Public Programs

Book Talks

I Dread the Thought of the Place: The Battle of Antietam and the End of the Maryland Campaign

by D. Scott Hartwig

Thursday, May 15, 2025 | 7 p.m. ET | Virtual
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In this definitive account, historian D. Scott Hartwig chronicles the single bloodiest day in American history, which resulted in 23,000 casualties. The Battle of Antietam marked a vital turning point in the war: afterward, the conflict could no longer be understood as a limited war to preserve the Union, but was now clearly a conflict over slavery. Join the author for a detailed look at the battle based on decades of research.

D. Scott Hartwig is a retired supervisory historian at the Gettysburg National Military Park and the author of “To Antietam Creek” (2012).

Register for the “I Dread the Thought of the Place” virtual Book Talk


George Washington’s Momentous Year: Twelve Months that Transformed the Revolution

By Gary Ecelbarger

Thursday, June 19, 2025 | 7 p.m. (ET) | Virtual
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In the first of two volumes, historian Gary Ecelbarger narrates the personalities, decisions, and battles of the 1777 Philadelphia campaign, primarily from the perspective of George Washington. Based on a fresh analysis of primary sources, the author demonstrates that Washington was an offensive-minded commander seeking avenues of attack during a very mobile campaign.

Gary Ecelbarger is an award-winning author of 10 books about 18th and 19th century personalities and events, including “Slaughter at the Chapel: The Battle of Ezra Church, 1864.” He obtained an M.S. at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and lives in Virginia.

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The Vietnam War: A Military History

By Geoffrey Wawro

Thursday, July 17, 2025 | 7 p.m. (ET) | Virtual
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Based on thousands of pages of military, diplomatic, and intelligence documents, Geoffrey Wawro’s “The Vietnam War” offers a detailed account of a war that was doomed from its inception. Wawro discusses campaigns where U.S. troops struggled even to find the enemy in the South Vietnamese wilderness, let alone kill sufficient numbers to turn the tide in their favor. Yet the war dragged on, prolonged by presidents and military leaders who feared the political consequences of accepting defeat.

Geoffrey Wawro, Ph.D. is University Distinguished Research Professor and director of the Military History Center at the University of North Texas. He is the author of seven books, including “Quicksand: America’s Pursuit of Power in the Middle East.”

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Reporting the Nuremberg Trials

By Noel Marie Fletcher

Thursday, August 21, 2025 | 7 p.m. (ET) | Virtual
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Learn from long-time journalist and former foreign correspondent Noel Fletcher about the lengthy post-World War II Nuremberg trials of former Nazi leaders, and the hundreds of journalists who covered this important event.

Noel Marie Fletcher earned her B.A. in journalism from San Francisco State University. She is a founding member of the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China, and the author of “My Time in Another World: Experiences as a Foreign Correspondent in China” (2018).

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From the Mountains to the Bay: The War in Virginia, January-May 1862

By Ethan S. Rafuse

Thursday, September 18, 2025 | 7 p.m. (ET) | Virtual
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A sweeping study of the operations on land and sea, “From the Mountains to the Bay” is the only modern scholarly work that looks at military operations in Virginia in early 1862, from the Romney Campaign that opened the year to the naval engagement between the Monitor and Merrimac to the movements and engagements fought by Union and Confederate forces in the Shenandoah Valley, on the York-James Peninsula, and in northern Virginia, as a single, comprehensive campaign.

Ethan S. Rafuse is a professor of military history at the U.S. Army Command General Staff College, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. His publications include “McClellan’s War: The Failure of Moderation in the Struggle for the Union,” and (with Charles R. Bowery, Jr.) “Guide to the Richmond-Petersburg Campaign.”

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The Battle of Manila: Poisoned Victory in the Pacific War

By Nicholas Evan Sarantakes

Thursday, October 16, 2025 | 7 p.m. (ET) | Virtual
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In “The Battle of Manila,” Nicholas Sarantakes offers the first in-depth account of this crucial campaign from the American, Japanese, and Filipino perspectives. Fighting was building by building, with both sides forced to adapt to the new combat environment. None of the U.S. units that entered Manila had any previous training in urban warfare—yet, as Sarantakes shows, they learned on the fly how to use tanks, flamethrowers, and air and artillery assets in support of infantry assaults. Their effective use of these weapons was an important factor in limiting U.S. casualties, even as it may also have contributed to a catastrophic loss of civilian lives.

Nicholas Evan Sarantakes, Ph.D. is an associate professor in the strategy and policy department at the U.S. Naval War College. He is the author of four books, including “Dropping the Torch: Jimmy Carter, the Olympic Boycott, and the Cold War.”

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