S.S.R. to leave tactical nuclear weapons in Cuba, foiled not by U.S. resolve, but by Fidel Castro’s own actions.
National Security vs. a Market Economy: A Cold War Dilemma
Sep 10, 2012The Cold War was an overarching reality for American presidents from Truman to George H.W. Bush. In fact, prosecuting the Cold War posed a profound dilemma for all presidents, but especially for Dwight D. Eisenhower. Wm. M. McClenahan, Jr. and Wm. H. Becker argue that economic policy was second only to national security in Ike’s mind. How was the United States to engage in the Cold War without undermining American political democracy and a market economy? Preserving the American way of life was to Eisenhower the preeminent objective of the Cold War.
The 1967 War and the Demise of Arab Nationalism
Sep 10, 2012The defeat of Egypt and Syria in the 1967 is often described as a deathblow to pan-Arabism, and it did indeed gravely undermine the regime of Gamal Abdel Nasser. Egyptians, Syrians and Palestinians had in fact already begun to shift towards narrower nation-state nationalism even before the 1967 war, which merely confirmed this reorientation.
The Tragic Irony of America’s Worldwide Struggle for Democracy
Apr 12, 2012Tony Smith discusses liberal internationalism
A Protean Hatred: Anti-Zionism in Germany, 1933–1989
Apr 03, 2012This seminar discussion will draw on published and archival sources to shed light on the history of the global anti-Zionist campaign of the 1970s challenged by Ambassador Daniel Patrick Moynihan at the United Nations.
The Outbreak of World War I
Apr 05, 2012This seminar talk will discuss the consequences of World War One and suggests ways of considering the issue.
The Lumumba Assassination and CIA Accountability
Mar 26, 2012Stephan Weissman discusses the controversy that has swirled over alleged U.S. Government responsibility for the assassination of the former Belgian Congo's democratically elected Prime Minister.
Reassessing Exploration: The West in the World
Mar 22, 2012This seminar talk will review recent efforts to reassess the history of exploration.
Peaceful Resolution of Ethnic Tension
Mar 13, 2012Karl Meyer and Shareen Brysac discuss historical perspective on ethnic peace.
July 1914: Revisited and Revised—or The End of the German Paradigm
Mar 08, 2012Samuel Williams Jr. discusses and reevaluates German and Russian actions in 1914.
Unmitigated Gaul: The French Confront America, 1980–2000
Mar 08, 2012Richard Kuisel discusses French attitudes towards American policies, practices, and values during the 1980's and 1990's.
The United States and the 1967 Arab-Israeli War
Feb 23, 2012Charles Smith from the University of Arizona discusses the legacy of the 1967 War and its long term effects.
Jean Monnet and the Future of Europe
Feb 13, 2012Sherrill Wells discusses the impact Jean Monnet had on European and American politics after World War II.
Islam & Democracy for the 21st Century
Jan 31, 2012John Voll will examine the intersection of politics and religion in five Islamic countries.
Barbary Coasts: North Africa, Colonialism, and the Mediterranean, c. 1820-2011
Jan 31, 2012Wilson Center Fellow Julia Clancy-Smith discusses North Africa, Colonialism, and the Mediterranean from 1820 until present.
Roosevelt and Churchill
Jan 20, 2012Warren Kimball, Robert Treat Professor Emeritus at Rutgers University will reflect on the problems he faced in compiling letters and other communications, on research in the pre-computer age, and on his thoughts about the two men and their policies at the time.
Abraham Lincoln and the Irish
Jan 12, 2012Kevin Kenny, professor of history at Boston College will give a presentation entitled "Abraham Lincoln and the Irish."
Is American History "Exceptional?" A Global Perspective
Nov 07, 2011Following World War II, the dominant narrative of U.S. history posited "American exceptionalism." That assumption shaped historical scholarship and Cold War policy. More recently a neo-conservative belief in exceptionalism has affected international and domestic history. A global perspective reveals that our history is not "exceptional," only distinctive. Every major moment in American history--Revolution, Civil War, Progressivism, and the New Deal, for example--is part of a larger transnational history.
