When the federal indictment of Donald Trump was unsealed Friday, national television called on, among others, award-winning reporter Bob Woodward, historian Douglas Brinkley and former Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta to put the event in historical context.

Monday night those three, along with Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Annette Gordon-Reed, will gather at the Monterey Conference Center to discuss “History and a Divided Nation — Can We Survive?” in the year’s final session of the Leon Panetta Lecture Series. The lecture starts at 7 p.m. with $100 tickets available at the Panetta Institute (831) 582-4200.

“America has faced periods of deep division in the past. We fought a civil war over the issue of slavery. Later, we saw the protests of the 1960s over the war in Vietnam and deep distrust of government resulted from the Watergate scandal,” said Panetta in a press release. “But somehow we have survived because we always found the right leadership to heal our divisions. Today again, however, there are real fears that the current level of polarization and division is threatening our very democracy.”

Panetta, who will moderate the lecture, also said the panel will discuss what lessons have been learned from past challenges and if there is inspiration to be found in successful compromises from the past.

On CNN Friday, Woodward reflected on Barry Goldwater’s visit to Richard Nixon, telling the embattled president he didn’t have the votes to survive a Senate impeachment trial.

“Who is Goldwater in this case?” asked Woodward, referring to the Trump federal indictment and his run for the presidency.

Woodward is known for his coverage, with Carl Bernstein, of the Watergate scandal that eventually led to the resignation of Nixon. He has also written several books on contemporary presidents, including several on Trump. He shared in two Pulitzer Prizes.

Brinkley, CNN’s presidential historian, recalled his own previous feeling on the network Friday that Gerald Ford was right to pardon Nixon. He now thinks the pardon was a mistake “for the reason it encourages the arrogance of President Trump, this feeling that he is above the law.”

Gordon-Reed is a Pulitzer Prize-winning history professor at Harvard.

Monday’s lecture was booked well ahead of Trump federal indictment and is part of a series themed “The Presidency and a Divided Congress: Can They Govern?” Previous guest panelists in this season’s series have included former leader of the House John Boehner, former Secretary of Defense Bob Gates, and former chairperson of the Republican National Committee Michael Steele.

For more information, visit www.panettainstitute.org.