This online course examines instances in the past in which democratic states collapse into autocracy or dictatorship. We will take a pinch of political theory and mix it with a lot of traditional history in order to learn about the factors that weakened and then overwhelmed several democratic systems. We will discuss the collapse of the Roman Republic, France's First, Second and Third Republics, Germany's Weimar Republic, the Kingdom of Italy, the empire of Japan, and some countries that have become less democratic the past two decades, such as Russia, Turkey, Venezuela, El Salvador, and Hungary.
**This is a virtual course on Zoom.**
Ms. Tommy Lamont taught history at some of the United States finest independent schools for almost four decades. She taught survey courses in U.S. history and World history, and senior electives, including International Relations, and the Holocaust and the Atlantic slave trade and slavery in the Americas, as well as histories of modern China, modern India, modern Russia, modern Japan, modern South Africa, and the modern Middle East. Over the past decade Tommy has taught modified versions of some of these electives at Prescott Community Center, the Groton Public Library, and the Groton Senior Center. She currently resides in the Washington DC area where she teaches some of these same courses at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at American University. Tommy earned her B.A. from Harvard University and her M.Phil. from the University of Oxford.
Tommy Lamont
