OU’s popular lecture series, ‘History Comes Alive,’ returns Sept. 17

Offering a unique glimpse into the past by highlighting a variety of history events — some serious, some not so serious — Oakland University’s popular History Comes Alive lecture series will return on Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024 and will continue through Wednesday, March 12, 2025.All lectures are available in person or virtually through Zoom (Meeting ID: 973 8079 4214 and Passcode: 561063). 

This year’s topics will include:

• Herman Gardens: Detroit and the Promise of Public Housing —Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024: During World War II, Detroit built the Herman Gardens Housing Project, designed to provide decent housing to more than 2,000 defense workers. The project promised to solve some of the most pressing problems in the metro area. The story of this housing project illustrates the complexities of living in the arsenal of democracy. Speaker: Karen Miller, Oakland University. RSVP: History Comes Alive Series – 9/17

• ‘Halfway to Everywhere: Chicago-Durango (MX) Heroin Connection — Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2024: From the late 1950s to the mid 1970s, the Herrera organized crime group (OCG) operated from Mexico’s Golden Triangle to Chicago, Ill. employing new technologies and flexible business practices that evaded law enforcement for decades. Early in the U.S. War on Drugs, “Forbes Magazine” ranked the organization’s profits firmly in the top tiers of all U.S. businesses. This talk explores the history of the Herrera OCG and why the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) recognizes the group as one of the most enduring architects of the modern drug trade. Speaker: Elaine Carey, Oakland University. RSVP: History Comes Alive Series – 10/22

• The Abduction of a Professor: A True Crime Story – Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2024: On March 12, 1956, a Columbia University professor, Jesús de Galíndez, was abducted off the streets of Manhattan, forced into a private ambulance at gunpoint, drugged and rushed to a small airport on Long Island. From there, he was flown to the Dominican Republic. The disappearance is front page news in the New York papers, but investigations by the NYPD and the FBI drag on, and the case is never solved. No one is ever charged, but there is never a doubt who the architect of the crime is: the ruthless Dominican dictator General Rafael Trujillo. Speaker: Allen Wells, Bowdoin College. RSVP: History Comes Alive Series – 11/13

• Napoleon, Emperor of America?: Making Sense of the Conspiracy Theory That Almost Convinced New Englanders to Secede — Tuesday, January 7, 2025: During the administrations of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, New England conservatives became convinced that French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte controlled the federal government. This lecture will explore how this conspiracy theory took hold in New England and nearly broke apart the early American republic. Speaker: Nicholas DiPucchio, Oakland University. RSVP: History Comes Alive Series 1/7

• “Where are all the Women?” Untold Experiences from the Holocaust — Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2025: Women experienced every facet of the Holocaust. However, when history and stories illuminate the human experience during the Holocaust, whose stories are we referencing? When we think of the Holocaust, the names that come to mind are often male, and more specifically, male perpetrators. To tell the complete history of the Holocaust, half of the stories cannot be neglected. In this lecture, Katie Chaka Parks will discuss the many ways that gender impacted women’s experiences during one of the darkest times in human history. Speaker: Katie Chaka Parks, Wayne State University and the Zekelman Holocaust Center. RSVP: History Comes Alive Series – 2/11

• “For Internal Reference Only:” Foreign Literature and Book Censorship in the People’s Republic of China, 1960-76 — Wednesday, March 12, 2025: This talk examines a censorship practice known as “internal publishing,” focusing on the Chinese transactions of foreign literature between 1960 and 1976. Classified for political and ideological purposes, these books were distributed exclusively through internal channels to a designated group of high-ranking officials and senior intellectuals. Despite strict control, they reached beyond the intended readership in the chaos of the Cultural Revolution and sparked unintended repercussions that challenged conventional narratives of censorship within the Chinese media. Speaker: Yan Li, Oakland University. RSVP: History Comes Alive Series – 3/12

Admission to each lecture is free, but reservations are requested. To reserve a space or for more information, visit www.oakland.edu/history/history-comes-alive-series. All lectures will begin at 7 p.m. in Banquet Room A in the Oakland Center.

The History Comes Alive lecture series is offered by OU’s Department of History and endowed by John and Annette Carter.