Could the War in Vietnam Have Ended Earlier?
Nov 22, 2011The Vietnam War cost the lives of more than 58,000 Americans (and millions of Vietnamese) and convulsed U.S. politics and culture in the 1960s. Could it have ended years earlier, and with a far smaller toll?
Black Leaders and Leadership
Nov 03, 2011“Black Leaders and Leadership” is a presentation based on the ten-year oral history project co-directed by Julian Bond and Phyllis Leffler. It relates the views of fifty Black leaders on such topics as family, education, and the inspiration of the Civil Rights movement.
Reassessing Walter Lippmann
Nov 09, 2011Professor of International Relations Ronald Steel speaks about the career and legacy of renowned journalist Walter Lippman.
The Economics of the Civil Rights Revolution in the South
Nov 02, 2011Organized in collaboration with the History and Public Policy Program and the National History Center.
Missed Opportunities for Peace? The United States, Jordan and the 1967 Arab-Israeli War
Oct 28, 2011Nigel Ashton from the London School of Economics hosts a seminar regarding US and Jordanian decision-making prior to the Six Day War in June 1967.
Statelessness in 20th-Century America
Oct 19, 2011Linda K. Kerber, May Brodbeck Professor of History at the University of Iowa will examine such developments in the context of the history of statelessness in the 20th century, focusing on the evolution of the sixty -year-old UN convention on refugees and stateless persons, a document the United States has not signed.
The Contested Legacy of the Berlin Wall
Oct 07, 2011Hope Harrison, Wilson Center public policy scholar speaks on the mixed legacy of the Berlin Wall in German consciousness and history, in regards to the recent efforts to preserve parts of the wall.
Why We Botch the Ends of Wars
Sep 30, 2011A persistent theme in American history in wartime is a failure to plan carefully for the aftermath of wars. Obsessed with the military aspects of their struggles, neither military nor civilian leaders pay close attention to political issues until the shooting is about to stop, making the achievement of a durable settlement dramatically harder.
Dag Hammarskjold, His Critics, and the United Nations in 1956
Sep 28, 2011Wm. Roger Louis from the University of Texas discusses the extremely significant role of Dag Hammarskjold in the 1956 Suez Crisis, a pivotal point in UN history with an impact still felt in today's peacekeeping missions.
"Rogue States" and the United States: A Historical Perspective
Sep 19, 2011Vice President for Programs and Director of International Security Studies at the Woodrow Wilson Center Robert Litwak answers some of the biggest questions surrounding the relationship between today's "Rogue States" (North Korea, Libya, Iran) and the United States.
Iran 1953 and the Uses of Middle East History
Sep 12, 2011Former New York Times Istanbul Bureau Chief Stephen Kinzer ties together the events of the 1953 Iranian Coup, the evolution of present-day Iran and Turkey and the upheaval of today's "Arab Spring."
South Africa and the End of Apartheid
Jul 07, 2011Upon his release from prison, Nelson Mandela led the crowd in a rousing chant of the old resistance phrase, "Come Back Africa." Now, twenty years later, we may begin to ask what kind of Africa is coming back. The question can be addressed by looking beyond the struggle of the African National Congress to focus on ordinary people's mobilizations in the past. A history of generational conflict, chiefship, and trans-ethnic solidarity continues to be felt in the present.
America's International Civil War
Jul 07, 2011While the military contest between North and South dragged on inconclusively over four years, an equally crucial contest of diplomacy, ideology, and propaganda was waged abroad. Powerful economic interests and anti-democratic sympathies favored the South. On the other hand there was a reservoir of popular good will toward the "Great Republic" and widespread antipathy toward human slavery. Each side sought to shape foreign debate over the "American Question." The Union won only when it learned to align its cause with what foreigners understood to be an ongoing international struggle for liberty, equality, and self-government.
