2004 News

HarperCollins Publishes New Book on American History by FPRI Scholar Walter A. McDougall

“The creation of the United States of America is the central event of the past four hundred years,” declares Walter McDougall in his preface to Freedom Just Around the Corner: A New American History, 1585-1828. With this statement, McDougall begins a grand narrative rich with new details and insights about colonial and early national history. The volume is the first installment of a trilogy that will eventually bring the story of America up to the present day.

McDougall is co-chairman of FPRI’s History Institute, Senior Fellow at FPRI, and the Alloy-Ansin Professor of International Relations at the University of Pennsylvania. His book The Heavens and the Earth: A Political History of the Space Age won a Pulitzer Prize. His other books have also won critical acclaim, including Promised Land, Crusader State: America’s Encounter with the World Since 1776 and Let the Sea Make a Noise: A History of the North Pacific from Magellan to MacArthur.

He will be speaking about the book in Philadelphia on May 13 to a public audience, and again on June 5 to a select group of 40 teachers from around the country as part of FPRI’s annual History Institute for Teachers. Other BookTalks around the country are posted on the FPRI website (www.fpri.org) and Author Tour information is available from HarperCollins.

Due out on March 30, this is the third volume to emerge from FPRI’s History Institute and Center for the Study of America and the West. Previous volumes include: From Plato to NATO: The Idea of the West and Its Opponents, by David Gress, and the previously mentioned Promised Land, Crusader State, by McDougall. In progress is a volume entitled Is There Still a West?, edited by Harvey Sicherman and William Anthony Hay, based on a recent FPRI conference.

A complimentary signed copy of Freedom Just Around the Corner is available upon request to FPRI Patrons (members at the $500 level).

Annenberg Foundation Awards FPRI Grant of $100,000 for History Institute

FPRI acknowledges with deep appreciation a grant from the Annenberg Foundation in support of the History Institute of our Marvin Wachman Fund for International Education. Chaired by Walter McDougall and David Eisenhower, the History Institute brings together each year 40 teachers from public, private, and parochial schools from around the country for weekend-long programs of lectures and seminars.

On June 5-6, in conjunction with the publication of McDougall’s Freedom Just Around the Corner, the History Institute will focus on the theme “New Perspectives on the Genesis of the USA.” Gordon S. Wood, one of the most renowned scholars of early American history, will deliver a keynote address on “The Origins of American Constitutionalism.” Other speakers include Allan Guelzo (Eastern University), Jeremy Black (University of Exeter), J.C.D. Clark (University of Kansas), Daniel Richter (University of Pennsylvania), and Paul Dickler (Neshaminy High School).

Papers and publications from previous weekend— for example, “The American Encounter with Islam” (2003), “Teaching Japan” (2003), and “Teaching Geography and Geopolitics” (2002)— appear on our website (www.fpri.org).

James Kurth Appointed Orbis Editor

James Kurth, the Claude Smith Professor of Political Science at Swarthmore College and co-chairman of FPRI’s Center for the Study of America and the West, has been named to succeed David Eisenhower as Editor of Orbis, FPRI’s quarterly journal of world affairs.

Kurth has taught at Harvard, University of California at San Diego, and the US Naval War College. He served as an advisor to the Strategic Studies Group of the Chief of Naval Operations and is the recipient of the Department of the Navy Medal for Meritorious Civilian Service.

Kurth is the author of numerous essays in The National Interest, Orbis, Current History, and Foreign Policy, and has given testimony before committees of the US Congress on four occasions.

Kurth’s work as Editor begins with the Fall 2004 issue, preparations for which have just begun.

David Eisenhower remains Senior Fellow of FPRI and co-chairman of FPRI’s History Institute, and will be speaking under FPRI auspices on June 2 on “D-Day Remembered.”

Theodore Friend

FPRI Senior Fellow Theodore Friend has been named C.V. Starr Distinguished Visiting Professor of Southeast Asia Studies at Johns Hopkins University.

FPRI Thanks Its Fellows and Patrons

Fellows ($1,000 or more)

• Bert G. Arnold •
• John H. Ball •
• David R. Bangsberg •
• Adrian A. Basora •
• Sally Cooper Bleznak •
• Brian D. Booth •
• W. W. Keen Butcher •
• Robert L. Byers •
• Philip D. Cohen •
• Jane Comer •
• Gerard Cuddy •
• Thomas Cushman •
• Shirley Lee Dixon •
• Barbara Drebing •
• Robert A. Fox Robert L. Freedman •
• Rosalie Gerson •
• Stanley D. Ginsburg •
• Charles B. Grace •
• J. Eric Greenwood •
• Bob Guzzardi •
• Luke Halinski •
• N. Peter Hamilton •
• Charles L. Harper •
• Joseph J. Hill •
• Kenneth D. Hill •
• Tatnall & Bobbie Hillman •
• John A. Herring •
• Bruce H. Hooper •
• James W. Hovey •
• Clifton S. Hutchings •
• Scott M. Jenkins •
• Jerome Kaplan •
• Michael Karp •
• James Joo-Jin Kim •
• James Leitner •
• Gerry Lenfest •
• Richard B. and Kathyrn Lieb •
• Jay and Helen T. Loo •
• John and Leslie Moneta •
• I. Wistar Morris, III •
• Bernard Munk •
• Ronald J. Naples •
• Louis Padulo •
• Howard & Foulie Perlmutter •
• Frank N. Piasecki •
• Jerry G. Rubenstein •
• Thomas G. Ruth •
• Steven H. Santini •
• Lionel and Patricia Savadove •
• Murray & Judith H. Shusterman •
• Phil Simpson •
• E. Newbold Smith •
• Joseph Smukler •
• Edward L. Snitzer •
• Paul R. Staley •
• Terry Steen •
• Walter P. Stern •
• John M. Templeton, Jr. •
• Jay H. Tolson •
• Hans P. Utsch •
• Marvin Wachman •
• Carroll A. Weinberg •
• Bruce D. Wietlisbach •
• Richard E. Woosnam •
• William H. Wurster

Patrons ($500-999)

• Evelyn Berger •
• John S. Carter •
• Barbara Clement •
• Arthur I. Cyr •
• Peter Richard Dachowski •
• Beverly Danielson •
• Don N. DeMarino Geoffrey Duffine •
• David Eisenberg •
• Mordecai Gerson •
• Barbara J. Gohn •
• Robert B. Goldstein •
• N. Bulent Gultekin •
• Alan R. Hirsig
• Joseph J. Janos, III •
• Andrew H. Johnsonbaugh •
• Norbert Josten •
• Henry A. Kissinger •
• Abelardo Lechter •
• Murray S. Levin •
• Camille R. Macdonald-Polski •
• James G. McGann •
• Norman Frederick Ness •
• Stuart S. Peltz •
• Alan L. Reed •
• Eileen Rosenau •
• Steven Schlossstein •
• Edwin Seave •
• Stephen Segal •
• Sandra Shaber •
• Ione A. Strauss •
• George Strawbridge •
• Josephine J. Templeton •
• Sylvan M. Tobin •
• Marilyn Ware •
• Constance Williams