In this lecture, Dr. Totten argues FDR's New Deal saved liberal capitalist democracy in America in an era when fascism and communism rose across the globe. Rather than a socialist who wanted to destroy freedom, FDR embraced a battery of common sense reforms to stabilize the banking system and put Americans to work building infrastructure across the country. Though FDR's efforts were often overturned by the conservative Supreme Court, his efforts vastly improved the country, though many on the left urged him to do more. This set the stage for Roosevelt to fundamentally change the relationship between the federal government and citizens.

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In this lecture, Professor Totten argues the Stock Market Crash of 1929 was not the cause of the Great Depression, but instead was merely the shock that collapsed an unstable economy. Declining farm prices, over production, laissez-faire economic policies, and a lack of liquidity in every industry contributed were the real causes of the depression. When combined with a stock market that was over-inflated it was a recipe for disaster. When the crash occurred, thousands of banks went under, and fortunes evaporated over night. Government policy contributed to the crisis, as tariff walls rose across the world, and trade ground to a halt. Citizens were forced to embrace a more frugal lifestyle, though these varied based on race and gender. While Hoover's administration did more than any other president up to that point in American history to combat an economic crisis, it was simply not enough. Hoover's refusal to deficit spend and abandon the myth of American rugged individualism, only deepened the disaster. Protests occurred across the country, most notably the march on Washington, D.C. that was violently dispersed by the U.S. Army under the command of General Douglas MacArthur. The American people had seen enough, and elected Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1932. The country wanted action and soon got it, as FDR promised a New Deal for the American people.

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In this lecture, Professor Totten argues the Roaring Twenties were in fact the First Culture War, where Americans debated the separation of church and state and the government's intrusion into citizen's private affairs. The 1920s saw the expansion of spectator sports through the use of technology to reach new audiences. The decade witnessed an new flourishing of African American intellectual movements, ranging from Black Nationalism to Pan Africanism. Many reformers disagreed about how to best fight inequality, with some, like Marcus Garvey, arguing for black separation and even a return to Africa. In addition, a culture of consumerism swept the nation, as Americans were convinced by advertising to buy an ever expanding selection of leisure goods that equated self-worth with your possessions. At the same time, ideas about eugenics proliferated and the sterilization of non-white women drastically increased. This pseudo-scientific thought would eventually inform one man, Adolf Hitler, of eugenic ideology, which he put into effect with ruthless efficiency, during the Holocaust. Americans, as they do today, debated high school science curriculums that taught evolution, illustrating that the First Culture War, still rages to this day.

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In this lecture, Professor Totten argues the memory of the 1920s is largely inaccurate, as it was filled with unrest and repression, rather than economic prosperity. The Influenza Epidemic killed millions world wide, while labor unions and immigrants were targeted in the country's second major red scare. Racial tensions boiled over as well, where white mobs attacked African American communities, causing millions of dollars of damage, and murdering hundreds of black civilians. The country saw the return to laissez-faire economic policies and the overturn of many progressive regulatory abilities that directly contributed to the coming of the Great Depression. The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927, further illustrated how federal aid could be unequally applied. The decade also saw horrific violence between criminals and law enforcement as a result of Prohibition. This violence directly led to gun control efforts, as well as the growth of the Prison-Industrial complex, that we still deal with to this day.

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In this lecture, Professor Totten argues the Great War shaped the 20th and 21st centuries. For the first three years of the conflict, the United States sat on the sidelines, though it did provide numerous armaments and loans to the Allies. As a result, American shipping was targeted by German U-boats, which greatly angered Americans. It was not until unrestricted submarine warfare, the Zimmerman Telegram, and the Russian Revolution occurred that the United States was willing to join the "war to end all wars." The Germans wanted to break the Allies before American forces could could be brought to bear. In the spring offensive of 1918, over a hundred divisions hurled themselves at Allied lines, and though they pushed them back, the Allies never broke. American forces then plugged the gaps and an allied counter-attack signaled to German leaders that the war was lost. Mutiny, protest, and social upheaval gripped Germany as the Austro-Hungarians and Ottoman Empire capitulated. In the end, the Kaiser abdicated, the Weimar Republic was proclaimed, and the war was brought to an end, before Allied forces crossed the German frontier. During the Versailles peace conference, the Allies wanted reparations and territory, while Wilson wanted his League of Nations. The Treaty of Versailles was devastating for Germany, as she was saddled with the blame and had to pay reparations that would devastate her already crippled economy. The treaty led to much German dissatisfaction, which in turn produced the "stabbed in the back myth" that demagogues like Adolf Hitler seized upon. This set the stage, for the next world war. The war killed millions, devastated entire countries, and left unanswered questions in the Balkans and the Middle East. In fact, the origins of the modern Middle East, and the problems of Islamic terrorism and the Arab-Israeli conflict, are part of the legacy of the First World War.

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In this lecture, Professor Totten argues the First World War was a global catastrophe that shaped the 20th century. The war started in 1914 due to imperialism, militarism, nationalism, and the alliance system. German was forced to declare war against France and Russia, due to their Balkan Inception Scenario policy, that sought to maneuver Germany into a war, while the allies could maintain the moral high ground.