Civil Military Relations: At the Heart of Military History
Jul 07, 2011Military historians of the modern era have often neglected the relationship between the armed forces and the state, particularly its effect on outcomes in war and military policy and activity during peacetime. Yet some of the more famous writing on military theory have emphasized the importance of the topic. Military historians of the United States, as the literature reveals, have only now begun to address the subject systematically and in depth.
American Biography After the Cold War
Jul 07, 2011What are the issues of judgment, perspective, and stance that confront historians whose subjects played a role in debates about Stalinism, McCarthyism, and Communism? In the years when the Cold War shaped perceptions, historians identified themselves with particular political positions. But what is the view toward such issues today? Is the intellectual Cold War over? Or does it still constrain our minds and our words? Lillian Hellman will serve as a case in point in this presentation with Columbia University R. Gordon Hoxie Professor of American History Alice Kessler-Harris.
Kissinger's Realpolitik and American Exceptionalism
Jul 07, 2011Henry Kissinger is perhaps the most famous and most controversial American diplomat of the twentieth century. Much of the literature about him emphasizes his geopolitical approach to international relations, his European background, and his advocacy of Realpolitik. But to a large extent of his foreign policy was fundamentally shaped and conditioned by domestic politics. Kissinger ultimately failed to bring about a different approach to foreign policy, one moving beyond American exceptionalism and toward an understanding of the limits of power.
The Russian Imperial Legacy—Stalin and the Outbreak of the War in the East: Barbarossa
Jul 07, 2011Few events in the history of the twentieth century are as controversial, politicized, and laden with emotion as is the launching of operation Barbarossa—the German Invasion of Russia. It has become a fertile ground for conspiracy theories and a subject of unending polemics. This presentation will discuss a vital but missing dimension: the subjugation of ideological premises to the everlasting Russian imperial legacy as the driving force behind Stalin's policies on the eve of operation Barbarossa.
The 'Good Occupation': Military Government in the American Imagination
Jul 07, 2011Military occupation has been a crucial dimension of U.S. foreign relations from the early nineteenth century to the present. The occupations of Germany and Japan in the wake of the Second World War generally were regarded positively. The occupation of Iraq, which initially met with some approbation, eventually tarnished the reputation of the George W. Bush administration. Wilson Center fellow Susan L. Carruthers will explain the transformation of public attitude.
Rethinking the History of the French Welfare State
Jul 07, 2011This seminar will delineate the French welfare state in long-term historical perspective and consider the multiple strands of tradition, institutions, and policies that contributed to its founding and development. It will link practices to successive political regimes and make comparisons between French and British welfare systems. What are the possible future directions of French welfare policy in view of past precedents and current conditions?
Liberty's Surest Guardian: American Nation-Building from Washington to Obama
Aug 23, 2011Jeremi Suri, provocative historian and one of Smithsonian magazine’s “Top Young Innovators,” takes on the idea of American exceptionalism and turns it into a playbook for President Obama over the next, vital few years.
Churchill's Cold War Revisited
Jul 07, 2011Winston Churchill's 1946 "iron curtain" speech was the opening shot in the Cold War for Stalin, Khrushchev, and most other Soviet leaders. Churchill's summit diplomacy of the years 1953–55, however, called for German unification on the basis of neutrality and the peaceful end of the East-West conflict. How can this apparent contradiction be explained? What were Churchill's motives? Klaus Larres revisits these issues and argues that Churchill's policies were coherent and made contributions toward possible solutions in a creative way.
Territory, Statehood, and Sovereignty from Westphalia to Globalization
Jul 07, 2011The possession of territory or bounded political space has been crucial for the modern state, but historians and political analysts have left its properties unexamined. How have the premises and practices of territoriality changed from the seventeenth century to our own era?
