| Arthur Schlesinger to Lecture at Centre College DANVILLE, KY - Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., an eminent political historian and former advisor to U.S. presidents, will visit Centre College to deliver a public lecture on Monday, Sept. 25. The 7:30 p.m. program in the Norton Center for the Arts will be open to the public at no cost. Schlesinger has titled his remarks, "Running for President: Perils and Possibilities." During his visit to Centre on the 25th, Schlesinger also will lead an informal discussion with outstanding Kentucky high school students from nearly a dozen schools. The students, invited from Advanced Placement classes in history, government and civics, will meet with Schlesinger 4-5 p.m. The students and their teachers have read a portion of Schlesinger's latest book in preparation for the session. Schlesinger's visit to Centre is part of the college's preparations for the upcoming vice presidential debate on campus and the presidential debates slated for three other locations across the nation. His visit will initiate the O. Leonard and the Lillian H. Press Distinguished Speakers Series, a program recently endowed at Centre by a generous gift from Lucille Caudill Little. Schlesinger's early book, The Age of Jackson, reinterpreted a crucial era in America's then evolving democracy. He subsequently showed impressive scholarship in works including The Age of Roosevelt, A Thousand Days: John F. Kennedy in the White House and The Imperial Presidency. Schlesinger won Pulitzer Prizes for his works on Jackson and Kennedy. His volume about Richard Nixon, coined the phrase "imperial presidency." Schlesinger was a special assistant in John F. Kennedy's White House, played a key role in Adlai Stevenson's two presidential campaigns, and founded the Americans for Democratic Action. In his latest book, The Disuniting of America: Reflections on a Multicultural Society, he argued that in spite of out diversity, Americans should think of themselves "tied together, in Martin Luther King's phrase, into 'a single garment of destiny.'" "In a world savagely rent by ethnic and racial antagonisms, it is all the more essential that the U.S. continue as an example of how a highly differentiated society holds itself together." At 82, Mr. Schlesinger remains in great demand as a television commentator and a keynote speaker. The first volume of his long-awaited autobiography will be published this November. Centre students and faculty will have the opportunity to meet Schlesinger in a reception immediately following his lecture. - end - Tentative list of high schools participating on Sept. 25th In addition, college students from Berea, Transylvania, Georgetown, U.K., and E.K.U. have been invited. Also, the Centre Young Democrats and Young Republicans have invited their counterparts from around the state. Communications Office Public information coordinator: Patsi Barnes Trollinger |