The Distinguished Speaker Series of Southern California presents Douglas Brinkley, best-selling American historian, who will be speaking on Wednesday, Feb. 16, at the Ambassador Auditorium in Pasadena. The event starts at 8 p.m.
Monumental in his contribution to American culture, Douglas Brinkley takes the historical lessons of the past and applies them to the present and the future. He was recently honored by CNN as “a man who knows more about the presidency than any human being alive.”
Dr. Brinkley is currently the Katherine Tsanoff Brown Chair in Humanities and Professor of History at Rice University, a CNN Presidential Historian, and a contributing editor at Vanity Fair.
He has received seven honorary doctorates in American Studies and works in many capacities in the world of public history, including for boards, museums, colleges, and historical societies. Six of his books were named New York Times Notable Books of the Year and seven became New York Times bestsellers.
Brinkley was born on December 14, 1960 in Atlanta, Georgia. His mother, a high school English teacher, was a New Jersey native and his father, a Corning Glass Works executive, was from Pennsylvania. When Brinkley turned eight, his family moved to Perrysburg, Ohio.
As an undergraduate at Ohio State University, he majored in U.S. history with a minor in Latin American studies, graduating with a BA in 1982. He published his first article in 1983 on the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners in America.
In the summer of 1980, he spent a semester at Oxford University doing research on George Orwell. Accepting a fellowship to attend Georgetown University studying U.S. Diplomatic History, he earned his MA in 1983 and his Ph.D. in 1989.
Brinkley lives in Austin, Texas with his wife and three children.
To purchase tickets for Wednesday’s Distinguished Speaker event, visit www.speakersla.com/speakers/
For more information, call (310) 546-6222.
The Ambassador Auditorium is at 131 S. St. John Ave. in Pasadena.
