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Presentations
History Presentations offered by Edward E. Gordon
Presented by an inspiring expert professional speaker, author, researcher and knowledgeable historian who ...
- Researches the past - His extensive historical studies challenge audiences to think about history's lessons for today and for the future
- Delivers powerful yet entertaining messages that engage audiences supported by meticulous research on contents.
Presentation Topic Areas:
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"The Invasion that Shook the World: France 1940"
(May-June 1940)
In all the annals of history, Nazi Germany's six-week blitzkrieg resulting in the lightning defeat of France in 1940 stands as a classic miltary campaign. How did Germany develop such a powerful strategic war plan and the tactical skills to accomplish in a fes weeks what four bloody years had failed to achieve in the First World War -- the complete rout of the Western allies? This program provides the intriguing political, economic, and military answers that added up to Germany's greatest victory in the Second World War.
"The Secrets of D-Day"
(Normandy Invasion June 6, 1944)
In June 1944 Allied forces on the Western front lauched their largest military operation of World War II -- the invasion of the European mainland. Drawn from Ed Gordon's personal tours of the Normandy battle sites, interviews with military experts, and on-going research, he provides many intriguing insights into these complex land, air and naval operations. He also discloses new information on many of the mysteries surrounding the planning and actions taken by both the Allies and the Germans during one of the most decisive campaigns of the Second World War. |
"Clash of the Titans: The Russo-German Campaign of World War II"
(1941-1945)
On June 22, 1941, Adolf Hitler unleashed an army of 3 million for a blitzkrieg conquest of the Soviet Union. Over 10 million Germans and Russians would fight for four years over a 1,500 mile front stretching form the Arctic Ocean to the Black Sea. Both side deployed countless thousands of planes, tanks, and field guns in a seemingly endless conflagration on a truly epic scale. The outcome of this campaign shaped the map of Europe for the next 50 years. |
"Secrets of the Battle of Britain"
(The Air Conflict of 1940)
In June 1940 after the fall of France, the United Kingdom stood alone against Hitler's formidable armies. Over the following summer the aerial conflict between the Royal Air Force and the Luftwaffe in the skies over England became one of the key air campaigns of World War II. Britain's great air victory helped prevent a German invasion and ultimately helped sow the seeds of defeat for Nazi Germany. |
"Wings over Germany"
(Allied Bombing Campaign 1939-1945)
During World War II, British and American strategic bombing of Germany produced controversial results still argued about today and some of the highest casualty rates of the war. In this program Ed Gordon tells the story of the gallant allied airmen who by laying down their lives helped to shorten the war in Europe. They also participated in testing the breakthrough aviation technology that became the foundation of modem aviation.
"On the Road to Victory: The Normandy Breakout, Liberation of Paris and a Bridge Too Far"
Starting in August 1944, Operation COBRA smashed the German Normandy defenses unleashing the incredible race of General Patton's Third Army to the German border. Then, Paris, the City of Light, rose in rebellion and was liberated by the Allies led by a Free French armored division. This momentum was broken in September by General Montgomery's massive airborne and land Market Garden offensive. At Arnhem the Allies failed to take the last of the critical bridges that was key to the invasion of Germany. This defeat delayed victory in Europe until May 1945.
"From Sicily to Victory: The Italian Campaign"
1943-1945
Winston Churchill once referred to the Mediterranean region as the "soft underbelly of Europe" and influenced the Allies to launch the Italian Peninsular Campaign. The Allies would find to their regret that there was nothing soft about this underbelly. This program explores some of the key figures and prominent battles of this long, costly, grinding front. |
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"When the Desert Fox Met General Patton: The North African Campaign"
(1941-1945)
During the Second World War both Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, Germany's Desert Fox, and Lt. General George S. Patton, Jr., "Old Blood and Guts," established their military careers on the sands of North Africa. Set on the vast wind-swept stretches of the Sahara Desert, this is also the story of Italian dreams of empire, the British determination to turn the tide of war against Nazi Germany, and the beginning of American participation in the European theater of operations (Operation Torch).
"Empire of the Sun: Japan Triumphant"
(1931-1942)
From Korea to the shores of Australia, and westward to the central Pacific, Japan’s Rising Sun grew ever larger from the 1930s to mid-1942. This is the story of how a small nation organized for war and swept most of Asia into its "Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere." Ed Gordon explores how Japan’s civilian government was thwarted by the military’s quest for the domination of Asia and describes how allied neglect of Asia resulted in early crushing defeats.
