ALAN B. AND CHARNA LARKIN SYMPOSIUM ON THE AMERICAN PRESIDENCY
Previous Symposia
2024 – The U.S. Presidency, the Holocaust, and the State of Israel
KEYNOTE ADDRESS BY Allan Lichtman with Scholarly Panels
Dr. Allan Lichtman of American University presented “Retrospective Blame: FDR, the Jews, and the Holocaust.” Scholars from around the nation participated in panel discussions: Beatrice Dain, Florida State University, “The Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society and the Resettlement of German Refugees”; Norman J. W. Goda, University of Florida, “FDR, the State Department, and the Palestine Question”; Rebecca Erbelding, U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, “FDR and the War Refugee Board during the Holocaust”; Beth Cohen, University of California, Northridge, “Holocaust Survivors in Postwar America”; Jeffrey Herf, University of Maryland, “Truman and the Founding of the State of Israel”; Tim Naftali, Columbia University, “The Eichmann Trial and the CIA”; Lt. Col. Jill Hopkins, U.S. Air Force Academy, “The Presidency and the Yom Kippur War of 1973”
2023 - A Conversation with Laura W. Bush, First Lady of the United States
Laura W. Bush
Laura Bush was First Lady from 2001 - 2009 and is an advocate for literacy, education, and women's rights. After leaving the White House, President and Mrs. Bush founded the George W. Bush Presidential Library and the George W. Bush Institute, a public policy center established to solve today's most pressing challenges by developing leaders, advancing policy, and taking action.
2022 - The American Presidency Through A Global Lens
Thomas L. Friedman
Friedman is renowned for his direct reporting and accessible analysis of complex issues shaping the world. According to Foreign Policy magazine, "Friedman doesn't just report on events; he helps shape them." Winner of three Pulitzer Prizes, he has covered the monumental stories from around the globe for The New York Times since 1981. Vanity Fair called him "the country's best newspaper columnist."
2021 - Democracy Going Forward: The State of the American Presidency
David Gergen
David Gergen is a professor of public service and founding director of the Center for Public Leadership at the Harvard Kennedy School, positions he has held for over a decade. In addition, he serves as a senior political analyst for CNN and works actively with a rising generation of new leaders. In the past, he has served as a White House adviser to four U.S. presidents of both parties: Nixon, Ford, Reagan and Clinton. He wrote about those experiences in his New York Times best seller, Eyewitness to Power: The Essence of Leadership, Nixon to Clinton (Simon & Schuster, 2001).
2020 - Presidential Leadership in Turbulent Times
Doris Kearns Goodwin
Doris Kearns Goodwin is a world-renowned presidential historian, public speaker and Pulitzer Prize- winning, New York Times #1 best-selling author. Her seventh book, “Leadership in Turbulent Times,” is a culmination of Goodwin’s five-decade career of studying the American presidents, focusing on Presidents Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt and Lyndon Baines Johnson. Goodwin weaves her discussion of the times when these Presidents led the country into a look at our current affairs. (photo gallery)
2019 - Origins of the American Presidency
Caroline Winterer
American historian with special expertise in American thought and culture, and the Anthony P. Meier Family Professor in the Humanities and director of the Stanford Humanities Center. Most recent book: American Enlightenments: Pursuing Happiness in the Age of Reason (view)
2019 - Origins of the American Presidency
Panel Scholars
Scholars from around the world presented their research. Topic: European Origins of the American Presidency (view panel) Presenters: Blair Worden, University of Oxford; Eric Slauter, University of Chicago; Max Skjönsberg, University of St. Andrews. Topic: The Politics of Constitution Making and the Federal Union (view panel) Presenters: Jonathan Gienapp, Stanford University; Claire Arcenas, University of Montana; Daniel Hulsebosch, New York University Law School. Topic: Political Theory and Practice among the Early Presidents (view panel) Presenters: Lindsay Chervinsky, Southern Methodist University; François Furstenberg, Johns Hopkins University; osemarie Zagarri, George Mason University.
