Leaders in Crisis: American Presidents Who Saved Our Country

On a handful of occasions in American history, the very existence of the nation was in doubt. Each time, Americans were fortunate to have leaders capable of rising to the challenge. In this two-session course, we will study Washington as he chose to cross the Delaware and carry the fight to the British even as independence seemed lost, Lincoln as he steered the divided country through the Civil War, FDR as he confronted economic collapse during the banking crisis, and Kennedy as he faced the end of the world during the Cuban missile crisis. Using actual and reenacted video, instructor Jess Velona recreates the key meetings in which these leaders agonized over stark choices and the speeches by which they rallied the nation to meet the crisis. Always up for discussion is how these past leaders might have addressed the crises of pandemic and racial injustice in our own time.

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