Unfinished Business: Archives After Conflict in Guatemala, Sierra Leone, and South Africa
Jul 07, 2011When a country emerges from conflict, citizens demand that perpetrators be held accountable for past violations of human rights; that the governmental system be reformed to prevent a future recurrence of past repressive practices; that the truth be told about what really happened, both in personal terms (such as learning the fate of a loved one) and in terms of how the society came to be what it was; and that reparation be made for the moral and material losses suffered during the period of oppression. Archives are essential to meet these demands.
Beyond Our Means: Why America Spends While the World Saves
Nov 17, 2011If the financial crisis has taught us anything, it is that Americans save too little, spend too much, and borrow excessively. Join us for a discussion of Sheldon Garon's new book "Beyond Our Means: Why America Spends While the World Saves."
Edward Gibbon: The Roman and British Empires;A Study in the Concept of Empire
Jul 07, 2011John Pocock, Johns Hopkins University
Oil and World Power
Jul 07, 2011David Painter, Associate Professor of History, Department of History and Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University
Accidents and Axioms: The Curious History of U.S. Foreign Policy
Jul 07, 2011Philip D. Zelikow, White Burkett Miller Professor of History, University of Virginia
The Protestant Boomerang: American Missionaries and the United States
Jul 07, 2011David A. Hollinger, University of California, Berkeley
How Special Has the Anglo-American 'Special Relationship' Since 1945 Really Been?
Jul 07, 2011Brian Harrison, Emeritus Fellow of Corpus Christi College, University of Oxford
Ordinary People and the American Revolution
Jul 07, 2011Timothy H. Breen, William Smith Mason Professor of American History, Northwestern University
Cold War Legacies
Jul 07, 2011Melvyn P. Leffler, Wilson Center Fellow
Secularism and Gender Equality
Jul 07, 2011Reflections on the Mau Mau and the End of Empire
Jul 07, 2011Caroline Elkins, Harvard University
Francois Mitterand and the Dilemmas of the Cold War
Jul 07, 2011Frederic Bozo, Fellow, Woodrow Wilson Center
Why a Congress and Not a Parliament
Jul 07, 2011Donald A. Ritchie, U.S. Senate Historian
Changing Concepts of Love Since the Eighteenth Century
Jul 07, 2011Luisa Passerini, University of Turin
C. Vann Woodward and the Civil Rights Movement
Jul 07, 2011Sheldon Hackney, University of Pennsylvania
The Eternal Question of Counterinsurgency
Jul 07, 2011Marilyn B. Young, New York University
The French and American Revolutions and Modern Democracy
Jul 07, 2011David Bell, Princeton University
States, Nations, and the Problem of the Nation-State
Jul 07, 2011James J. Sheehan, Stanford University
Rising Inequality and the Return of Jim Crow
Jul 07, 2011Devin Fergus, Assistant Professor of History, Vanderbilt University, and Fellow, Woodrow Wilson Center
Nikita Khrushchev and the Fate of the Soviet Union
Jul 07, 2011Vladislav Zubok, Temple University
American Ascendancy in the Pacific
Jul 07, 2011Bruce Cumings, Distinguished Service Professor in History, University of Chicago
Modern Economics and the Nemesis of History
Jul 07, 2011Volker Berghahn, Seth Low Professor of History, Columbia University
The History of the West Through Arab Eyes
Jul 07, 2011Eugene Rogan, St. Antony's College, Oxford University
African Americans and Independence Struggles in Asia and Africa
Jul 07, 2011Carol Anderson, Emory University
Wilson Versus Wilsonian
Jul 07, 2011John Milton Cooper, Jr., University of Wisconsin, Madison
International Human Rights in Historical Perspective
Jul 07, 2011Stanley N. Katz, Director, Center for Arts and Cultural Policy Studies, Princeton University
American Tapestry: The Story of the Black, White, and Multiracial Ancestors of Michelle Obama
Feb 13, 2013American Tapestry illuminates the lives of the ordinary people in Mrs. Obama's family tree who fought for freedom in the Revolutionary and Civil Wars; who endured the agonies of slavery, the disappointment of Reconstruction, the displacement of the Great Migration, and the horrors of Jim Crow to build a better future for their children.