We support the year-long National History Day competition as an exciting way for students to study and learn about historical issues, ideas, people and events at our locations around the country and online!

The National Archives is the nation’s record keeper. We hold billions of primary sources. Many can be incorporated into NHD research and projects. Visit the National Archives web page for National History Day to get started! Contact us if you need help.

Lecture/Book Signing

Carter Presidential Library & Museum Theater

Free and Open to the Public

A descendant of a slave named Coreen and, according to oral tradition, President James Madison—finally shares her family story, exploring legacy, race, and the powerful consequences of telling the whole truth.

Lecture/Book Signing

Carter Presidential Library & Museum Theater

Free and Open to the Public

The United States of America has been the most powerful country in the world for over seventy years, but recently the U.S. National Security Strategy declared that the return of great power competition with Russia and China is the greatest threat to U.S. national security. Drawing on an extraordinary range of historical evidence and the works of figures like Herodotus, Machiavelli, and Montesquieu and combining it with cutting-edge social science research, Matthew Kroenig advances the riveting argument that democracies tend to excel in great power rivalries.

Lecture/Book Signing

Carter Presidential Library & Museum Theater

Free and Open to the Public

This powerful memoir weaves the stories of valiant women who survived war and conflict with the struggle of author Karen Sherman, a long-standing international women’s rights advocate working to recover from her own history of abuse. The remarkable strength of these women helped Karen find her own way—through conflict zones, confrontations with corrupt officials, and painful questions about her marriage and career—to a renewed commitment to her family and a new path forward. Co-sponsored by the National Center for Civil and Human Rights.

Lecture/Book Signing

Carter Presidential Library & Museum Theater

Free and Open to the Public

“The Shadow System” is a searing expose of the effects of the mass incarceration crisis on families-including the 2.7 million American children who have a parent locked up. Award-winning journalist Sylvia A. Harvey follows the fears, challenges, and small victories of three families struggling to live within the confines of a brutal system.

Lecture/Book Signing

Carter Presidential Library & Museum Theater

Free and Open to the Public

In the wake of a long history of police abuse in Baltimore, the killing of Freddie Gray led to a week of protests and then five days described alternately as a riot or an uprising that set the entire city on edge, and caught the nation’s attention. Wes Moore, one of Baltimore’s proudest sons–a Rhodes Scholar, bestselling author, decorated combat veteran, former White House fellow, and CEO of Robin Hood, one of the largest anti-poverty nonprofits in the nation, takes readers through those five days.

Film Screening/Discussion

Carter Presidential Library & Museum Theater

Free and Open to the Public

Lillian Carter was more than a President’s mother; she was a social activist and great humanitarian. It was not fashionable to speak out with regard to social issues, especially in the Deep South. Lillian Carter refused to remain silent about any injustice. Miss Lillian was not only audacious, but she was also incredibly brave. She saw no difference in people based on race or socio-economic status. This is her story. The screening will be followed by a discussion with the producer and the actress who portrays Miss Lillian.

Lecture/Book Signing

Carter Presidential Library & Museum Theater

Free and Open to the Public

In the aftermath of the 2008 financial collapse, Congress created the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Sharing the stories of individual consumers, “Watchdog” shows how the Bureau quickly became a powerful force for good, suing big banks for cheating or deceiving consumers, putting limits on predatory lenders, simplifying mortgage paperwork, and stepping in to help solve problems raised by individual consumers.

Lecture/BookSigning

Carter Presidential Library & Museum Theater

Free and Open to the Public

The 1919 Elaine Race Massacre, arguably the worst in our country’s history, has been widely unknown for the better part of a century, thanks to the whitewashing of history.

“Damaged Heritage” brings to light a deliberately erased chapter in American history, and Chester offers a blueprint for how our pluralistic society can at last acknowledge—and deal with— damaged heritage and follow a path to true healing.

Lecture/Book Signing

Carter Presidential Library & Museum Theater

Free and Open to the Public

David Daley emerged as one of the nation’s leading authorities on gerrymandering. In “Unrigged”, he charts a vibrant political movement that is rising in the wake of his and other reporters’ revelations. With his trademark journalistic rigor and narrative flair, Daley reports on Pennsylvania’s dramatic defeat of a gerrymander using the research of ingenious mathematicians and the Michigan millennial who launched a statewide redistricting revolution with a Facebook post.—

Lecture/Book Signing

Carter Presidential Library & Museum Theater

Free and Open to the Public

In “Burning Down the House”, historian Julian Zelizer pinpoints the moment when our country was set on a path toward an era of bitterly partisan and ruthless politics, an era that was igniting by Newt Gingrich and his allies.

Lecture/Book Signing

Carter Presidential Library & Museum Theater

Free and Open to the Public

In his international bestsellers “Guns, Germs and Steel” and “Collapse”, Jared Diamond transformed our understanding of what makes civilizations rise and fall. Now, in his third book in this monumental trilogy, he reveals how successful nations recover from crises while adopting selective changes—a coping mechanism more commonly associated with individuals recovering from personal crises.

Lecture/Book Signing

Carter Presidential Library & Museum Theater

Free and Open to the Public

In 2017, Elizabeth Shackelford wrote a pointed resignation letter to her then boss, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. She had watched as the State Department was gutted, and now she urged him to stem the bleeding by showing leadership and commitment to his diplomats and the country. If he couldn’t do that, she said, “I humbly recommend that you follow me out the door.” With that, she sat down to write her story and share an urgent message. This is that story.

Lecture/Book Signing

Carter Presidential Library & Museum Theater

Free and Open to the Public

From the New York Times bestselling author of “The Gatekeepers”, a remarkable, behind-the-scenes look at what it’s like to run the world’s most powerful intelligence agency, and how the CIA is often a crucial counterforce against presidents threatening to overstep the powers of their office.