2018 - Covering the Presidency in the Modern Media Age
Eugene Robinson
Robinson shared his wide-ranging experience of life taking him from childhood in the segregated south to the heights of American journalism. His remarkable storytelling ability has won him wide-acclaim, most notably as the winner of the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for his commentary on the 2008 presidential race that resulted in the election of America's first African-American president. (view)
2017 - Critical Moments of the American Presidency: Past, Present, and Future
Michael Beschloss
Renowned presidential historian Michael Beschloss traced the critical moments and presidential qualities of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry Truman, John Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Ronald Reagan, as well as the most recent presidents. He also will examine what qualities through history have made great presidents and, in our own day, what make great leaders of all kinds. (view)
2016 - The President and American Capitalism Since 1945
Keynote Address by Brian Balogh / Scholar Panels
Brian Balogh presented the keynote address titled "Shopper in Chief: Presidential Leadership in America's Consumer's Republic." Balogh is the Compton Professor at the Miller Center and the Corcoran Department of History at the University of Virginia. He founded the Miller Center National Fellowship and currently chairs that program. His most recent book is "A Government out of Sight: The Mystery of National Authority in Nineteenth-Century America." 15 academic scholars from across the country presented during panel sessions. (view 9 am panel) (view 1 pm panel) (view 3 pm panel) (view keynote)
2015 - Truman’s Presidency and World War II at 70
David McCullough / Moderated by Wilson D. Miscamble
Pulitzer Prize-winning author and historian David McCullough spoke about “Truman’s Presidency and World War II at 70." Moderated by Wilson D. Miscamble, prize-winning author and historian. (view)
2014 - Inside the White House From Nixon to Obama
Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein / Moderated by Timothy Naftali
Pulitzer-Prize winning journalists Woodward and Bernstein set a new standard for Washington journalism and in-depth, behind-the-scenes reporting on the American presidency. Starting with the publication of their first shared Watergate byline, "All the President's Men," in June 1972, and continuing with reporting and commentary, Woodward and Bernstein have revealed the inner-workings of government, politics and the hidden stories of Washington and its leaders. Moderated by Timothy Naftali, former director of the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and current senior research fellow at the New America Foundation. (view)
2013 - Abraham Lincoln’s Presidency and Civil War America
Mark E. Neely, Jr.
Mark E. Neely, jr. Pulitzer Prize-Winning Author and Historian. The 2013 Larkin symposium also featured panels of scholars who presented their research. (view Neely lecture) (view panels)
2012 - Economy and Security in the 21st Century
Madeleine K. Albright
Prior to her appointment as the first female secretary of State in 1997, Madeleine K. Albright served as the U.S. permanent representative to the United Nations and was member of President Bill Clinton’s cabinet and National Security Council. (view lecture excerpt)
2011 - The Pentagon Papers Forty Years Later
Daniel Ellsberg
Lecture and public screening of the critically acclaimed film, The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers, with a discussion led by George Herring, the leading authority on the Pentagon Papers and the Vietnam War. (view lecture)
2010 - America's Future in the Middle East: What is Obama to Do?
Thomas R. Pickering
A veteran diplomat looked at challenges and opportunities from Iran to Israel and beyond Thomas R. Pickering is one of America’s most senior and experienced diplomats, with a distinguished career spanning five decade. (view lecture)
2009 - Civil Rights and the Presidency: From Nixon to Obama
Scholar Panels
Panels of scholars presented their research, featuring Mary Frances Berry, Ronald W. Walters, Thomas Bortstelmann, John D. Skrentny, Robert C. Smith, Charles L. Zelden and Richard L. Pacelle, Jr. (view)
2008 - Women, Washington, and the War
Helen Thomas
Legendary journalist, bestselling author, and former UPI White House Bureau Chief Helen Thomas has covered every president since John F. Kennedy. Drawing on fifty-seven years of White House reporting she delivers a hard-hitting analysis of Washington, the war in Iraq, and the status of women in the political arena.
2007 - Selling War in a Media Age: The Presidency and Public Opinion in the American Century
Keynote by David Halberstam / Scholar Panels
Pulitzer Prize–winning Author and Historian David Halberstam and Scholar panels explored the interaction between the executive branch and public opinion during and after major conflicts in the nation’s history. Scholar Panels featured George C. Herring, Emily S. Rosenberg, Mark A. Stoler, Marilyn B. Young, Robert Schulzinger, Kenneth Osgood, Chester Pach and Lloyd Gardner.