Presidential Leadership at Historic Crossroads (Teacher Seminar Online)

Starting with its inception in the eighteenth century, the American presidency has faced numerous inflection points that have reshaped the office. From its constitutional roots to Washington’s precedents, Jacksonian democracy, Lincoln’s Civil War power assertions, TR’s and Woodrow Wilson’s creation of the “rhetorical presidency,” FDR’s Great Depression and World War II presidency, the Cold War’s impact, Nixon and Watergate, the Global War on Terror, and Trump’s unprecedented tenure, the chief executive’s influence has waxed and waned depending on circumstances and presidential leadership. Using classic and new scholarship as well as primary sources, this seminar will examine the challenges and responses of presidents when they have faced and sometimes constructed historic crossroads.

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Barbara A. Perry, Lead Scholar

Barbara Perry is the Gerald L. Baliles Professor in Presidential Studies at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center, where she co-directs the Presidential Oral History Program. She has authored or edited seventeen books on presidents, First Ladies, the Kennedy family, the Supreme Court, and civil rights and civil liberties. Perry has conducted more than 140 interviews for the George H. W. Bush, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama Presidential Oral History Projects; participated in the Bill Clinton interviews; directs the Edward Kennedy Oral History Project; and co-directs the Hillary Rodham Clinton Oral History Project. She served as a US Supreme Court fellow and has worked for both Republican and Democratic members of the Senate.

Rosanne Lichatin, Master Teacher

Rosanne Lichatin taught American history in grades six through twelve before becoming the district supervisor of history in the West Morris Regional High School District in New Jersey. She has served as a member of the National Advisory Council for Historic Preservation and in 2012 she was named the Patricia Behring NJ History Day Teacher of the Year. Since being recognized as the 2005 National History Teacher of the Year by the Gilder Lehrman Institute, Rosanne has continued to work with the Institute leading summer seminars on a variety of topics, such as Race and Rights in America, Alexander Hamilton, and Women in the American Revolution. In addition, she has led workshops focusing on Teaching Literacy through History and Teaching Civics through History. She resides in Morris County, New Jersey, an area rich in the history of the Revolutionary era.

The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza

This seminar is held in partnership with The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza. Located inside the former Texas School Book Depository Building in downtown Dallas, The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza attracts visitors from all over the United States and across the world. In 1989, the main exhibit, John F. Kennedy and the Memory of a Nation, opened to the public on the sixth floor where critical evidence was found linked to President Kennedy’s Assassination on November 22, 1963. The exhibit is divided into key historical sections with contextual overlays following the path of John F. Kennedy’s life, death, and legacy. The Museum encourages visitors to examine the evolution of today’s global society through Kennedy’s presidential legacy.