Select Public Speeches

 

National D-Day Museum, New Orleans, “D-Days in the Pacific,” Lecture and Film Screening. April, 2005.

Guest Speaker, United States Department of State, March, 2004. Feature addresses on “World War II and American Memory” at Oxford University, Cambridge University, Kings College, London, University of Glasgow, Liverpool University, the Embassy of the United States, and the Royal College for Defense Studies, London.

“The Pacific War,” Lecture and Film Screening, Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution, March, 2004.

Featured Speaker, National Press Club Symposium, “A Night at the Newsreels,” February, 2004.

Smithsonian Associates, Washington, DC, “World War II, The Greatest Drama of the Twentieth Century,” May, 2004.

The Davis R. Parker Memorial Lecture, “War and Modern Memory,” The Haverford School, December, 2003. Prior Parker Lecture Speakers include, David Eisenhower, James McPherson, David Halberstam, Norman Mailer, and Philip Caputo.

Keynote Address, Centennial Anniversary Celebration, City Club of Chicago, “Global Lessons of Chicago’s Business History,” December, 2003.

Keynote Address, “The City Reborn,” American Institute of Architecture Students, Annual Meeting, Chicago, January, 2003.

“A Night with Donald L. Miller,” Chicago Historical Society, March, 2003.

Keynote Address, Sixtieth Anniversary of the Eighth Air Force, Mighty Eighth Air Force Heritage Museum, Savannah, Georgia, January, 2002.

Lord Associates, Montreal, Canada, “Building the Greatest Military History Museum in the World,” July, 2002.

Featured Speaker, The Tower Hill Forum Lecture Series, “American Foreign Policy Since World War II in Light of the War on Terrorism,” December 5, 2002. Other Speakers in the Series: Sen. Joseph Biden, Scott Ritter, and David Gergen.

Massachusetts School of Law, Andover, MA, “The Greatest Generation Revisited: Lessons in Leadership,” August, 2002.

Keynote Address, Eighth Air Force Historical Society, Annual Reunion, October 5, 2002, Norfolk, VA.

Keynote Address, “In Search of the Good City,” Aspen Institute, Society of Fellows, Summer Symposium, August, 200l.

Feature Address, “The Leadership Lessons of Military History: World War II,” Admiral Chester Nimitz Lecture Series, National Museum of the Pacific War, February, 2002.

Aspen Institute Symposium, “Rebuilding America’s Suburbs,” co-speaker, Carol Browner, former Secretary of Energy, Clinton Administration, August, 2001.

Keynote Banquet Speaker, The Metropolitan Project of the Commercial Club of Chicago, “Historic Chicago: Lessons for Remaking the 21st Century City,” February, 2001.

Federal Reserve Bank, Chicago, “Chicago: Capitalist Powerhouse,” February, 2001.

Featured Speaker, Chicago Public Library Speaker Series, “Author’s of Note,” “The Timeless Lessons of World War II,” November 2001.

Featured Speaker, National D-Day Museum. “Fighting on Two Fronts: The Afro- American Experience in World War II,” February, 2001.

Host and Featured Speaker, “Cooperation and Willpower: How POWs Survive Captivity,” Symposium: Conversations with Veterans, National D-Day Museum, December, 2001.

Featured Speaker, Symposium Sponsored by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the Annenberg Foundation, “Chicago’s History, America’s History,” March 2001.

“Authors in the News,” January, 2001. Symposium sponsored by the Library of Congress, the Annenberg Foundation and PBS (other participants Kurt Vonnegut, John Leonard, Arthur Golden.)

Commencement Address, St. Vincent College, 2001.

Symposium sponsored by the American Historical Association, “Journalists, Historians and Film-makers.” Boston, MA, December 2000 [Other panelists: Joseph Heller, Bill Curtis, Nicolas Lemann).

