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Central Park’s design is democracy in three dimensions. No one understood that better than its creators, Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux. With their talented team, they created a slice of the American countryside—accessible to all—that looks completely natural but is a brilliantly crafted artifice that helps us achieve the “American dream.”

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Barry Lewis is an architectural historian who currently teaches at Cooper Union Forum and specializes in European and American architecture from the 18th to 20th centuries.

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In the 1920s, an infectious energy filled the air as the country pushed relentlessly into the future, and at the center of it all stood a gleaming city reaching for the sky. Join us for an exploration of the cultural history of Jazz Age Manhattan—from the introduction of “talkies” to the emergence of mass communication to the broadcasting of revolutionary new music on radios—and learn why ambitious innovators of change flocked to the city, transforming America in the process.

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On June 17, 1775, violence erupted between British troops and Patriot militia in the Battle of Bunker Hill, which would become the bloodiest battle of the Revolution. An award-winning author and historian reignites the flames of Bunker Hill and offers a fresh perspective on this turning point that sparked the American Revolution.

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In the Old City of Jerusalem, especially in the Muslim quarter, we can see examples of the “Moorish “ style that inspired 19th-century Western architects, including the New York avant-garde of the 1860s to '80s period, to embrace new ideas of how buildings should be designed.

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Barry Lewis is an architectural historian who currently teaches at Cooper Union Forum and specializes in European and American architecture from the 18th to 20th centuries.

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Explore the unsurpassed Civil War collections of the New-York Historical Society in another lively, vividly illustrated look inside history through rare pictures, one-of-a-kind relics, bizarre curiosities, and iconic talismans of the rebellion—including prison art and soldier diaries, secret de-coding devices, home-front charity fair souvenirs, political tokens, and unique, first-hand testimony about the Lincoln assassination.

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Three journalists explore the evolving relationship between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton—from the political rivalry that defined the 2008 presidential primaries to their powerful professional partnership—and consider how their similarities and differences came into play during the first four years of Obama’s presidency and how they will affect their respective futures.

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Few know that our 16th President, the man who saw the Union through the Civil War, did not have the chance to properly attend school. He went “by littles”, increments that amounted to fewer than 12 months of formal education over several years. Noted historian and author Lewis E. Lehrman follows Abraham Lincoln’s incredible life, highlighting key moments that give insight into how he went from the poor son of a frontiersman with little formal education to one of the most celebrated leaders in American history.

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Each year during the Passover Seder, Jewish families recount the story of the Exodus from Egypt using the Haggadah as their guide book. Acclaimed authors Cokie and Steven V. Roberts share their unique and personalized vision of the traditional Haggadah, exploring their own family traditions, lessons they’ve learned as an interfaith couple, and inclusive Passover rituals.

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London and its metropolitan area are the sources of much of our own American modern architectural and interior design. Whether Arts and Crafts or metallic “modernist,” London’s designers of the 19th century paved the way for our 20th-century ideals of “honest” design. Join Barry Lewis and discover how John Soane, William Morris, Owen Jones, Joseph Paxton, and others inspired Americans to embrace modernisms long before Mies van der Rohe was even born.

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The first momentous battle of the West launched Ulysses S. Grant as a new Union hero—but came perilously close to ending with a Confederate victory. Shiloh also raised the bar on battlefield bloodshed: at the time, April 1862, it was the deadliest encounter of the entire Civil War. Leading Civil War historians discuss every aspect of the two-day battle—from strategies to casualties, miracles to miscalculations.