4/16/98
EDITORS: A headshot of Michael Beschloss can be downloaded from the World Wide Web at www.ohiou.edu/news/pix/MICHAEL_BESCHLOSS.JPG.
ATHENS, Ohio -- Leading presidential historian and PBS commentator Michael Beschloss will deliver the annual Costa Lecture at 8 p.m. Wednesday, April 22, in 194 Irvine Hall. His remarks will focus on "Presidential Reputation."
Beschloss specializes in the U.S. presidency and politics and is a frequent commentator on PBS' "NewsHour with Jim Lehrer." Newsweek magazine has called him "the nation's leading presidential historian."
Beschloss has written several award-winning books detailing the work of late 20th century presidents Eisenhower, Johnson and Kennedy, including the recently published "Taking Charge: The Johnson White House Tapes, 1963-1964," which was awarded the English-Speaking Union's Ambassador Book Prize for American Studies. His 1993 book, "At the Highest Levels: The Inside Story of the End of the Cold War," was nominated for the New York Public Library's Bernstein Prize, and his 1991 work, "The Crisis Years: Kennedy and Khrushchev, 1960-1963," was a Notable Book of the Year by The New York Times and the American Library Association.
Beschloss, a graduate of Williams College and Harvard University, has served as historian of the Smithsonian Institution and visiting scholar at the Harvard Russian Research Center and is currently a senior fellow at the Anneberg Foundation. He serves on the boards of the White House Historical Association, Foreign Affairs magazine and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars Cold War History Project.
The Costa Lecture Series brings prominent historians to campus each year. It was founded in 1980 by Helen Hayes, 99, a 1926 graduate of Ohio University.
