Course #1. “The CivilWar”

AHI Resident Fellow Dr. David Frisk will offer a class onthe Civil War—with special emphasis on its governmental and political aspectsin the North and South, plus attention to its great military campaigns. Areading group focused mainly on one book, the class will meet weekly by Zoom on Wednesday evenings from February1 through May 3, 2023 from 7:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Eastern time.

Signup/Contact:  dfrisk@theahi.org or 202-999-5751, or AHI PresidentRobert Paquette at bob@theahi.org 

We will read 25 to 30 pages per week. Often a reading fromanother scholar, or a leader of the time such as Abraham Lincoln, will beprovided as an optional supplement. The first week will cover the years justbefore the Civil War. Class sessions begin with a brief informal lecture, thenmove to questions and discussion. We take a five-minute break near themidpoint.

Dr. Frisk, a resident fellow at AHI since 2013, holds aPh.D. in political science from Claremont Graduate University. He has taughtone or more classes each semester on a wide range of topics in history,political science, and political philosophy.

Our book will be Battle Cry of Freedom, anintensively researched major work by the prominent historian James McPherson. Althoughthe book for this reading group is history, much in the Civil War also relatesto political philosophy. Participants are asked to purchase the book. Ifneed be, the AHI will purchase it for you.

From its Amazon page:

“Filled with fresh interpretations and information, puncturing old mythsand challenging new ones, Battle Cryof Freedom will unquestionably become the standard one-volume historyof the Civil War.”

As an example of the crucial role of political and governmental eventsduring the war, McPherson writes in his preface:

“ … the simultaneous Confederateinvasions of Maryland and Kentucky in the late summer of 1862 occurred in the contextof intense diplomatic activity leading toward possible European intervention inthe war, of Lincoln’s decision to issue an emancipation proclamation … and ofhopes by Peace Democrats to capture control of the Union Congress in the fallelections. Each of these events directly affected the others; none can beunderstood apart from the whole.”

On the extraordinary quality of thewar, McPherson relates:

“‘These are fearfully critical,anxious days, in which the destinies of the continent for centuries will bedecided,’ wrote one contemporary in a sentence typical of countless others thatoccur in Civil War diaries and letters … The conflict ‘crowded into a few yearsthe emotions of a lifetime,’ wrote a Northern civilian in 1865 … From faraway London,where he served … at the American legation, young Henry Adams wondered ‘whetherany of us will be ever able to live contented in times of peace and laziness.Our generation has been stirred up from its lowest layers, and there is that inits history which will stamp every member of it until we are all in our graves.We cannot be commonplace.’”

And as Lincoln wrote in his AnnualMessage to Congress in the war’s second year: “Fellow-citizens, we cannot escape history. We of thisCongress and this administration, will be remembered in spite of ourselves. Nopersonal significance, or insignificance, can spare one or another of us. Thefiery trial through which we pass, will light us down, in honor or dishonor, tothe latest generation.”

Course #2. “Anthony Trollope:One of England’s Most Famous Novelists”

Lauren Weiner will direct a course“Anthony Trollope: One ofEngland’s Most Famous Novelists.” The course will dip into Trollope’s so-called Palliserseries to read and discuss Phineas Finn (1869), the story of awinsome young Irishman who yearns to enter Parliament. The group will meetfor 12 sessions via Zoom on Monday evenings, from 7:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.Eastern time. The course will begin on February 13 and end on May 8, 2023.

 Sign up/Contact: Lauren Weiner lweiner6@gmail.com or AHIPresident Robert Paquette bob@theahi.org

Feel free to use the version of Phineas Finn that you prefer. If you buy the Oxford World’s Classics paperbackedition, the cost will be $11.95 on Amazon. Discussants will be reimbursed at the end of the semester for theOxford World’s Classics paperback edition.

LaurenWeiner’s writing life has taken her to jobs as an editor, reporter, CapitolHill staffer, and Pentagon speechwriter. She has written literary reviews aswell, and these have appeared in such publications as the Wall StreetJournal, Commentary, theFederalist.com,the Weekly Standard, AmericanPurpose.com, the NewCriterion, the Washington Times, and the BaltimoreSun.

Why read the political novels ofAnthony Trollope (1815-1882)? Trollope’s not relevant to modern Americans,right? Well, consider these features of the rich panorama created by one ofVictorian England’s greatest novelists:

●       A society riven by class tensions and religiousschisms that struggles to keep its institutions of self-government on track.

●       Self-styled reformers who range from the cravento the opportunistic to the demagogic.

●       Conflict over voting rights and the expansion ofsuffrage. 

●       A creaky election system managed by dodgycampaign operatives who lead candidates—atany rate, those who are not independently wealthy—bythe nose.

●       “Safe” districts where there’s little genuinepolitical competition.

●       Ideologically biased journalists who throw theirweight around, threatening to expose the sexual peccadilloes of politiciansthey don’t like.

It’s all there—plus speeches in the House of Commons, a duel,several romances, country house weekends with the aristocracy, and drinks atthe Willingford Bull after a day spent riding to hounds on a horse namedBonebreaker. 

