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October 18, 2004
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Media Contact: |
Mike Andrei
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Event Information: |
Daemen Conference Office
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Donald L. Miller, Lead Scholar and On-Air Host of PBS Video Series "A Biography of America," to Speak at Daemen College November 4, on "War and Modern Memory"
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Donald L. Miller, John Henry MacCracken Professor of History at Lafayette College, and lead scholar and on-air host of PBS video series "A Biography of America," will speak at Daemen College 7:00 p.m., Thursday, November 4, in Alumni Lounge in Wick Center. Dr. Miller's presentation, "War and Modern Memory," will be presented by the Daemen College Office of the Vice President for Academic Affairs. It will be free and open to the public.
Dr. Miller describes his presentation as focusing on "how American citizens need to know something about our country's past wars, especially WWII and the Civil War – how these wars were fought as well as why they were fought. I believe that Americans need to especially think about how decisions to go to war are made, if they are to make intelligent decisions about going to war in the present day." Dr. Miller's expertise in the dynamics of how one major U.S. city, Chicago, was built, was most recently seen in the PBS documentary, "Chicago: City of the Century." Based on City of the Century: The Epic of Chicago and the Making of America, the PBS American Experience broadcast was seen January 13, 14, and 15. The documentary, as with Miller's book, chronicled Chicago's growth from a French and Indian fur-trading post of 300 people, to the metropolis that was the quintessential American city of the 19th century. Miller has participated in the making of other American Experience documentaries, including "Ulysses S. Grant," "Abraham and Mary Lincoln: A House Divided," and "America 1900." He played a prominent role in the production of "Ulysses S. Grant," which premiered in May 2002. He worked with scriptwriter Paul Taylor of PBS station WGBH-Boston, served as a consultant on the production, and appears on the show to provide his expertise on Grant and his role as commanding general of Union forces in the Battle of Vicksburg, one of the most crucial battles of the Civil War. Miller also appears in "Abraham and Mary Lincoln: A House Divided" and was a consultant to the producer and director, David Grubin, who wrote the script with Geoffrey C. Ward. Narrated by David McCullough, it premiered in February 2001. Miller is lead scholar and on-air host of "A Biography of America," a video series and telecourse that aired on PBS stations throughout the country in 2000-01. The 26 half-hour programs cover the sweep of American history, from the pre-Columbian beginnings to the present. It was produced by WGBH Boston in cooperation with the National Archives and Records Administration and the Library of Congress, and was funded by Annenberg/CPB. Miller conceptualized and named the series and helped recruit the other nationally known historians who participated. He wrote 17 of the scripts, edited the others, and hosted on-air interviews with numerous historians and novelists. Miller's books have received critical acclaim and been nominated for almost every major national literary prize. His most recent book is The Story of World War II (Simon & Schuster, 2001), a revised, expanded, and updated version of Henry Steele Commager's classic. Miller has also written numerous articles for national publications, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Chicago Tribune. He has won five awards for excellence in teaching and three fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities and was a fellow at All Souls College, Oxford. Miller joined the Lafayette faculty in 1977. He holds a doctoral degree in American intellectual history from the University of Maryland, a master of arts degree from Ohio University, and a bachelor of arts degree from Saint Vincent College. Before coming to Lafayette he taught at Cornell University's New York School of Industrial and Labor Relations, the City University of New York, and Monmouth College. |