Despite the breakup of the Soviet Union, NATO continued to exist, and began admitting newly liberated Eastern European countries into the organization. Reflect on Eastern Europe’s place in the western world and what joining NATO and the European Union means for the region. You’ll also explore Russia’s role in the post-Soviet world..

The combined nation of Poland and Lithuania was a powerful force in the 18th century—and its dissolution is one of the great crimes of the modern era. Civil strife provided the pretext for neighboring empires to swoop in and annex the nation. Consider the results of this partition and the political problem that would plague the region for the next century..

Many political and cultural events sent shockwaves through the Irish world in the 19th and early 20th centuries as Ireland gradually shook off the shackles of British rule. Alongside a long and painful political process arose one of the greatest flourishings of literature in modern times. The Irish Revival that occurred around the turn of the 20th century fused and elevated aesthetic and civic ambitions, fueling a cultural climate of masterful artistic...

The Irish Renaissance had largely succeeded in bringing folk life to the center of cultural consciousness by the 1930s. At that time, the poet Patrick Kavanagh—hailing from the rural farmland—emerged with a critique of the sentimentality and nostalgia of Yeats’s generation. Explore how the next wave of poets carved out their own views of Ireland.

The Playboy of the Western World is now regarded as a classic of Modernism and one of Ireland’s defining plays, but when it premiered in 1907, it shocked Dublin and inspired riots. See what made this play so controversial to its original audience—and why the play is a truly great work of art.

An exploration of the Mob's beginnings and influence in the city of New York.

Discover how African Americans fought racism and violence in the early 20th century. Study the system of white supremacy called Jim Crow, and its economic, social, and political oppression. Review significant civil rights activism and legal victories that laid the groundwork for the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 60s..

Shift your attention back to the political sphere where, after the defeat of Parnell’s Home Rule Bill, rebellious organizers began pushing for reforms of their own. Dig into the events surrounding the Dublin lockout, including the Bloody Sunday massacre, and then consider Ireland’s role in World War I.

Communists and capitalists united in World War II to defeat the Axis powers. But following victory in 1945 the allies became adversaries. The world’s two great superpowers—the United States and Soviet Union—locked in a dramatic showdown over ideology, vision and freedom that would persist for five decades. Under the omnipresent threat of nuclear holocaust, the Cold War became the defining conflict of the twentieth century. The second of two...

Lady Gregory, Yeats, and others recognized the need for a national Irish theater. Witness the founding of this great project in 1897, and meet some of the Abbey Theatre’s early playwrights. Professor Conner connects this beacon of Irish cultural heritage to the changing political landscape of the early 20th century.