Former presidential adviser David Gergen, acclaimed historians Michael Beschloss and William Leuchtenburg, and journalist Sander Vanocur will headline a special Winter Term symposium at Elon College. “Inaugurating the Millennium: The First 100 Days of the 21st Century Presidency” will be held at 6:30 p.m., Thursday, Jan. 11 in the McCrary Theatre of the Faith Rockefeller Model Center for the Arts.
The symposium, scheduled just nine days before the presidential inauguration, will focus on the impact of the most tumultuous election in more than a century. These distinguished scholars and opinion-shapers will examine the first 100 days of the next presidency and the challenges presented by a divided Congress and the lack of a voter mandate.
Since Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal, U.S. presidents have considered their first three months in office as crucial to the tone and success of their administrations. Vanocur will serve as moderator, Gergen will reflect on his experiences as adviser to four presidents, and Beschloss and Leuchtenburg will take a historical perspective on the election drama and the beginning of the new administration.
Vanocur, a newsman with more than 40 years of experience in print, radio and television, is host of one of The History Channel’s most important prime-time series, “Movies in Time.” From 1977 to 1991 Vanocur held various positions at ABC News, including chief diplomatic correspondent and anchor for “Business World,” the first regularly scheduled weekly business program. Vanocur also spent 14 years with NBC News, serving as White House correspondent, national political correspondent, Washington correspondent for the “Today” show, contributing editor to the “Huntley-Brinkley Report” and host of “First Tuesday,” a monthly magazine show.
Gergen is editor-at-large of U.S. News & World Report and a regular commentator on the “PBS NewsHour with Jim Lehrer.” He has served in the White House as an advisor to presidents Nixon, Ford, Reagan and Clinton. Most recently, he served 18 months in the Clinton administration, first as counselor to the president and then as special advisor to the president and the secretary of state. He returned to private life in January 1995 and is now professor of public service at Harvard University, teaching at the John F. Kennedy School of Government. Gergen has also taught at Duke University in his hometown of Durham, N.C.
Newsweek magazine has called Michael Beschloss “the nation’s leading
presidential historian.” He is a regular commentator on the “PBS NewsHour with Jim Lehrer” and is the ABC News historical consultant. His most recent book is the national bestseller “Taking Charge: The Johnson White House Tapes, 1963-1964.” “The Crisis Years: Kennedy and Khrushchev, 1960-1963,” which won the Ambassador Book Prize for American Studies, was also a national bestseller. His other books are “Kennedy and Roosevelt: The Uneasy Alliance;” “Mayday: Eisenhower, Khruschev and the U-2 Affair;” “Eisenhower: A Centennial Life;” and “At the Highest Levels: The Inside Story of the End of the Cold War,” co-written with Strobe Talbott.
Leuchtenburg is William Rand Kenan Professor of History at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Winner of both the Bancroft and Parkman prizes, he is past-president of the American Historical Association and the Organization of American Historians. Among his acclaimed books are “Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal, 1932-1940;” “The Perils of Prosperity;” “In the Shadow of FDR: From Harry Truman to Bill Clinton;” “The FDR Years;” and “The Supreme Court Reborn: The Constitutional Revolution in the Age of Roosevelt.”
The symposium is free and open to the public.
Prior to the event, the speakers will participate in class sessions with students enrolled in Elon’s one-month Winter Term. For the second year, this term will have a millennium theme, including about 35 courses, along with workshops, speakers and activities. The educational opportunities will revisit the accomplishments of the 20th century and confront the challenges of the century that lies before us. Elon is one of the few colleges in that nation that offers a January term for focused academic study, intensive work with faculty and numerous international study opportunities.