Paul Theroux, one of the most acclaimed travel writers of our time, turns his unflinching eye on an American South too often overlooked. Theroux also discusses his recently published book, “Deep South”.

William Rankin, assistant professor of the history of science at Yale University, explores the links between roadside surveying markers, nuclear missile targeting, and new forms of mapping in the twentieth century. His talk will focus on the grid-like alternatives to latitude and longitude that were created during and after the World Wars, especially the global system installed by the US Army. For soldiers, engineers, and homeowners alike, these invisible but now ubiquitous technologies...

Gordon H. Chang, professor of history at Stanford University and co-director of the Chinese Railroad Workers in North America Project, examines the central role Chinese workers played in the construction of the first transcontinental rail line across the United States and about the challenges to recovering their long-lost history.

Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo, professor of sociology at the University of Southern California, discusses the important role of immigrants and migration in the making of California gardens. This talk was part of the Haynes Foundation Lecture Series.

Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer speaks about the many ways in which American judges, when interpreting American law, must take ever greater account of foreign events, law and practices—the subject of his new book, "The Court and the World: American Law and the New Global Realities."

Peter Blodgett,discusses his book, Motoring West: Automobile Pioneers, 1900–1909. Travel back in time to the the turn of the 20th century when Americans were hitting the road to explore the West by automobile. Blodgett is the H. Russell Smith Foundation Curator of Western Historical Manuscripts at The Huntington.

Cokie Roberts, author and political commentator, discusses her new book "Capital Dames, The Civil War and the Women of Washington, 1848-1868," which explores the lives of the women of Washington D.C. during the upheaval of the Civil War. Roberts has previously written about the vital female contributions to the nation's early years in her "New York Times" bestselling book, "Founding Mothers and Ladies of Liberty."

Independent scholar Roberta H. Martínez shares intimate stories of Pasadena’s earliest days as reflected in the marriage and writings of Arturo Bandini and Helen Elliott Bandini, members of two of Pasadena's founding families. Their personal story melds with the legacies of Old California and highlights connections with the Valley Hunt Club, Greene and Greene architecture, Charles Lummis, and even the Manhattan Project.

Joseph T. Glatthaar, professor of history at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and the Rogers Distinguished Fellow in Nineteenth-Century American History, compares the great Union and Confederate armies in the American Civil War. A book signing will follow the talk. This is part of the Distinguished Fellow Lecture Series at The Huntington.

Mary Fissell, professor of the history of medicine at Johns Hopkins University, discusses Aristotle’s Masterpiece. First published in London in 1684, it became one of the most popular medical books ever published in England and America. The lecture is sponsored by the George Dock Society for the History of Medicine.

Jonathan Levy, associate professor of history at Princeton University, discusses the history of entrepreneurship as an idea, focusing upon the values that American entrepreneurs have shared and created from the early 20th century to today. This is part of the Haaga Lecture series at The Huntington.

Susan Juster, professor of history at the University of Michigan and the Robert C. Ritchie Distinguished Fellow, discusses the changing nature of blasphemy and blasphemy prosecutions in early modern England and the North American colonies. This is part of the Distinguished Fellow Lecture series.

David D. Hall, Bartlett Research Professor at Harvard Divinity School and the Los Angeles Times Distinguished Fellow, draws upon his book A Reforming People: Puritanism and the Transformation of Public Life in New England in this free lecture and book signing. This is part of the Distinguished Fellow Lecture Series at The Huntington.

Ari Kelman, winner of the Bancroft Prize for his book "A Misplaced Massacre", discusses the politics of memory surrounding one of the most notorious episodes of violence in the history of the American West. The talk took place on Nov. 11, 2014, three weeks shy of the sesquicentennial anniversary of the Sand Creek Massacre. This is part of The Huntington's Billington Lecture series.

John Demos, professor of history at Yale University and author of “The Heathen School: A Story of Hope and Betrayal in the Age of the Early Republic”, discusses the doomed attempt in the early 19th century to promote the spread of “Christian civilization” at a special school for indigenous youths in Connecticut. This is part of The Huntington's Nevins Lecture series.

Steve Hindle explores the similarities and differences between the English and American civil wars in his 2014 Founder’s Day lecture at The Huntington. Both English and American societies still bear the scars from civil wars, each with its heroes, villains, and contested legacy. Hindle is The Huntington’s W. M. Keck Foundation Director of Research.

Frederick E. Hoxie explains that over the past generation, historians have discovered many new facts about Native Americans. In this talk he examines how this new information affects our understanding of who we are as Americans and how we all fit into a single national culture. Hoxie professor of history at the University of Illinois, Urbana, and the Los Angeles Times Distinguished Fellow at The Huntington in 2013–14.

Louis Hyman offers important lessons of the New Deal, when the most transformative programs were steered by business leaders whose entrepreneurship made the postwar boom possible. Hyman is assistant professor of history at the ILR School of Cornell University. He delivered the 2013–14 Haaga Lecture at The Huntington.

Alan Taylor, author of “The Civil War of 1812,” discusses the escape of more than 3,000 slaves from Virginia and Maryland during the War of 1812. They stole boats to reach British warships in Chesapeake Bay, where they were taken on board and employed. Their help proved essential to the British coastal raids, particularly the capture of Washington, D.C. Taylor is professor of history at the University of California, Davis, and the inaugural Robert C. Ritchie Distinguished Fellow at The...

Professor Sir David Cannadine of Princeton University describes Andrew Mellon’s remarkable and varied career as a banker, industrialist, Secretary of the U.S. Treasury, art collector, and founder of the National Gallery of Art. Cannadine is the author of "Mellon: An American Life" (2006).

David D. Hall discusses an alternate view of witch-hunting in 17th-century New England, which was often characterized as a titanic struggle between the forces of good and evil. Could those accused of “diabolical possession” actually have been bedeviled by everyday problems such as unmet religious and social needs or family tensions? Hall is professor of New England Church History at Harvard Divinity School.

Joseph Rezek explains how the song “Hail to the Chief” had its origins in Sir Walter Scott’s poem “The Lady of the Lake,” an anthem to a Scottish highland clan leader. In his talk, he describes how it became a patriotic song during the War of 1812, when Scott’s popularity was at its height in America. Rezek is assistant professor of English at Boston University.

Jean Strouse, author of “Morgan: American Financier,” discusses the life of J. Pierpont Morgan, the titan of American industry who not only imposed order on the chaotic creation of American railroads, but also organized General Electric, U.S. Steel, International Harvester, and served as a one-man central bank before the United States had a Federal Reserve. Strouse is the Sue Ann and John Weinberg Director of the Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers at the New York...

T. J. Stiles discusses the life and impact of Cornelius Vanderbilt, America’s first great corporate tycoon. Ruthless yet honest, Vanderbilt epitomized the conundrum of the so-called robber barons, who amassed unprecedented power but revolutionized business and donated vast sums to charity. Stiles won the 2010 Pulitzer Prize in Biography for his book “The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt.” His talk at the Huntington Library was the 2011 Paul G. Haaga Jr. Lecture in American...

Historian Sean Wilentz discusses Abraham Lincoln as a cunning and partisan politician. Wilentz is The Huntington’s Los Angeles Times Fellow for 2010–11 and the George Henry Davis 1886 Professor of American History at Princeton University.