Feature Speaker, Globalization and the Human Condition: Fiftieth Anniversary Symposium of the Aspen Institute, “Globalization and the Human Imagination,” August, 2000. (Other speakers included President Jimmy Carter, Stephen Ambrose, Elie Wiesel, Henry Kissinger, Thomas Friedman, Queen Noor, Mary Robinson, President of Ireland.)

Crayenborgh Lecturer, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands, May, 2000. “Why Chicago Matters: Building the Cities of the 21st Century.” One of 12 international urban experts invited to give a lecture in the year-long lecture series.

IBM Headquarters, New York City, “Training the Liberal Arts Student for the World of Business,” November, 1999.

Onwentsia Club, Lake Forest, ILL, April 24, 1998. “Built for Business: The Rise of Modern Chicago.”

Television Critics Association Press Tour, Pasadena, California, “America 1900,” July, 1998.

Feature Speaker, on receiving the Presidential Book Award of The Victorian Society of America, June 4, 1997, University of Chicago.

Keynote Address, Russell Reynolds Associates, Inc., Board of Directors Annual Meeting, “Chicago, City of the Century,” October, 1996.

Featured Speaker, New York State Assembly, Albany, NY, “Lewis Mumford, His Life, His Work, and His Continuing Relevance,” February, 1996.

Featured Speaker, American Architectural Foundation, June 1996, “Rebuilding America’s Suburbs.”

Keynote Speaker, Chicago City Planning Commission, “Planning the 21st Century City,” May, 1996.

Keynote Speaker, Symposium in Celebration of the Hundredth Anniversary of Lewis Mumford, Monmouth College, January, 1995.

Keynote Speaker, “How Can History Help the Modern Business Executive,” Information Management Services (IMS), Annual Meeting, March, 1993. (IMS consists of 7,000 people in 40 states and 37 counties. It is the supplier of Data Processing, Telecommunications, and Network Services to AT&T Business Units and Divisions.)

Featured Speaker, Pennsylvania Humanities Speakers’ Program, 1992-3. “Rebuilding the Cities of the America’s Rustbelt.”

Keynote Speaker, “Capitalist Architecture,” The Auditorium Theater Symposium: Celebrating 100 Years, Chicago, June 1991.

Municipal Art Society, New York City, “Lewis Mumford, Urban Visionary,” October 5, 1989.

“Master Historians: A Symposium,” Boston MA, sponsored by PBS and the National Archives, December 1999 (other participants Stephen Ambrose and Pauline Maier).

Feature Speaker, “Capitalism and Urban Growth,” Cantigny Conference Center, Planning the Modern Capitalist City, McCormick Tribune Foundation, April, 1998.

Great Lakes Book Award Ceremonies, Chicago, April, 1996. Acceptance Speech, 1997 National Book Award for General Books.

All Soul’s College, Oxford, “The Great Partnership: Lewis Mumford and Frank Lloyd Wright.” 1987.

Christ Church College, Oxford, “The Enduring Urban Lessons of the Medieval City,” 1987.

United States Government, Department of Labor, “The Kingdom of Coal: The Rise and Decline of a Great American Industry,” May, 1984.

State of Pennsylvania, Museum Commission. “The Economic and Environmental Impact of Anthracite Mining,” July, 1985.

Featured Address, United States Embassy, Madrid, Spain. “Usable History: The European Urban Heritage and American City Building,” January, 1982.

Washington University School of Architecture. “Inspired Capitalist Architecture: Frank Lloyd Wright’s Johnson Wax Building,” April, 1982.

Cornell University, School for Industrial and Labor Relations, “Work Teams in Mass Manufacturing,” February, 1976.

Tour Leader, Victory in Europe Tour: The 60th Anniversary of the End of World War II, May-June, 2005, sponsored by the National D-Day Museum, America’s National World War II Museum,

Tour Leader, “The Return to Normandy,” National D-Day Museum, 2004.

I have also spoken at dozens of American colleges, universities, libraries, and historical societies.

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