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January 16, 2003
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Mike Andrei
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Donald
L. Miller, Author of "City of the Century: The Epic of Chicago and
the Making of America," to Speak at Daemen College February 6
Will Address Topic of Chicago and the American City
Donald L.
Miller, John Henry MacCracken Professor of History at Lafayette
College, and author of City of the Century: The Epic of Chicago
and the Making of America, will speak at Daemen College 7:00 p.m.,
Thursday, February 6, in Wick Center. Dr. Miller's presentation,
“Chicago and the American City,” will focus on the qualities
that made Chicago come about – innovation, ingenuity, and
determination – and how those qualities can be broadly interpreted
as positive factors in other cities’ revitalizations. His
talk is presented by the Daemen College Office of the Vice President
for Academic Affairs, The Daemen Center for Sustainable Communities
and Civic Engagement, and The John R. Oishei Foundation. It will
be free and open to the public.
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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. – 30 –
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