August 23, 2012 
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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.
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August 22, 2012 0 Comments
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.
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August 21, 2012 0 Comments
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.
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August 20, 2012 0 Comments
Timothy J. Naftali, former director of the Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, is absolutely, definitely, cross his fingers and hope to die, not going to be speaking about former U.S. President Richard Nixon.
Rather, he will be speaking about “The Peacock and the Bald Eagle: The Remarkable Relationship between JFK and Eisenhower,” Tuesday morning at 10:45 a.m. in the Amphitheater, which continues to explore this week’s theme, “The Presidents Club.”
The relatively unreported chapter of the relationship between two presidents of different generations and different parties is also considerably more edifying than Nixonian reminiscences.
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August 19, 2012 0 Comments
“It’s absolutely Chautauqua. It’s history. It’s biography. It’s interacting across boundaries. It’s political.”
Sherra Babcock, the director of the Department of Education, gushed about The Presidents Club, a book by Time editors Nancy Gibbs and Michael Duffy, which also shares the same name as the morning lecture platform theme — it’s not a coincidence.
Four years ago, Gibbs told Institution President Tom Becker and Babcock that she and Duffy were working on a book about the “private side of the presidency.” Becker and Babcock agreed it would be a perfect morning lecture platform theme.
After years of patience and hard work, Gibbs kicks off the week at 10:45 a.m. Monday in the Amphitheater by exploring the roadmap of The Presidents Club.
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August 16, 2012 0 Comments
In 2009, two months after exchanging wedding vows with his wife, David Rohde spent seven months in Taliban captivity.
“I saw religion at its best and worst,” Rohde said about the ordeal in Afghanistan, which is chronicled in the book A Rope and a Prayer: A Kidnapping from Two Sides, by Rohde and his wife, Kristen Mulvihill.
Two-time Pulitzer Award-winning investigative journalist and author David Rohde will share his story and thoughts in his program titled “Beyond War: The Failed American Effort to Back Moderate Muslims Since 9/11” at 10:45 a.m. Friday in the Amphitheater.
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August 15, 2012 0 Comments
As the former director general of MI5, Stella Rimington has dealt with two types of radicals: those who threaten England’s security and those from her imagination.
In her 29-year career at MI5, Rimington dealt with several categories of radical extremists, a topic she will unfold in her 10:45 a.m. lecture Thursday in the Amphitheater. She will compare and contrast her experiences with spies, radical protesters and terrorists.
The point at which Rimington became involved with radicals is when their thoughts and writings turned to action, when their radicalism turned to extremism. She stepped in when individuals “have a grievance against the society they live in and decide to take action against people who represent that grievance.”
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August 14, 2012 0 Comments
Freeman Dyson, theoretical physicist and professor emeritus at the Institute for Advanced Study, has lived through some radical changes.
Dyson will give the 10:45 a.m. lecture Wednesday in the Amphitheater about Week Eight’s theme, “Radicalism.” During his lecture, Dyson will talk about the radical changes in science that happened throughout his career.
In the 1940s, four major revolutions were beginning in science — nuclear energy, space, genomics and computing, Dyson said.
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Chautauqua Institution is a community on the shores of Chautauqua Lake in southwestern New York state that comes alive each summer with a unique mix of fine and performing arts, lectures, interfaith worship and programs, and recreational activities. Over the course of nine weeks, more than 170,000 visitors will participate in programs, classes and community events for all ages—all within the beautiful setting of a historic lakeside village. Learn more →
