Minicourse Fall 2026 Registration Open–2 Five-Week Courses–Friends of the Madison Library

The Friends of the Madison Public Library will offer two new minicourses for the Fall 2026 Semester. 'The Dawn of a Global Power: The U.S. from the Spanish-American War to the Interwar Crisis' by Dr. Gary Darden, Fairleigh Dickinson University, will begin on Thursday afternoon, September 10, at 1:30 pm, and 'U.S. Foreign Policy' by Dr. Phil Mundo, Professor Emeritus, Drew University, will begin on Tuesday afternoon at 1:30 pm, September 15. The minicourses will be held in the afternoon from 1:30 to 3:30 pm in the Chase Room of the Madison Public Library. Both are for five weeks, two hours per lecture for a total of 10 hours.

The tuition for each minicourse is $95. To register, visit our website, www.friendsmadisonnjlibrary.org/minicourse-registration. For more information, email the Friends at minicoursesmadisonlibrary@gmail.com, or leave a message at 929-450-7940.

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The minicourses are organized by the all-volunteer Friends of the Madison Public Library, a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization. All proceeds benefit the Madison Public Library.

Dawn of a World Power: The U.S. from the Spanish-American War to the Interwar Crisis will be taught by Dr. Gary Darden, Associate Professor of History at Fairleigh Dickinson University. The course will focus on U.S. global expansion through military intervention and economic activity in the generation between the Spanish American War and the end of World War I – and the resulting resurgence of isolationism in the 1930s.

Thursday afternoons, 1:30 – 3:30 pm: September 10, 17, 24, (skip October 1), and October 8 and 15, 2026.

U.S. Foreign Policy will be taught by Dr. Phil Mundo, Professor Emeritus, Department of Political Science and International Relations at Drew University. The course will review U.S. foreign policy from the nation's founding to the present, focusing on key events and turning points and examining competing explanations of U.S. actions.

Tuesday afternoons, 1:30 – 3:30 pm: September 15, 22, 29 and October 6 and 13, 2026.