Monday Scholars: Great Trials of World History
Explore the Crossroads of History and Law
LIVE Zoom Event - At the time of the event, click here to join on Zoom.
Mondays: 1:00 - 2:15 PM
April 8 & April 22
About Monday Scholars:
Join us in April on Zoom as explore two “Great Trials” of World History: The Nuremberg Trials and The Leopold & Loeb Trail. Together we will watch a ½ hour video lecture on the trial and then OWL’s Caroline Ugurlu will lead everyone in a discussion of what we just watched.
About the course:
“Apart from being terrific theater, great trials can shape history,” Professor Linder notes. “They can change attitudes and reinforce ideals. And they can provide a remarkably clear window for observing societies, both past and present.” But these lectures are about so much more than just facts and narrative. They’re a chance for us to explore the human stories involving innocence and guilt, truth and deception, life and death. These are trials that don’t simply end with their verdict but have a power that reverberates throughout history.
April 8: The Nuremberg Trials
No trial, according to Professor Linder, provides a better basis for understanding the nature and causes of evil than the war crime trials in Nuremberg from 1945 to 1949. In this lecture, we will focus on the first of 12 trials, regarded by scholars as “The Trial of the Major War Criminals.”
April 22: The Leopold & Loeb Trial
The Leopold & Loeb Trial introduces us to the nation’s most famous defense lawyer, Clarence Darrow, with a focus on a trial involving a “thrill killing” by two rich and intelligent teenagers. Central to this lecture are Darrow’s impassioned efforts to save the confessed murderers from the gallows by challenging the morality of capital punishment.
About the Professor:
Douglas O. Linder is the Elmer Powell Peer Professor of Law at the University of Missouri–Kansas City School of Law and earned his degree from Stanford Law School. Professor Linder has published extensively and received his law school’s highest teaching award (twice) and its highest publishing award (three times). In addition, he has appeared in televised documentaries and televised interviews about great trials produced by HISTORY, AMC, PBS, CBS, CNN, Fox News, Court TV, Discovery Networks, and A&E.