Resource person: Audra Bullard - office@clehighlands.com

Description:

Americans like to celebrate national and personal success, but every society and every individual must respond to failures and unexpected defeats. Nobody can really succeed unless they know how to survive painful failures. This program will examine some great national failures, from the collapse of ancient Athenian democracy after military defeats to the decimation of Napoleon’s army in early 19th-century Russia. But we’ll also discuss writers who lost their reputations in literary failures, investors who lost their money in “stock bubbles,” and workers who lost their jobs in the Great Depression. Historians and philosophers have long analyzed the ways in which people interpret great failures, and they have posed a question that will shape our discussion: How do historical perspectives help us understand and move beyond the setbacks, defeats, and failures that are forever reshaping human lives?

Lloyd Kramer is a Professor Emeritus of History and a former chair of the History Department at UNC, Chapel Hill, where he also served for ten years as the Director of Carolina Public Humanities. His research and teaching have focused on modern France and the wider Atlantic world, and his most recent book, Traveling to Unknown Places: Nineteenth-Century Journeys Toward French and American Selfhood, was published in 2024 by the UNC Press. He received his Ph.D. from Cornell University and is coauthor of A History of Europe in the Modern World, which is now in its 12th edition.

Notes: Cancellation Policy Please let us know immediately if you are unable to attend a class. There is no refund for cancellations within two (2) weeks prior to a scheduled class. Programs that include food, beverage or art materials must be canceled within three (3) weeks prior to receive a refund. CLE reserves the right to cancel a program if the minimum enrollment has not been met or for circumstances beyond our control, and participants will be notified, a complete refund will be issued. All classes are held in the CLE Lecture Hall at the Peggy Crosby Center unless otherwise noted. In the event information has changed from the published brochure, it will be posted on our website and in our e-blasts. Addresses for “private home” venues will be provided to registrants within 2 days of the program date.

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