Public | Feb, 2 2022 4:00PM - 5:15PM
No figure looms as large in American history as the nation’s president. Our schools and our political traditions teach us that these larger-than-life men – almost mythic in the power and influence they wielded – uniquely embodied their eras and shaped the country’s destiny. But who are the presidents, the flesh-and-blood individuals who rose to the nation’s highest office? What motivated them? How did they achieve their successes and cope with failure? How did their experiences and personalities shape their presidencies? What legacies did they leave behind?
This program will explore such questions through lively discussion with eminent presidential biographers, authors who have delved beyond the pomp and ceremony of the office to uncover the complexities and nuances of presidential lives. Over six weeks, we will learn about towering figures like Thomas Jefferson and John F. Kennedy as well as lesser-known men such as John Tyler and Calvin Coolidge. And we will explore the evolution of the presidency itself, placing our own moment in the long flow of American history.
This series is co-hosted by the LBJ Presidential Library and Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) at The University of Texas at Austin.
Full schedule
January 12: John A. Farrell speaking on Richard Nixon
January 19: Annette Gordon-Reed and Peter Onuf speaking on Thomas Jefferson
January 26: Amity Shlaes speaking on Calvin Coolidge
February 2: Fredrik Logevall speaking on John F. Kennedy
February 9: Christopher Leahy speaking on John Tyler
February 16: Alexis Coe speaking on George Washington
Format
We will be using a Zoom webinar. Each session will begin with a moderated discussion led by LBJ Library Director Mark Lawrence but will allow ample time for questions from the audience.
Registration
Advance registration is required. You only need to register once for the series; you do not need to register for each week’s session. Once you register, you can expect to receive an email with a link to join the event. Questions about registration? Email utolli@austin.utexas.edu.
About the speaker
On February 2, 2022, Fredrik Logevall will join us to talk about John F. Kennedy.
Fredrik Logevall is the Laurence D. Belfer Professor of International Affairs and Professor of History at Harvard University. He is the author or editor of ten books, most recently JFK: Coming of Age in the American Century (Random House, 2020), which won the Elizabeth Longford Prize. His book Embers of War: The Fall of an Empire and the Making of America’s Vietnam (Random House, 2012), won the Pulitzer Prize for History and the Francis Parkman Prize, among other awards. His essays and reviews have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The Times (UK), The Wall Street Journal, Politico, Daily Beast, the London Review of Books, and Foreign Affairs, among other publications. A native of Stockholm, Sweden, he lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