Course #1. “The CivilWar”

AHI Resident Fellow Dr. David Frisk will offer a class onthe Civil War—with special emphasis on its governmental and political aspectsin the North and South, plus attention to its great military campaigns. Areading group focused mainly on one book, the class will meet weekly by Zoom on Wednesday evenings from February1 through May 3, 2023 from 7:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Eastern time.

Signup/Contact:  dfrisk@theahi.org or 202-999-5751, or AHI PresidentRobert Paquette at bob@theahi.org 

We will read 25 to 30 pages per week. Often a reading fromanother scholar, or a leader of the time such as Abraham Lincoln, will beprovided as an optional supplement. The first week will cover the years justbefore the Civil War. Class sessions begin with a brief informal lecture, thenmove to questions and discussion. We take a five-minute break near themidpoint.

Dr. Frisk, a resident fellow at AHI since 2013, holds aPh.D. in political science from Claremont Graduate University. He has taughtone or more classes each semester on a wide range of topics in history,political science, and political philosophy.

Our book will be Battle Cry of Freedom, anintensively researched major work by the prominent historian James McPherson. Althoughthe book for this reading group is history, much in the Civil War also relatesto political philosophy. Participants are asked to purchase the book. Ifneed be, the AHI will purchase it for you.

From its Amazon page:

“Filled with fresh interpretations and information, puncturing old mythsand challenging new ones, Battle Cryof Freedom will unquestionably become the standard one-volume historyof the Civil War.”

As an example of the crucial role of political and governmental eventsduring the war, McPherson writes in his preface:

“ … the simultaneous Confederateinvasions of Maryland and Kentucky in the late summer of 1862 occurred in the contextof intense diplomatic activity leading toward possible European intervention inthe war, of Lincoln’s decision to issue an emancipation proclamation … and ofhopes by Peace Democrats to capture control of the Union Congress in the fallelections. Each of these events directly affected the others; none can beunderstood apart from the whole.”

On the extraordinary quality of thewar, McPherson relates:

“‘These are fearfully critical,anxious days, in which the destinies of the continent for centuries will bedecided,’ wrote one contemporary in a sentence typical of countless others thatoccur in Civil War diaries and letters … The conflict ‘crowded into a few yearsthe emotions of a lifetime,’ wrote a Northern civilian in 1865 … From faraway London,where he served … at the American legation, young Henry Adams wondered ‘whetherany of us will be ever able to live contented in times of peace and laziness.Our generation has been stirred up from its lowest layers, and there is that inits history which will stamp every member of it until we are all in our graves.We cannot be commonplace.’”

And as Lincoln wrote in his AnnualMessage to Congress in the war’s second year: “Fellow-citizens, we cannot escape history. We of thisCongress and this administration, will be remembered in spite of ourselves. Nopersonal significance, or insignificance, can spare one or another of us. Thefiery trial through which we pass, will light us down, in honor or dishonor, tothe latest generation.”

Course #2. “Anthony Trollope:One of England’s Most Famous Novelists”

Lauren Weiner will direct a course“Anthony Trollope: One ofEngland’s Most Famous Novelists.” The course will dip into Trollope’s so-called Palliserseries to read and discuss Phineas Finn (1869), the story of awinsome young Irishman who yearns to enter Parliament. The group will meetfor 12 sessions via Zoom on Monday evenings, from 7:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.Eastern time. The course will begin on February 13 and end on May 8, 2023.

 Sign up/Contact: Lauren Weiner lweiner6@gmail.com or AHIPresident Robert Paquette bob@theahi.org

Feel free to use the version of Phineas Finn that you prefer. If you buy the Oxford World’s Classics paperbackedition, the cost will be $11.95 on Amazon. Discussants will be reimbursed at the end of the semester for theOxford World’s Classics paperback edition.

LaurenWeiner’s writing life has taken her to jobs as an editor, reporter, CapitolHill staffer, and Pentagon speechwriter. She has written literary reviews aswell, and these have appeared in such publications as the Wall StreetJournal, Commentary, theFederalist.com,the Weekly Standard, AmericanPurpose.com, the NewCriterion, the Washington Times, and the BaltimoreSun.

Why read the political novels ofAnthony Trollope (1815-1882)? Trollope’s not relevant to modern Americans,right? Well, consider these features of the rich panorama created by one ofVictorian England’s greatest novelists:

●       A society riven by class tensions and religiousschisms that struggles to keep its institutions of self-government on track.

●       Self-styled reformers who range from the cravento the opportunistic to the demagogic.

●       Conflict over voting rights and the expansion ofsuffrage. 

●       A creaky election system managed by dodgycampaign operatives who lead candidates—atany rate, those who are not independently wealthy—bythe nose.

●       “Safe” districts where there’s little genuinepolitical competition.

●       Ideologically biased journalists who throw theirweight around, threatening to expose the sexual peccadilloes of politiciansthey don’t like.

It’s all there—plus speeches in the House of Commons, a duel,several romances, country house weekends with the aristocracy, and drinks atthe Willingford Bull after a day spent riding to hounds on a horse namedBonebreaker. 

