The Benwood Foundation, in conjunction with The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, the Ochs Center for Metropolitan Studies and CreateHere, announced Pulitzer-prize winning author and historian, Doris Kearns Goodwin, will be the debut speaker in the 2009 George T. Hunter Lecture Series on January 13. The lecture will begin at 7 p.m. in the Roland Hayes Concert Hall located inside the Fine Arts Center on the UTC campus. All lectures in the series are free and open to the public. Seating is limited and available on a first-come first-served basis.
Goodwin is the author of several books including Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream and No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The American Home Front During World War II, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1995. Her most recent book Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln, reached number one on the New York Times Best-Seller List and won the 2006 Lincoln Prize. She is a frequent commentator on NBC and a consultant and commentator for PBS.
Speaking just one week before the Presidential Inauguration, the topic of Goodwin’s lecture will be “Lessons in Leadership from Abraham Lincoln.”
Prior to her lecture, Goodwin will be meeting with a UTC leadership class and other young leaders from the community.
“The purpose of the George T. Hunter Lecture Series is to promote community dialogue regarding important issues of the day. We hope Mrs. Goodwin’s perspective on the role of leadership will be an inspiration to young people in our community,” said Corinne Allen, Executive Director of the Benwood Foundation.
“In the context of the upcoming inauguration, we could not have a more timely or knowledgeable speaker than Doris Kearns Goodwin,” said Dr. Roger Brown, Chancellor of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. “For UTC students, faculty and staff, it is an honor to have her on campus. We welcome the entire community to come to this important talk.”
Speaker Biography:
Doris Kearns Goodwin, world-renowned historian, has been reporting on politics and baseball for over two decades. Goodwin is the author of several books and has written for leading national publications. She is a commentator for NBC, and a consultant and on-air person for PBS documentaries on Lyndon B. Johnson, the Kennedy Family, Franklin Roosevelt, and Ken Burns’ The History of Baseball. She was the first female journalist to enter the Red Sox locker room.
Goodwin was born and raised on Long Island, New York. She received her B.A. from Colby College, where she graduated Magna Cum Laude. She received her Ph.D. in Government from Harvard University, where she taught Government including a course on the American Presidency. Following her tenure at Harvard, Goodwin served as an assistant to Lyndon Johnson during his last year in the White House. She later assisted Johnson in the preparation of his memoirs.
In 1976, Goodwin authored Lyndon Johnson & The American Dream, which became a New York Times best seller. She followed up in 1987 with the political biography, The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys, which stayed on the New York Times Best-Seller List for five months. In 1990, it was made into a six-hour ABC miniseries. Her next book, No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The American Home Front During World War II, was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in April 1995, as well as the Harold Washington Literary Award, the New England Bookseller Association Award, the Ambassador Book Award, and the Washington Monthly Book Award. It was a New York Times best seller for six months.
Goodwin’s book, Wait Till Next Year: A Memoir, published in 1997, is about growing up in the 1950’s in love with the Brooklyn Dodgers. It has been a New York Times best seller, as well as a Book of the Month Club selection. A Washington Post reviewer wrote, “This is a book in the grand tradition of girlhood memoirs, dating from Louisa May Alcott to Carson McCullers and Harper Lee.”
Her most recent work, a monumental history of Abraham Lincoln entitled Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln, published in October 2005, joined the best-seller lists on its first week in publication, and soon reached #1 on the New York Times Best-Seller List. Team of Rivals won the 2006 Lincoln Prize for an outstanding work about the President and/or the Civil War, the inaugural New York Historical Society Book Prize, the Richard Nelson Current award and the New York State Archives History Makers Award.
Following Goodwin’s lecture on January 13th, the remaining speakers in the 2009 George T. Hunter Lecture Series will be:
John Merrow, March 3, 2009: Merrow is the Education Correspondent for the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer. He is the author of Choosing Excellence and has been a frequent contributor to NPR and national op-ed pages on education issues. Merrow will speak about his observations regarding the progress of public education in the United States.
Van Jones, September 15, 2009: Jones is the founder and president of Green For All, a nonprofit based in Oakland, California, dedicated to building an inclusive, green economy. Jones will be speaking on the power of new “green collar jobs” to address both social inequality and environmental destruction.
David Brooks, November 17, 2009: Brooks is a columnist for the New York Times and author of two social commentaries including the best-seller Bobos in Paradise. Brooks will speak on community development.
More information on the George T. Hunter Lecture Series is available at www.benwood.org.
