Xenophon wrote that a successful general “must be resourceful, active, careful, hardy, and quick-witted; he must be both gentle and brutal, at once straightforward and designing, capable of both caution and surprise, lavish and rapacious, generous and mean, skillful in defense and attack.” This third CCA of the 2019-2020 academic year will consider the lives and characters of some of America’s greatest generals.

Asked who were the greatest American film directors, Orson Welles answered: “John Ford, John Ford, and John Ford.” The recipient of a record four Academy Awards for Best Director, Ford’s career extended from the earliest days of Hollywood through the 1960s. This fourth CCA of the 2019-2020 academic year will focus on Ford’s westerns, and consider what they reveal about our country and ourselves.