Friends of the LBJ Library | Jun, 8 2021 11:30AM - 1:00PM
Continued Conversations: The Secret White House Tapes
Jun 08, 2021
Tuesday, June 8, 11:30 a.m. CDT – Online event
Last fall we introduced a new members-only series titled “Continued Conversations.” The speakers will make remarks and then take questions from the virtual audience. On June 8, we’ll host Mark Selverstone, Chair of the Presidential Recordings Program at the Miller Center of Public Affairs at The University of Virginia, in a conversation moderated by LBJ Library Director Mark Lawrence at 11:30 a.m. CDT.
Between 1940 and 1973, six consecutive American presidents secretly taped thousands of their meeting and telephone conversations. From Franklin D. Roosevelt, whose infrequent recordings yielded only 8 hours of taped material, to Richard M. Nixon, whose voice-activated system captured 3,400 hours of discussion, the White House tapes constitute a unique and irreplaceable source for the study of U.S. history and American government.
Selverstone and Lawrence will discuss these secret White House tapes, focusing on the more than 700 hours of conversations that Lyndon Johnson recorded. Those conversations are included in a new website, LBJtapes.org, that launched on May 20.
About the Speakers
Marc Selverstone is an associate professor in Presidential Studies at the Miller Center and chair of the Center’s Presidential Recordings Program. As chair of the Recordings Program, Selverstone edits the secret White House tapes of Presidents John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Richard M. Nixon. He is the general editor of The Presidential Recordings Digital Edition, the primary online portal for transcripts of the tapes, published by the University of Virginia Press.
Dr. Mark Lawrence has served as Director of the LBJ Presidential Library since January 2020. Previously, he was an Associate Professor of History at The University of Texas at Austin, where he taught for twenty years. Dr. Lawrence is a prominent scholar on President Lyndon Johnson and the Vietnam War.
Format
Marc Selverstone and Mark Lawrence will speak about the presidential recordings before answering member questions. We will be using a Zoom webinar. Zoom is free to the public but you will need to download it to your computer or device first. You can download Zoom here.
Registration
Advance registration is required; your membership must be current to participate.
Register to attend. Once your membership status is confirmed, you will receive an email with a link to join the event.
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Questions about this programming series or Zoom? Email friends@lbjfoundation.org.
Our Sponsors
Programming support generously provided by:
