Nationally Recognized Historian Douglas Brinkley to Speak at UA

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – The life and times of civil rights activist Rosa Parks will be the topic of nationally recognized historian Douglas Brinkley’s lecture at The University of Alabama. Brinkley, who recently published the highly acclaimed biography Rosa Parks, will present the Star and Stan Bloom Endowed Lecture in the Blount Undergraduate Initiative Oct. 3 at 4 p.m. in the Morgan Hall Auditorium on the UA campus.

The lecture is free and open to the public.

The Blount Undergraduate Initiative is a special, privately endowed, liberal arts program in the College of Arts and Sciences designed to foster a community of undergraduate scholars at the Capstone.

In its review of Rosa Parks, The Charlotte Observer noted that “Brinkley’s ‘vigorous language’ and ‘marvelous portraits,’ (as described by historian Stephen Ambrose) that have made him an acclaimed author and media favorite, brings mid-century America alive in this brilliant examination of a celebrated heroine in the context of her life and tumultuous times.

“Here in Rosa Parks are the quiet dignity, hope, courage, and humor that have made this twentieth-century everywoman a living legend – an eye-opener of a book for students of history, politics, the black experience, and human nature.”

Kirkus Reviews called Brinkley’s account of Parks’ life, “a graceful, informative biography of the mother of the Civil Rights movement, who wouldn’t stand for Jim Crow on her bus.”

Brinkley is director of the Eisenhower Center for American Studies and Distinguished Professor at the University of New Orleans. His first two books – Dean Acheson: The Cold War Years, and Driven Patriot: The Life and Times of James Forrestal – were each designated a New York Times “Notable Book of the Year.”

Recent publications include FDR and the Creation of the United Nations, with Townsend Hoopes, John F. Kennedy and Europe, edited with Richard Griffiths, American Heritage’s History of the United States, Witness to America: an Illustrated Documentary History of the United States from the Revolution to Today, edited with Stephen Ambrose, The Unfinished Presidency: Jimmy Carter’s Journey Beyond the White House, which was also named “Notable Book of the Year” by the New York Times, and The Western Paradox and Selected Conservation Essays of Bernard DeVoto.

Brinkley received his doctorate in military and diplomatic history from Georgetown University in 1989. A widely quoted expert on American history, Brinkley has written extensively for such journals and newspapers as Newsweek, Time, American Heritage, The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic Monthly, Foreign Affairs, and Foreign Policy.

Professor Brinkley served as an historical consultant and commentator for a five-hour documentary on the Mississippi River for the History Channel television network and as a commentator for November Warriors, a 1996 documentary on presidential politics. He has also served as the historical consultant for the ABC television documentary produced by Steven Spielberg, Combat War.

He is the American studies/poetry commentator for National Public Radio and the progenitor of C-SPAN’s Yellow School Bus. In addition, he provides broadcast commentary for CNN, C- SPAN, PBS, and numerous television programs including Good Morning America, CBS News, NBC News, and Washington This Week.

Brinkley’s next book, The Centennial History of Ford Motor Company, is scheduled for publication in 2002.

The College of Arts and Sciences is the University’s largest division with more than 25 departments and programs, 6,000 students, and 320 faculty.