Four Also Rans
4-weeks (last 4) | Registration opens 8/28/2026 9:00 AM EDT
This course traces the lives of four men who ran for U.S. President and failed to make it: Henry Clay, Wendell Willkie, Adlai Stevenson, and John McCain. How did they grow up, and what led them to run for president -- some of them, multiple times? How did the currents of American history shape their political experience? What were their strengths and weaknesses as candidates? And how did they deal with the disappointment of losing?
Sandra Opdycke
Sandra Opdycke, Ph.D. has published books about the women’s suffrage movement, the flu epidemic of 1918, the WPA of the 1930s, Bellevue Hospital and Jane Addams, and has co-authored several books on social policy. She worked for a number of years at Hudson River Psychiatric Center and later taught American History and Urban History at Bard, Vassar and Marist Colleges. She now teaches frequently at the Marist Center for Lifetime Studies and the Vassar Lifelong Learning Institute.