Brenda Wineapple

Ecstatic Nation illuminates one of the most dramatic and momentous chapters in America's past, when the country dreamed big, craved new lands and new freedom, and was bitterly divided over its great moral wrong: slavery. With a canvas of extraordinary characters, such as P.T. Barnum, Walt Whitman, Frederick Douglass, and L.C.Q. Lamar, Ecstatic Nation balances cultural and political history: it provides an account of the sectional conflict that preceded...

The first book to portray one of the most remarkable friendships in American letters, that of Emily Dickinson--recluse, poet--and Thomas Wentworth Higginson, minister, literary figure, active abolitionist.

What can 1868 teach us about 2020? Going to the Devil: The Impeachment of 1868, the first-time-ever original narrative documentary from The Great Courses, is a unique retelling of the turbulent events leading up to and through the impeachment of President Andrew Johnson. With back-stabbings, acts of violence, and a cult of personalities, experience the history of this case unfolding like fiction.

"A Legacy is the tale of two very different families. The Merzes are members of the Jewish upper bourgeoisie of Berlin and direct descendants of Henriette Merz, friend of Goethe and Mirabeau. But this imposing legacy has long since ceased to mean much of anything in the Merzes' huge town house, where the family devotes itself to little more than enjoying its comfort and ensuring its wealth. The Feldens are landed Catholic aristocracy, well off but...

"Here is Whitman the sage, champion of expansiveness and human freedom. Here too, is the poet's more personal side--his vivid memories of Thoreau, Emerson, and Lincoln, his literary judgments of writers such as Shakespeare, Goethe, and Tolstoy, and his expressions of hope in the democratic promise of the nation he loved. The result is a keepsake edition to touch the soul, capturing the distilled wisdom of America's greatest poet"--from Jacket.

For many, The Scarlet Letter represents the pinnacle of 19th-century literature. In this program, three leading Hawthorne scholars use the novel and several Hawthorne short stories to explore issues of interpretation and literary analysis. Each work is discussed in relation to American culture and political events. Significant details of Hawthorne₂s life are also illuminated. Experts include Millicent Bell, a leading Hawthorne scholar; Professor...