Submitted by Indivisible San Juan Island
Indivisible San Juan Island invites members of the community to an evening with David M. Kennedy, a Pulitzer Prize winner and author of some of the most inspiring and significant books about our nation’s history.
The event is to be held from 5:30-7:00 pm on Aug.20, at the Grange, 152 First Street North in Friday Harbor. A Q&A session will follow the presentation.
Given recent shocking events, the fragility of the American experiment is more evident than ever before. Dr. Kennedy will explore the historical dynamics that have brought the republic to its present state-of-affairs, with special emphasis on the role of immigration, with its attendant issues of polarization, national identity, border security, birthright citizenship, hemispheric relations, and the political challenges of America’s — and the world’s — changing demographic profile.
Dr. Kennedy is the Donald J. McLachlan Professor Emeritus at Stanford University. He is a Seattle native and long-time San Juan Island summer resident. He earned his M.A. and Ph.D. from Yale University in American studies and his B.A. from Stanford University in history.
Freedom from Fear: The American People in Depression and War vividly recounts the nation’s encounter with the two great crises of the Great Depression and World War II. This book won the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for History and was published by Oxford University Press.
“The American Pageant,” co-authored by Dr. Kennedy, Margaret O’Mara and Lizabeth Cohen, is now available in its eighteenth edition. It enjoys a reputation as one of the most popular, effective and entertaining texts on American history, abounding with “colorful anecdotes, vivid maps, charts, illustrations, highlighted first-person quotations and the author’s trademark will bring American history to life” according to Goodreads.
“Over Here: The First World War and American Society” used the history of Americans’ involvement in World War I to analyze American culture in the early twentieth century, published in 2004.
Dr. Kennedy’s 1970 book, “Birth Control in America: The Career of Margaret Sanger,” explored the medical, legal, political and religious dimensions of the subject and helped to pioneer the emerging field of women’s history.
Reflecting his interdisciplinary training in American studies, Dr. Kennedy’s scholarship is notable for its integration of economic and cultural analysis with social and political history.
This lecture is one of the events sponsored by the Indivisible San Juan Island, one of the grassroots movement of thousands of local Indivisible groups with a mission to elect progressive leaders and rebuild our democracy. The event takes place on Wednesday, Aug. 20, at the San Juan Island Grange at 5:30-7 p.m. The seating is first-come-first-seated. A suggested donation of $10 is appreciated.