The Serbian backed assassination of the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, Franz Ferdinand, resulted in Austrian anger and Russian support for their Slavic neighbor. The Germans fell into the trap of supporting their Austrian allies and when Russia mobilized their vast disorganized army, Germany was forced to declare war on both Russia and France. The German offensive strategy, the Schlieffen Plan, called for an invasion of neutral Belgium in order to get around France's defense fortifications on their eastern border. This caused Great Britain to side with the Allies and this conflict became a full fledged world war.

After the Allies stopped the German offensive at the Battle of the Marne, trench warfare set in. The horrific conditions and bloody battles led to a stalemate that lasted nearly the entire war. Germany and their ally the Ottoman Empire, sought to distract Britain from the western front, by opening up multiple fronts across the world. This required the Allies to lean on their colonies and call up nearly 2 million indigenous troops to serve in the conflict. While the British successfully defended their colonies and conquered German possessions, the destruction and violence wrought by the war sowed the seeds for the decolonization movement of the 1960s.

In the Middle East, Great Britain suffered an initial set back at Gallipoli, before taking Baghdad. A young British officer, Lawrence of Arabia, aided the Arab Revolt against the Ottomans, and later allowed the British to seize Jerusalem. British officials promised the Arabs they could control most of the Middle East, but later issued the Balfour Declaration which backed the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine. In the end, both promises were dropped, as the British and French divided up the region after the war. Thus, the seeds for the Arab-Israeli conflicts were planted due to European arrogance.

Nationalism can be a dangerous thing, as evidenced in the Ottoman Empire. While the Ottomans reeled from defeats, they worried about internal unrest from non-Turkish minority groups. To deal with this perceived threat, the Ottomans embarked on the Armenian, Assyrian, and Pontiac Greek genocide, which killed over three million civilians. To this day, it is illegal to discuss these war crimes in Turkey. Thus, these genocides were just one of several mass murders, during the violent 20th century.

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In this lecture, Professor Totten argues President's Roosevelt, Taft, and Wilson helped see Progressive reforms become law under their respective administrations. Roosevelt managed to pass meaningful railroad regulations and health standards that vastly improved people's lives. Under Taft's administration, numerous monopolies were broken up, but he butted heads with the retired Roosevelt, over his handling of conservation. This split within the GOP allowed the Democrat Woodrow Wilson to emerge victories in the election of 1912. In that election, both Roosevelt and the socialist Eugene Debs conducted third and fourth party runs that influenced the contest. Wilson's administration continued his predecessor's reform efforts, though he also segregated federal offices. In the end, Wilson was a successful president and managed to be reelected in 1916, after his campaign emphasized his efforts to keep America out of the First World War. However, international events, would soon drag the United States into the Great War.

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In this lecture, Professor Totten argues that the Progressive Era witnessed a constellation of reforms realized through the concerted efforts of numerous groups. These groups varied in their composition and goals, but all wanted to alleviate the social-ills of the era.

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In this lecture, Professor Totten argues the United States embraced imperialist policies in the second half of the 19th century and beyond. America had embraced forms of colonialism and imperialism in their ideas about Manifest Destiny. This led to territorial acquisitions outside of the continental United States, first in Alaska, and then in Hawaii. For decades, U.S. imperialist politicians and businessmen coveted Cuba for their rich sugar plantations and because of the large amount of investment and trade with the island. When a Cuban rebellion against Spanish oppression broke out, tens of thousands of Cubans were herded into reconcentration camps that killed many innocent civilians. The result was the American "yellow press" to call for war. After the U.S.S. Maine accidentally exploded in Havana harbor, Americans demanded war. The conflict was short and decisive, with the Americans claiming Puerto Rico, Cuba, Guam, and the Philippines from the Spanish. Shortly thereafter, a Filipino insurrection broke out against U.S. rule, which ultimately cost hundreds of thousands of Filipino lives. America continued its imperialist policies under Theodore Roosevelt, who wrote the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe doctrine, pledging to police the western hemisphere in order to keep other European nations out. As a result, the United States embarked on a series of armed occupations of numerous countries for decades, which led to widespread anti-Americanism in the region that continues to this day.

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In this lecture, Professor Totten argues that economic hardships and the lack of government action led many Americans to support a new third party, the People's Party in the 1890s. Partisan politics was a highly participatory affair in the 19th century and Americans often voted in great numbers. Despite this participation, the major parties ignored the plight of western and southern farmers, which led these men to forge a third party challenge. Their demands centered around free silver, government regulation, and even government ownership of key industries. This populist revolt helped push many western and southern Democrats away from laissez-faire economics and towards a more regulatory vision of American governance. While they were unsuccessfully electorally, the Populist Revolt changed American politics forever. Campaign tactics shifted and they helped both parties adopted a vision of "positive government" toward reform that culminated in the Progressive Era. Lastly, the Democrats, led by William Jennings Bryan, began their slow movement towards becoming the party of big government, that ultimately culminated in the New Deal and the Great Society projects of the 20th century.

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