Posts Tagged 'The Presidents Club'

Gibbs, Duffy close 2012 morning lecture series with look ahead to election

August 24, 2012·Comments closed

The final morning lecture of the 2012 Season offered Chautauquans a preview of the upcoming presidential election from two veteran journalists.

Nancy Gibbs and Michael Duffy, editors at Time magazine, inspired the Week Nine morning lecture theme of “The Presidents Club,” with their book of the same name.

The Time editors’ casual discussion covered everything from Mitt Romney’s wealth to the relationship between Bill Clinton and President Barack Obama.

Morning Lecture Previews

Gibbs, Duffy assume ‘Time’ roles to forecast 2012 political climate

August 23, 2012·Comments closed

Nancy Gibbs and Michael Duffy, co-authors of The Presidents Club and editors at Time, present the final morning lecture of the 2012 Season at 10:45 a.m. today in the Amphitheater.

As editors at one of the most notable weekly news magazines in the U.S., Duffy and Gibbs will lend their expertise on the upcoming political season for the Chautauqua audience.

The duo has worked together for 25 years, and Duffy has covered eight presidential campaigns.

Special Lecture Previews

Duffy, Gibbs discuss research process in writing ‘Presidents Club’

August 23, 2012·Comments closed

During the late 1960s, Michael Duffy and his Nebraska-born, Congregationalist mother were driving to Ohio from somewhere in the northeast, and they stopped by the Chautauqua Institution.

“I recall peering through a fence as if at the Promised Land,” Duffy said. “I’m hoping to get a little closer to the action on this trip.”

Duffy and co-writer Nancy Gibbs will present their book, The Presidents Club: Inside the World’s Most Exclusive Fraternity, the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle selection for Week Nine, at 3:30 p.m. today in the Hall of Philosophy.

Morning Lecture Recaps

Bales, Robb discuss unique life of being commander-in-chief’s daughter

August 22, 2012·Comments closed

Most people can relate to a teenager’s difficulty dealing with homework, school dances and friends while growing up.

But only a few people understand what it’s like to deal with those things under the white-hot spotlight of being a presidential child.

Lynda Johnson Robb and Susan Ford Bales shared their stories with journalist John Avlon during Wednesday’s morning lecture in congruence with the Week Nine lecture theme, “The Presidents Club.”

Morning Lecture Previews

Smith explores ‘exclusive trade union’ between early presidents

August 22, 2012·Comments closed

If you asked Richard Norton Smith what his job is, he probably wouldn’t tell you that he is a presidential historian. Despite rightfully earning his title from years of work as a biographer, head of six presidential libraries and a scholar-in-residence of history, Smith’s passion has always been his love of history, not fulfilling titles.

Smith will take the lecture platform at 10:45 a.m. Thursday to fill in gaps on the Week Nine theme, “The Presidents Club.” His lecture, titled “Hail and Farewell: An Exclusive Trade Union,” will cover relationships between America’s early presidents, before Nancy Gibbs and Michael Duffy’s book begins with World War II-era presidents.

Morning Lecture Recaps

Nash: As with A-bomb drop, presidential decisions full of moral gray areas

August 22, 2012·Comments closed

“The wooden structures were closely packed, quite numerous, you may be aware of housing in Japan, the interior walls made of paper so they burn very, very well. Temperatures in the city reached upwards of 1800 degrees Fahrenheit. Vehicle frames were melted; canals and ponds were brought to the boiling point. The air contained drops of liquid glass drifting in the wind. Citizens running for their lives spontaneously combusted; many were found charred beyond recognition or dead from heat or suffocation. Over a quarter of a million buildings were destroyed, 16 square miles, almost one-quarter of the city, were laid to complete waste — up to 100,000 people died in that raid,” said Philip Nash, an associate professor of history at Penn State University at the start of his Tuesday Interfaith Lecture.

Nash is the author of The Other Missiles of October: Eisenhower, Kennedy, and the Jupiters, 1957–1963.

“What I just described is the conventional bombing raid — B-29 bombers on the night March 9 to 10, 1945 — that was not a description of Hiroshima or Nagasaki,” he said.

Interfaith Lecture Previews

Barrett examines ethics of JFK, LBJ in civil rights era

August 21, 2012·Comments closed

President John F. Kennedy made a statement in 1961 when he appointed Thurgood Marshall — who later became the first African-American Supreme Court justice — to the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in a country polarized by racism.

Though racial discrimination in judicial appointments is now a thing of the past, the country is perhaps more polarized than ever before, said law professor John Q. Barrett, and President Barack Obama has the chance to make a similar statement — by appointing gays and lesbians.

Barrett will discuss civil rights, the ethics of Kennedy and Johnson, and modern judicial equality at 2 p.m. Wednesday in the Hall of Philosophy. Though he is a renowned teacher and lecturer, Barrett said he has not spoken about that particular topic, and he enjoyed preparing it for Chautauqua. Barrett has lectured at the Institution every summer since 2001.

Morning Lecture Previews

Presidents’ daughters share experiences from inside White House

August 21, 2012·Comments closed

It’s difficult for most Americans to imagine what it’s like to sit down for a family dinner with the person who is running the country.

Lynda Johnson Robb, daughter of President Lyndon B. Johnson, and Susan Ford Bales, daughter of President Gerald Ford, are two of the few people who have known that unique opportunity.

At 10:45 a.m. Wednesday in the Amphitheater, Johnson Robb and Ford Bales will discuss their experiences of living in the White House and growing up in the media spotlight. The discussion, part of Week Nine’s theme “The Presidents Club,” will be moderated by CNN contributor John Avlon.

Morning Lecture Recaps

Naftali: JFK, Ike put presidency above partisanship despite frosty relations

August 21, 2012·Comments closed

Timothy J. Naftali summed up Dwight D. Eisenhower’s feelings of John F. Kennedy in one sentence: “Eisenhower didn’t like the man, but he revered the office.”

Along with being the first director of the Nixon Presidential Library and Museum in Yorba Linda, Calif., Naftali’s career as a presidential historian includes directing the Presidential Recordings Program at the University of Virginia.

Naftali’s lecture, “The Peacock and the Bald Eagle: The Remarkable Relationship Between JFK and Eisenhower,” examined public and private comments the two presidents made about each other’s views on foreign policy, military strategy and social issues.

Morning Lecture Recaps

Gibbs: Former presidents’ relationships go beyond the surface

August 20, 2012·Comments closed

No one understands what it is like to be president, except those who have held the position.

There is no other role like it.

“The presidency, in their mind, is something of a collective that they all remain part of,” said Nancy Gibbs, co-author of The Presidents Club, during Monday’s morning lecture in the Amphitheater.

The former presidents have all offered one another their support. When Franklin D. Roosevelt died, Herbert Hoover told Harry Truman he had the right to call for any service Hoover could offer to the country. Dwight Eisenhower told Lyndon Johnson he would be there for him any time Johnson needed him. Richard Nixon told Ronald Reagan, “I am yours to command.”