Sunday Jayhawk Jukebox ft. Mire Pral
2026-07-05 14:00 - 16:00 (America/Chicago) | The Dole Institute of Politics, 2350 Petefish Drive, Lawrence, KS, 66045, United States
The Dole Institute, the Lied Center of Kansas, and the KU School of Music invite you to join us on Sunday, July 5, for Sunday Jayhawk Jukebox featuring Mire Pral’s string Jazz music in the 30’s and 40’s styles of Django Reinhardt.

Sunday Jayhawk Jukebox ft. The Lost Keys
2026-07-12 14:00 - 16:00
The Dole Institute, the Lied Center of Kansas, and the KU School of Music invite you to join us on Sunday, July 12, for Sunday Jayhawk Jukebox featuring The Lost Keys.

The Lost Keys are a family string band from Lawrence, KS. Headed by renowned fiddlers, artists, and multi-instrumentalists Tricia Spencer and Howard Rains of the duo Spencer & Rains. They are a blended family that have played music together since Tricia and Howard met in 2012. The band features Tricia and Howard on fiddle and guitar and vocals and their kids, Isaiah, Orion, and Ru on fiddle and guitar, banjo-uke, and bass respectively. Together, they play a mix of old-time string band music, bluegrass, and hillbilly swing. Both Tricia and Howard’s families have been playing music for many generations and when The Lost Keys play it shows just how deep their traditions go.

The Boundless Game: Soccer Stories from Across the Street to Around the World
2026-07-14 15:00 - 16:00
Ahead of the 2026 World Cup Final, join author and historian Tim Bascom for a discussion on his new book, The Boundless Game: Soccer Stories from Across the Street to Around the World, which explores how soccer matters so much in our common, everyday lives, and how it brings the world closer together.

Limited copies of The Boundless Game will be available for purchase following the program. Tim Bascom will also be available to sign copies of books for guests in attendance.

This program is presented in partnership with the University Press of Kansas

Tim Bascom, who learned to play soccer as a youth in Ethiopia, is the author of two prize-winning memoirs, Chameleon Days and Running to the Fire; two essay collections, The Comfort Trap and Climbing Lessons; a collection of short stories, Continental Drift; and the novel Squatters’ Rites.

About The Boundless Game
A lifelong soccer player and award-winning author shows us how the sport transcends races, ethnicities, cultures, and experiences and brings us all closer together.
Tim Bascom spent half his childhood in Kansas and the other half in East Africa. Living and traveling around the world, the game of soccer proved a constant truth. Through storytelling that effortlessly flows between poignant and funny, sobering and charming, Bascom explores why soccer matters so much in our common, everyday lives, and how this ordinary yet extraordinary game can bring us all a little closer together.
His passionate vision for this most global game leads Bascom to describe how soccer brought him sanity in the middle of a brutal revolution in Ethiopia and how bridging divisions of race and culture was key to success for teams he joined in Chicago and Kansas. From watching Arsenal’s energetic rise in the Premier League to the bravery of a besieged Afghanistan Women’s National Team, and from pickup games in the Midwest and the Middle East, Bascom finds universal truths and deeply human meaning in the beautiful game of soccer.

Saving the Army: Washington at the Battle of Long Island
2026-08-05 15:00 - 16:00
Following the Declaration of Independence from Great Britian, the United States’ Continental Army under the leadership of George Washington attempted to defend New York City in August of 1776. During the Battle of Long Island, the leadership and actions of George Washington would save his army from capture and defeat and ultimately preserve the cause for independence.

Patrick Howlett is a 2006 graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point where he studied History and is currently still serving as an active-duty officer in the United States Army. He currently is an instructor of Military History at the Command and General Staff School at Fort Leavenworth and is enrolled in the doctoral program in history at Kansas State University.
The Ft. Leavenworth Series is an annual roster of lectures focusing on significant historical events, usually with an emphasis on military history. Each lecture is presented by faculty from the United States Army Command and General Staff College in Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas. Established by General William Tecumseh Sherman in 1881, the CGSC is the graduate college for U.S. Army and sister service officers. The esteemed faculty and guests of the CGSC provide unique and captivating insights into the history of military conflict from the ancient to the modern ages at the Dole Institute of Politics.

The opinions expressed herein are those of the individual and do not necessarily represent the views of the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College or any other governmental agency.

U.S. Strategy and Sherman’s Savannah Campaign
2026-09-02 15:00 - 16:00
Perhaps the most memorable campaign that underpinned US Army LTG Ulysses S. Grant’s military strategy of 1864, MG William Tecumseh Sherman’s Savannah Campaign exhausted the Southern Confederacy and hastened an end to the American Civil War. The “March to the Sea” has inspired mixed mythologies of the war: it became synonymous in the Lost Cause with devastation and destruction, a misleading interpretation that has proven resilient even in US military circles. In point of fact, Sherman’s campaign was restrained in its conduct despite achieving lasting and significant effects, foremost among them, the destruction of racial slavery in the United States.

Mitchell G. Klingenberg is an assistant professor in the Department of Military History at the US Army Command and General Staff College. Previously, he served on the faculties of the United States Military Academy at West Point and the US Army War College. He is the author of numerous articles and reviews, a monograph on the China Campaign of 1900, and shorter pieces of military history. His writings have been published in numerous venues, including American Nineteenth Century History, Civil War History, The International Journal of Military History and Historiography, the Modern War Institute at West Point, and War on the Rocks.
The Ft. Leavenworth Series is an annual roster of lectures focusing on significant historical events, usually with an emphasis on military history. Each lecture is presented by faculty from the United States Army Command and General Staff College in Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas. Established by General William Tecumseh Sherman in 1881, the CGSC is the graduate college for U.S. Army and sister service officers. The esteemed faculty and guests of the CGSC provide unique and captivating insights into the history of military conflict from the ancient to the modern ages at the Dole Institute of Politics.

