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Euromissiles: The Nuclear Weapons That Nearly Destroyed NATO
The Center for Presidential History welcomes Susan Colbourn (Duke University) to discuss her new book, Euromissiles: The Nuclear Weapons that Nearly Destroyed NATO. Colbourn tells the story of the height of nuclear crisis and the remarkable waning of the fear that gripped the globe. In the Cold War conflict that pitted nuclear superpowers against one another, Europe was the principal battleground. Washington and Moscow had troops on the ground and missiles in the fields of their respective allies, the NATO…
Find out more »The Third Reconstruction: America’s Struggle for Racial Justice in the Twenty-First Century
One of our preeminent historians of race and democracy, Peniel E. Joseph (University of Texas, Austin), argues that the period since 2008 has marked nothing less than America’s Third Reconstruction In The Third Reconstruction: America's Struggle for Racial Justice in the Twenty-First Century, distinguished historian Peniel E. Joseph offers a powerful and personal new interpretation of recent history. The racial reckoning that unfolded in 2020, he argues, marked the climax of a Third Reconstruction: a new struggle for citizenship and…
Find out more »Presidential History in Real Time: Insights into the White House from Inside Washington
SMU’s Center for Presidential History is entering our second decade. Not surprisingly, we begin by looking back, and by looking at the way most Americans engage the White House and Washington in our 21st century: through the eyes, thoughts, and words of the journalists who follow the president every day. Join Peter Baker and Susan Glasser, Chief White House Correspondent for the New York Times and a Staff Writer at the New Yorker respectively, as they reveal and discuss…
Find out more »Petroleum and Progress in Iran: Oil, Development, and the Cold War
The Center for Presidential History welcomes Gregory Brew (Yale University) to discuss his new book, Petroleum and Progress in Iran: Oil, Development, and the Cold War. From the 1940s to 1960s, Iran developed into the world's first 'petro-state', where oil represented the bulk of state revenue and supported an industrializing economy, expanding middle class, and powerful administrative and military apparatus. Drawing on both American and Iranian sources, Gregory Brew outlines how the Pahlavi petro-state emerged from a confluence of forces…
Find out more »The Peacemaker: Ronald Reagan, the Cold War, and the World on the Brink
William Inboden's (University of Texas, Austin) new book The Peacemaker: Ronald Reagan, the Cold War, and the World on the Brink gives a masterful account of how Ronald Reagan and his national security team confronted the Soviets, reduced the nuclear threat, won the Cold War, and supported the spread of freedom around the world. With decades of hindsight, the peaceful end of the Cold War seems a foregone conclusion. But in the early 1980s, most experts believed the Soviet Union was strong,…
Find out more »Mourning the Presidents: Loss and Legacy in American Culture
The Center for Presidential History presents a discussion the new book "Mourning the Presidents: Loss and Legacy in American Culture" with speakers Lindsay Chervinsky, Camille Davis, Sharron Conrad, and Matthew Costello. On November 30, 2018, George H. W. Bush died at age ninety-four. Over the next several weeks, the nation participated in collective mourning. Strident political foes came together to celebrate Bush’s lifetime of service, diplomatic expertise, and kindness. Although Bush left office with a low approval rating, his death came at…
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