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In the wake of the worst recession in recent history, pre-eminent economist Jeffrey Sachs argues that American capitalism will return to the brink of collapse if measures aren’t taken to fix it. Join us for this special evening as Professor Sachs, in conversation with Andrew Ross Sorkin, argues that U.S. citizens must reach a consensus on government’s role in everyday life and on their basic values, and offers a bold and ambitious plan to change our economic system.

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The American Civil War was the largest non-British conflict ever fought by British men and women. Serving as soldiers, spies and nurses for both the Union and Confederacy, never again would so many risk their lives on behalf of a foreign cause. In this discussion, acclaimed historian Amanda Foreman, in conversation with Harold Holzer, takes the audience on a journey to the drawing rooms of London, the offices of Washington and the front lines of a divided America to examine Great Britain’s integral role in the Civil War.

Since 1971, the U.S. dollar has not been convertible into anything except small change. Like every other modern currency, it derives its value from the perceived acumen of the government that prints it. But in this era of financial insecurity, is the soaring price of gold evidence that faith in this system has wilted? Experts debate the future of our monetary system: Should the United States return to the gold standard or should it carry on by printing dollars with each successive financial crisis?

When Barack Obama was elected President, people across the globe anticipated the coming of a new age of American liberalism and bipartisanship. Yet two years after his inauguration, the nation is experiencing a conservative resurgence of dramatic proportions. With Republicans consistently opposing the president’s main platforms and Democrats accusing the president of being too conceding, political disharmony is crippling the legislative process.

Three experts draw back the curtain of the United States Supreme Court to provide an insider’s look at one of the most influential and distinguished justices of the 20th century: William J. Brennan, Jr. Drawing on previously private case histories and personal interviews, this program examines not only Brennan’s life but the strategy behind the major legal battles of the past half century, from Roe v. Wade to the death penalty to the right to privacy, in a riveting look at one of the Court’s most progressive eras.

A century and a half after Confederate forces fired on Fort Sumter to ignite the Civil War, leading historians ask and answer the crucial questions: What really caused the conflict? Could the Civil War have been avoided? Did Lincoln invite the first shot—or did the Union “get lucky?” This program marks the start of an ongoing New-York Historical Society focus on the great American tragedy with the first of several discussions and lectures.

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Date: Mon, March 21, 2011, 6:30 PM

New York City’s only “Civil War Battle” was the 1863 Draft Riot—a convulsive, racially-motivated street fight for the very soul of Manhattan. Experts provide a frank, no-holds-barred account of the sickening excesses of the bloody struggle, its lasting impact on New York politics, the efforts of the mayor, governor, and President Lincoln himself to quell the frightening disturbance, and what it all meant to the future of New York.