Public | Nov, 2 2023 6:30PM - 8:00PM
Fifty years after President Johnson's death, this year’s Middleton Lecture will explore all aspects of LBJ's life and presidency. The event brings together eminent historians of the 1960s who have contributed to the newly published LBJ's America: The Life and Legacies of Lyndon Baines Johnson, edited by Library Director Mark Lawrence and LBJ Foundation President and CEO Mark Updegrove.
The evening will include two conversations: one will examine President Johnson's place in the long sweep of American politics, and a second will evaluate the Johnson presidency's record in connection with race relations and other dimensions of domestic policy.
About the book:
In innumerable ways, we still live in LBJ's America. More than half a century after his death, Lyndon Baines Johnson continues to exert profound influence on American life. This collection explores his accomplishments—protecting civil rights, fighting poverty, expanding access to medical care, lowering barriers to immigration—as well as his struggles in Vietnam and his difficulty responding to other challenges in an era of declining US influence on the global stage. Bringing together a dozen leading scholars, LBJ's America probes the ways in which the accomplishments, setbacks, controversies, and crises from 1963 to 1969 laid the foundations of contemporary America and set the stage for our own era of policy debates, political contention, distrust of government, and hyper-partisanship. The book will be published on October 19, 2023, by Cambridge University Press and will be sold at the Store at LBJ.
Contributors include:
- Melody Barnes, Executive Director, Karsh Institute of Democracy; J. Wilson Newman Professor of Governance, Miller Center of Public Affairs, University of Virginia
- Geraldo Cadava, Wender-Lewis Teaching and Research Professor, Department of History, Northwestern University
- Francis Gavin, Giovanni Agnelli Distinguished Professor and Director of the Henry A. Kissinger Center for Global Affairs, Johns Hopkins University
- Nicole Hemmer, Director of the Carolyn T. and Robert M. Rogers Center for the Study of the Presidency and Associate Professor of History, Vanderbilt University
- Madeline Hsu, Professor of History, Director of the Center for Global Migration Studies, University of Maryland
- Sheyda Jahanbani, Associate Professor of History, University of Kansas
- Peniel Joseph, Inaugural Associate Dean for Justice, Equity, Diversity & Inclusion; Founding Director, Center for the Study of Race and Democracy, University of Texas at Austin
- Laura Kalman, Distinguished Research Professor, UC Santa Barbara
- Fredrik Logevall, Laurence D. Belfer Professor of International Affairs and Professor of History, Harvard University
- Marc Selverstone, Director and Professor of Presidential Studies and Co-Chair, Presidential Recordings Program, Miller Center of Public Affairs, University of Virginia
- Joshua Zeitz, Historian, Contributing writer for Politico Magazine
- Julian Zelizer, Malcolm Stevenson Forbes, Class of 1941, Professor of History and Public Affairs, Princeton University; CNN Political Analyst
Copies of LBJ’s America will be available for sale from 5:30-6:30 p.m. in the upper Auditorium, and again following the program.
About the Harry Middleton Lectureship:
Lady Bird Johnson established the Harry Middleton Lectureship in 1994 to honor the career, loyalty, and legacy of Mr. Middleton, who served in the Johnson administration and as Director of the LBJ Library for 30 years. The lectureship was designed to attract and enrich the learning experiences of U.T. students and the Austin community. Speakers include former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, Presidents Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford, Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, journalist Tom Brokaw, actor Bryan Cranston, author Jodi Picoult, and playwright Robert Schenkkan, among others. The lecture series is co-sponsored by the LBJ Presidential Library and the Lyndon Baines Johnson Foundation.
Location and Parking
The LBJ Auditorium is located on the lower level of the LBJ complex at 2313 Red River St. Access to the auditorium will be through the lobby of the LBJ School of Public Affairs. Free parking will be available in the LBJ Library visitors' lot (#38), and lots #37 and #39 after 5:00 p.m.
The doors will open at 5:30 p.m. to allow plenty of time for guests to enter the LBJ Auditorium.
To RSVP:
Please register using the form below. This program is free and open to the public.