"The Rising Sun Sets: The Defeat of the Japanese Empire"
(1942-1945)
In the summer of 1942, Allied forces under Admiral Chester W. Nimitz and General Douglas MacArthur began campaigns that led to the slow implosion of the Japanese Empire in the vast expanse of the Padific ending with the epic battles on Iwo Jima and Okinawa and the A-Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Meanwhile under the leadership of British Lord Louis Mountbatten, Allied forces liberated Southeast Asia from Japanese occupation. This programs draws upon the heroic stories of individual soldiers, sailors, and airmen about how these battles led to victory.
"Inside Hitler's Europe: Collaboration, Resistance Theft"
What was life like for people in the occupied countries of Europe? Many at least passively collaborated during the first tide of Nazi victories, but as German defeats mounted, a tide of resistance swept Europe. The Nazis retaliated by cutting food rations, worker enslavement, genocide and the theft of national treasures. Ed Gordon analyzes how the criminal activities of the convoluted Nazi regime, brutality, and a bloated bureaucracy contributed to the dowfall of Germany
"The Rape of Europe: Nazi Art Theft"
Between 1939 and 1945 Adolf Hitler pilfered over 8,000 paintings and other works of art for the monumental art museum he planned to build in Lintz, Austria, his birthplace. Hermann Goering, Heinrich Himmler, and thousands of other Nazis participated in the greatest pillage of art in history. Here is the story of how they secreted these art treasures in hundreds of sites including mines, warehouses, and castles across Europe. This triggered a massive Allied effort to return this works of art that still continues up to the present day. |
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"Chancellorsville, High Point of the Confederacy"
(May 2-6, 1863)
In early May 1863, General Joseph Hooker led the Army of the Potomac to Chancellorsville, a remote Virginia crossroad. There he hesitated and gave Robert E. Lee and his Army of Northern Virigia an opportunity to destroy the Union Army. Hooker was drawn from the field, leaving his army badly crushed and demoralized. Tragedy, however, quickly followed Stonewall Jackson's heroic role in this Southern victory as he died from being mistakenly shot as a Union picket. Chancellorsville served to reinforce the perception of Lee's invincibility that would culminate in a disastrous invasion of the North at Gettysburg.
"Gettysburg: Three Days that Changed America"
(July 1-3, 1863)
In a small Pennsylvania town during three days of 1863, almost 200,000 men met in battle and 50,000 were killed or wounded in what many consider the decisive battle of the American Civil War. Enlivened by his personal visits to this battlefield, Ed Gordon constructs an exciting saga woven from the triumphs and tragedies, luck, pivotal decisions, and diverse personalities of the men who fought in this epic battle.
"Vicksburg: The Key to Victory"
(1862-1863)
Ulysses S. Grant's effort to occupy Vicksburg, Mississippi was the pivotal military campaign in the West during the U.S. Civil War. Here is the story of the strategic significance of VIcksburg, the numerous failures of the Union forces to take the town, the profiles of the opposing commanders, and the final battles and siege that resulted in the Union's final victory on July 4, 1863.
"Sherman's March from Chattanooga to Victory"
(1864-1865)
While Grant fought Lee in Virginia, from May 1864 to April 1865 General William T. Sherman, in an often unorthodox campaign, unleashed his forces and destroyed the heart of the Deep South. This is a story punctuated by a host of battles, including Kenesaw Mountain, Atlanta, Columbia, Savannah, and Charleston. Sherman's much vilified March to Sea across Georgia that devasted crops and other resources helped to sap the South's determination to continue the war.
"Grant Versus Lee as Military Commanders"
In the annals of the U.S. Civil War, Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee have garnered plaudits as consummate military commanders. Grant's successes at Vicksburg, Chattanooga and the 1864 Virginia campaign that ended the war were in themselves masterpieces in grand strategy. Almost equally, Lee's victories at Second Bull Run, Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville established his reputation as an innovative tactician responsible for giving the South its greatest victories. In this program Ed Gordon reviews the military prowess of both commanders -- their strengths, weaknesses and the final battles that pitted them against each other prior to the Appomattox surrender. |
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"From Mountain Men to Railroads: The Opening of the American West"
(1804-1890)
This is the intriguing story of how the fur trade, government surveys, the overland trade, and the great wagon trails forged pathways across the West often later followed by the railroads. Once the golden spike celebrating the completion of the transcontinental railroad was driven, the barriers to the settlement of the American West were breached and the Native American way of life was undermined. This is a vast story with many colorful personalities who changed the character and destiny of the United States to our own time.
"Wagon Trails West: Myth and Reality"
From the 1840s to the late 1870s, hundreds of thousands of Americans and newly arrived immigrants participated in one of the largest mass migrations in our history. Hollywood movies and television created dramatic sagas about the struggles and privations that these pioneers endured in the wagon trains traveling through the "Great America Desert". Based on the diaries and letters of pioneer man and women, this program explores the myths and realities of their travel on the Oregon, California, and Santa Fe Trails. For about 30 years, scores of these wagon trains set out from Missouri facing rugged topography, harsh weather and many types of danger on the journey west. Only the building of the transcontinental railroad brought this odyssey to an end. Yet, their migration helped rapidly settle the American West and close our nation's last frontier.
"The Story of the California Missions"
Across the American Southwest many early mission churches still exist. These historic sites preserve the remnants of what once was an extensive effort to solidify Spain's colonial empire. Spain's mission system began in the 1500s, and its last mission was built in Sonoma in 1823. Today, the 21 California mission churches remain the most extensive survivors of that era. As first conceived, the California missions were to bring the benefits of Christianity to local Native Americans. However, the mission system became a vital part of Spain's broader colonizing plan to claim and populate its extensive New World territories. Ed Gordon has visited all the California missions and many others in Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. With his addional extensive research, he explains the typical economic, educational, and social activities of daily life at the missions and then explores the historical circumstances behind their closing and revival. |
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"Literacy & the Development of America"
(1620-to the present)
Today literacy is more important for every person than ever before. How have we as a people addressed this fundamental skill over the past and into the present? This program explores the literacy struggles of many Americans in the past including immigrants, women, Native Americans, African Americans and others. The definition of literacy continues to evolve and is changing into a focus on higher levels of reading, writing, and math fluency for the high tech environment of today's global society. Why is the United States is falling behind many other developed nations in the fluency levels of its students? This program highlights what lessons from the past are still applicable today to help build a more literate Unitd States. |
| "Aristotle Was Alexander's Tutor: Centuries of Tutoring"
For most people "going to school" is synonymous with "education." Drawn from the reseach in his ground-breaking book, "Centuries of Tutoring," historian Ed Gordon explains why this has not always been the case. He explores important milestones in the history of tutoring from the ancient Greeks to its importance in the education of European monarchs, such as Elizabeth I of England, and its subsequent spread to the nobility and middle classes. Dr. Gordon especially highlights the role of tutoring in colonial and frontier America and how it contributed to the birth of the American public school and the child-centered education movement of the 20th century. He also explores how teachers and tutors can collaborate today to better individualize education in the 21st century.
"America's First Education Revolution: The Evolution of the World's First Education System"
Between 1890 and 1919 all of the then 48 states of the United States completed the establishment of the first compulsory, universal tax-suported education system in the world. This programs traces the orginis of this system which we now largely take for granted. Similar provisions were not adopted in Europe until much later, e.g., the United Kingdom in 1946 and Ireland in 1980. Dr. Gordon analyzes the reasons why the United States initiated this leap forward in education, the evolution of this system, and the challenge of transforming it for the radically different demands of today's information age. |
Additional Programs:
(Click on link to view these presentation pages)
- Presentations on workforce development & the future of jobs
- Presentations on contemporary career skills development & literacy and tutoring best
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TESTIMONIALS:
"Motivational, Dynamic, Inspiring, Informative"Superlatives like these are typical responses to an Edward Gordon presentation. General audiences, students, academics, and business people at the Palm Springs Air Museum, Northern Illinois University, Lewis University, San Diego State University, Prescott College, and Ravinia Green Country Club and at meetings of the Churchillians of the Desert, History of Education Society, Midwest History of Education Society, and the Education Industry Association are among many thousands of individuals who have learned from his programs on historical topics. |
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"The presentation was a testament to your professionalism (adherence to facts and attention to detail) and great gifts as an orator"
- Greg Kenny, Program Coordinator
Palm Springs Air Museum
"You had them [the audience] spellbound by your encyclopedic knowledge of your subject and by the excellent graphics and photos you presented."
- Blaine Mack, President
Old Bold Pilots
"Your outstanding programs are exciting, informative, and extremely well received by our visitors." |
- Sharon Maguire, President/Museum Director
Palm Springs Air Museum |
| "Your presentation was well prepared, well delivered and stimulating. What else could we ask for?" |
- Jan Varnum
Phi Delta Kappa Chapter
University of Main |
| "In these thoughtful presentations, Dr. Gordon has demonstrated that he is both a professional historian and professional speaker who is expert at informing and entertaining diverse audiences. I can wholeheartedly recommend him as a lecturer." |
- David Ramsay, President
The Churchillians of the Desert |
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Click here to arrange for a presentation Contact Us
Edward E. Gordon History Presentations
Imperial Consulting Corporation
220 East Walton Place, #8E · Chicago, IL 60611
Phone: 312.664.5196
For more information, contact us at imperialcorp@juno.com |