Course #1. “The CivilWar”

AHI Resident Fellow Dr. David Frisk will offer a class onthe Civil War—with special emphasis on its governmental and political aspectsin the North and South, plus attention to its great military campaigns. Areading group focused mainly on one book, the class will meet weekly by Zoom on Wednesday evenings from February1 through May 3, 2023 from 7:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Eastern time.

Signup/Contact:  dfrisk@theahi.org or 202-999-5751, or AHI PresidentRobert Paquette at bob@theahi.org 

We will read 25 to 30 pages per week. Often a reading fromanother scholar, or a leader of the time such as Abraham Lincoln, will beprovided as an optional supplement. The first week will cover the years justbefore the Civil War. Class sessions begin with a brief informal lecture, thenmove to questions and discussion. We take a five-minute break near themidpoint.

Dr. Frisk, a resident fellow at AHI since 2013, holds aPh.D. in political science from Claremont Graduate University. He has taughtone or more classes each semester on a wide range of topics in history,political science, and political philosophy.

Our book will be Battle Cry of Freedom, anintensively researched major work by the prominent historian James McPherson. Althoughthe book for this reading group is history, much in the Civil War also relatesto political philosophy. Participants are asked to purchase the book. Ifneed be, the AHI will purchase it for you.

From its Amazon page:

“Filled with fresh interpretations and information, puncturing old mythsand challenging new ones, Battle Cryof Freedom will unquestionably become the standard one-volume historyof the Civil War.”

As an example of the crucial role of political and governmental eventsduring the war, McPherson writes in his preface:

“ … the simultaneous Confederateinvasions of Maryland and Kentucky in the late summer of 1862 occurred in the contextof intense diplomatic activity leading toward possible European intervention inthe war, of Lincoln’s decision to issue an emancipation proclamation … and ofhopes by Peace Democrats to capture control of the Union Congress in the fallelections. Each of these events directly affected the others; none can beunderstood apart from the whole.”

On the extraordinary quality of thewar, McPherson relates:

“‘These are fearfully critical,anxious days, in which the destinies of the continent for centuries will bedecided,’ wrote one contemporary in a sentence typical of countless others thatoccur in Civil War diaries and letters … The conflict ‘crowded into a few yearsthe emotions of a lifetime,’ wrote a Northern civilian in 1865 … From faraway London,where he served … at the American legation, young Henry Adams wondered ‘whetherany of us will be ever able to live contented in times of peace and laziness.Our generation has been stirred up from its lowest layers, and there is that inits history which will stamp every member of it until we are all in our graves.We cannot be commonplace.’”

And as Lincoln wrote in his AnnualMessage to Congress in the war’s second year: “Fellow-citizens, we cannot escape history. We of thisCongress and this administration, will be remembered in spite of ourselves. Nopersonal significance, or insignificance, can spare one or another of us. Thefiery trial through which we pass, will light us down, in honor or dishonor, tothe latest generation.”

Course #2. “Anthony Trollope:One of England’s Most Famous Novelists”

Lauren Weiner will direct a course“Anthony Trollope: One ofEngland’s Most Famous Novelists.” The course will dip into Trollope’s so-called Palliserseries to read and discuss Phineas Finn (1869), the story of awinsome young Irishman who yearns to enter Parliament. The group will meetfor 12 sessions via Zoom on Monday evenings, from 7:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.Eastern time. The course will begin on February 13 and end on May 8, 2023.

 Sign up/Contact: Lauren Weiner lweiner6@gmail.com or AHIPresident Robert Paquette bob@theahi.org

Feel free to use the version of Phineas Finn that you prefer. If you buy the Oxford World’s Classics paperbackedition, the cost will be $11.95 on Amazon. Discussants will be reimbursed at the end of the semester for theOxford World’s Classics paperback edition.

LaurenWeiner’s writing life has taken her to jobs as an editor, reporter, CapitolHill staffer, and Pentagon speechwriter. She has written literary reviews aswell, and these have appeared in such publications as the Wall StreetJournal, Commentary, theFederalist.com,the Weekly Standard, AmericanPurpose.com, the NewCriterion, the Washington Times, and the BaltimoreSun.

Why read the political novels ofAnthony Trollope (1815-1882)? Trollope’s not relevant to modern Americans,right? Well, consider these features of the rich panorama created by one ofVictorian England’s greatest novelists:

●       A society riven by class tensions and religiousschisms that struggles to keep its institutions of self-government on track.

●       Self-styled reformers who range from the cravento the opportunistic to the demagogic.

●       Conflict over voting rights and the expansion ofsuffrage. 

●       A creaky election system managed by dodgycampaign operatives who lead candidates—atany rate, those who are not independently wealthy—bythe nose.

●       “Safe” districts where there’s little genuinepolitical competition.

●       Ideologically biased journalists who throw theirweight around, threatening to expose the sexual peccadilloes of politiciansthey don’t like.

It’s all there—plus speeches in the House of Commons, a duel,several romances, country house weekends with the aristocracy, and drinks atthe Willingford Bull after a day spent riding to hounds on a horse namedBonebreaker.