History and Civil War Institute
Don’t know much about history? Don’t worry. We can fix that!
The Spring 2023 semester of our Civil War Institute and its spinoff, the History Institute, will begin in February. These courses are the fruit of a long standing partnership between Manor College and the Delaware Valley Civil War Round Table. Ten classes, all of them new, will be offered in a virtual (i.e., Zoom) format. Participants will be emailed a link within 24 hours of the start of their class. For more information or if you have any questions please email us at coned@manor.edu or call (215) 884-2218.
Civil War Institute Classes
Meet George G. Meade, Victor of Gettysburg (Part Two) – NEW – 1 night (2 hrs.)
On June 28, 1863, George Gordon Meade was ordered to take command of the Army of Potomac. Just three days later, he had to face Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia, which was riding a wave of victory after victory. In this first-person narrative, Dr. Waskie, in uniform, will use Meade’s own words to describe how he managed, almost miraculously, to defeat Lee at Gettysburg. The class will also follow Meade’s career to the end of the Civil War … and beyond.
Instructor: Andy Waskie
Fee: $30
Date: Tuesday, March 14
Time: 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
Register: Click here
Desperate Times Call for Desperate Measures: Stories Hidden in the Vaults of Civil War History – NEW – 1 night (2 hrs.)
Civil War history classes usually focus on major battles and important persons. However, the Civil War era is full of extraordinary occurrences and strange personalities that are rarely taught or discussed. This class concentrates on those controversial people, strange occurrences and unusual events from before, during and after the war.
Instructor: Herb Kaufman
Fee: $30
Date: Thursday, March 23
Time: 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
Register: Click here
The Antietam of the West: The Battle of Perryville – NEW – 1 night (2 hrs.)
The similarities between the Sept. 17, 1862, bloodbath in Maryland and Kentucky’s largest Civil War battle three weeks later are striking. Both were failed Confederate attempts to make headway in a border state, both were tactical stalemates, and the Union commander in each battle missed a golden opportunity for a complete victory. Consequently, President Lincoln fired both George B. McClellan and Don Carlos Buell shortly after the two engagements.
Instructor: Jerry Carrier
Fee: $30
Monday, April 3
Time: 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
Register: Click here
Tragic April: Two Forgotten 1865 Disasters – NEW – 1 day (2 hrs.)
Four days after Robert E. Lee’s surrender, the nation was rocked by the assassination of President Lincoln. In the following weeks, the pursuit and capture of John Wilkes Booth and his co-conspirators dominated the headlines. Lost in the glare of those epochal events were the tragic sinking of two rivercraft – Sultana and Black Diamond – with a death toll never before seen in U.S. maritime history.
Instructor: Mike Jesberger
Fee: $30
Date: Thursday, April 20
Time: 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
Register: Click here
The Boys in Blue and Gray: Civil War Baseball – NEW – 1 night (2 hrs.)
Long considered America’s National Pastime, and much more than a typical sporting event, baseball has evolved to become a significant part of the American experience. During the Civil War, Americans from the home front to the battlefront, Union and Confederate, played this wonderful game while great armies fought each other to decide the country’s fate.
Instructor: Mike Jesberger
Fee: $30
Date: Thursday, May 18
Time: 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
Register: Click here
History Institute Classes
Flight of the Celestial Panther: Tecumseh and the Final Battle for the Old Northwest– NEW – 1 night (2 hrs.)
After their defeat at Fallen Timbers and the revival led by the legendary Shawnee chief Tecumseh and his brother The Prophet, life became more precarious than ever for the native people of the Old Northwest. This class will Include William Henry Harrison’s victory at Tippecanoe, Tecumseh’s alliance with the British, and the tribes’ final struggle to keep their land.
Instructor: Tom Donnelly
Fee: $30
Date: Monday, February 6
Time: 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
Register: Click here
Commanding Presence: General George Washington – NEW – 1 night (2 hrs.)
An army’s ability to fight and win does not depend solely on weapons and training. It also rests on the character of its commander. George Washington cut a formidable presence. In the 1750s, a contemporary described him as “measuring six feet two inches in his stockings and weighing 175 pounds”. By the time he became president, the 57-year-old Washington was certainly less agile, but even more imposing at upward of 200 pounds. He had survived an array of harrowing situations from the battlefields of the French and Indian War to the harsh winter of Valley Forge, rendering him a larger-than-life figure.
Instructor: Mike Jesberger
Fee: $30
Date: Wednesday, February 15
Time: 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
Register: Click here
History’s Mysteries of American Presidents – NEW – 1 night (2 hrs.)
Much of what we’ve learned in school about the nation’s presidents was folklore and often myth. Much more presidential history has been kept secret and rarely examined. This class digs into the catacombs of history and brings forward many unusual and often controversial incidents and events – secret operations, attempted assassinations, folktales, curiosities and unusual personal histories of our chief executives.
Instructor: Herb Kaufman
Fee: $30
Date: Thursday, February 23
Time: 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
Register: Click here
Caligula & Nero: “Mad Emperors” or “Victims of History”? – NEW – 1 night (2 hrs.)
We’ve heard the stories: Caligula named his horse a senator and/or a consul, and Nero “fiddled” while Rome burned in a fire he had orchestrated. Could it be that these stories aren’t exactly true, that these events may have been exaggerated to disparage the two rulers? This class will examine how the ancient writers recorded history and what these emperors were really like.
Instructor: Pat Caldwell
Fee: $30
Date: Thursday, April 27
Time: 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
Register: Click here
The Forgotten War: Espionage and Terrorism in World War I – NEW – 1 night (2 hrs.)
The United States entered World War I in April 1917, and the war ended 19 months later. Many elements of that war have been excluded from popular history – espionage and terrorism, both in Europe and on U.S. soil. We’ll examine bomb plots, pencil bombs, an explosion that shook the Statue of Liberty, assassination, secret agents, German infiltration, and extraordinary people and events from the legend of Mata Hari, the sinking of the RMS Lusitania, and the man who became the “Father of American Cryptology.”
Instructor: Herb Kaufman
Fee: $30
Date: Wednesday, May 10
Time: 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
Register: Click here