Understanding Our New World with David Kennedy

David Kennedy, a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and professor emeritus at Stanford University, will discuss the United States and the American presidency on the eve of the nation's 250th anniversary with the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute.

Kennedy will join Institute director John Shaw for a virtual discussion on June 23 at noon CT.

Kennedy won the Pulitzer Prize in history in 1999 for “Freedom from Fear: The American People in Depression and War,” a critically acclaimed account of the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt and his times.

He is the author of other highly regarded books including “Over Here: The First World War and American Society,” which was a Pulitzer Prize finalist, and “Birth Control in America: The Career of Margaret Sanger,” which won a Bancroft Prize. He collaborated with former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on a popular PBS documentary, “American Creed,” that has inspired a spirited conversation about American ideals and identity.

“Professor Kennedy is one of the most respected historians in the United States,” said Shaw. "He is a rigorous scholar and a superb writer. His books are deeply informative and remarkably interesting. He bridges the worlds of academic and popular history better than any other historian today. His writings inform, enlighten, and entertain.”

Kennedy visited Carbondale in the fall of 2019 to deliver the Morton-Kenney lecture and was the first guest in the Institute's "Understanding Our New World " series in the spring of 2020.