The opinions expressed herein are those of the individual and do not necessarily represent the views of the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College or any other governmental agency.

Clausewitz, Mao, and Operational Art
2026-10-07 15:00 - 16:00
Throughout history, command in war has demanded skill, knowledge, experience, creativity, and judgement in the application of military force. It has also required what is today called “operational art.” Current U.S. Army doctrine defines Operational Art as “the cognitive approach by commanders and staffs … to develop strategies, campaigns, and operations to organize and employ military forces by integrating ends, ways, and means.” This lecture explores key concepts related to Operational Art through the writings of two key military theorists: Carl von Clausewitz and Mao Tse-tung. In doing so, it underscores the unchanging nature of military command and the cognitive acumen necessary for managing the complexities of war at the operational level.

Martin G. Clemis is an associate professor in the Department of Military History at the Command and General Staff College. He is the author of The Control War: The Struggle for South Vietnam, 1968-1975 (University of Oklahoma Press, 2018), and a contributing author in Beyond the Quagmire: New Interpretations of the Vietnam Conflict (University of North Texas Press, 2019), Drawdowns: The American Way of Postwar (New York University Press, 2017), and War and Geography: The Spatiality of Organized Mass Violence (Ferdinand Schoningh, 2017). Martin has had articles published in Army History and Small Wars and Insurgencies.
The Ft. Leavenworth Series is an annual roster of lectures focusing on significant historical events, usually with an emphasis on military history. Each lecture is presented by faculty from the United States Army Command and General Staff College in Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas. Established by General William Tecumseh Sherman in 1881, the CGSC is the graduate college for U.S. Army and sister service officers. The esteemed faculty and guests of the CGSC provide unique and captivating insights into the history of military conflict from the ancient to the modern ages at the Dole Institute of Politics.

The opinions expressed herein are those of the individual and do not necessarily represent the views of the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College or any other governmental agency.

Jomini and the Foundations of Modern War
2026-11-04 15:00 - 16:00
Antoine-Henri Jomini was a foundational 19th-century military theorist whose approach to warfare sought to define universal principles of strategy and tactics. His emphasis on geometric concepts like interior lines of operation, massing combat power at decisive points, and the critical importance of logistics remains highly relevant today. In the contemporary security environment, Jomini’s structured principles continue to underpin modern military planning, joint doctrine, and multi-domain operations by providing a framework for organizing complex campaigns. Ultimately, while the character of war has evolved with advanced technologies, Jomini’s enduring focus on objective analysis and the concentration of force continues to shape how modern militaries conceptualize and execute military operations across multi domain operations.

Dr. Sean N. Kalic is a Cold War historian. He lectures and publishes widely on topics such as U.S. space policy, the Cold War, the post-Cold War security environment, and transnational terrorism. Prior to CGSC, he taught at Youngstown State University, Kansas State University, and Norwich University. He has presented lectures for the U.S. Navy War College’s Fleet Seminar Program, The Slovenian General Staff, The Slovenian Command and General Staff College, The U.S. Army’s Futures Command, as well as numerous international conferences. He has taught in the Department of Military History at the US Army Command and General Staff College since 2004.
The Ft. Leavenworth Series is an annual roster of lectures focusing on significant historical events, usually with an emphasis on military history. Each lecture is presented by faculty from the United States Army Command and General Staff College in Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas. Established by General William Tecumseh Sherman in 1881, the CGSC is the graduate college for U.S. Army and sister service officers. The esteemed faculty and guests of the CGSC provide unique and captivating insights into the history of military conflict from the ancient to the modern ages at the Dole Institute of Politics.

The opinions expressed herein are those of the individual and do not necessarily represent the views of the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College or any other governmental agency.

Soviet Interwar Years Theory and Doctrine
2026-12-02 15:00 - 16:00
The First World War brought enormous changes to the battlefield that all combatants struggled to master. After the war’s end, military officers began to try to understand what would be needed to succeed in the next war, in the Soviet Union no less than anywhere else. While the Red Army has been often seen as thoughtless, throwing men relentlessly into the meatgrinder of combat, its officer developed one of the most sophisticated understandings of what modern war would entail in the period between the wars, setting them up for success against the eventual German invasion. This talk examines Soviet doctrine in the interwar period, how it outthought and outfought its German adversary, and how it made significant contributions to modern military theory.

Benjamin M. Schneider is an assistant professor in the Department of Military History at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College. He has held fellowships at the U.S. Naval War College, the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation, and the U.S. Army Center of Military History. He received his doctorate from George Mason University in 2019, and his research has appeared in The Journal of Contemporary History and War In History. His book American War Crimes in the Second World War: The Failure of Military Justice is forthcoming with Oxford University Press.
The Ft. Leavenworth Series is an annual roster of lectures focusing on significant historical events, usually with an emphasis on military history. Each lecture is presented by faculty from the United States Army Command and General Staff College in Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas. Established by General William Tecumseh Sherman in 1881, the CGSC is the graduate college for U.S. Army and sister service officers. The esteemed faculty and guests of the CGSC provide unique and captivating insights into the history of military conflict from the ancient to the modern ages at the Dole Institute of Politics.

The opinions expressed herein are those of the individual and do not necessarily represent the views of the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College or any other governmental agency.
