Focusing on the formal and informal roles presidents performed in the “American Century,” this course will examine how the concept of the “personal president” developed alongside media technology to reshape the office.
Lead Scholar: Barbara A. Perry, University of Virginia
Master Teacher: Keisha Rembert
Image: President Bill Clinton delivering the State of the Union Address, by Maureen Keating, Washington DC, January 24, 1995 (Library of Congress)
Up To 24 PD Hours
Focusing on the formal and informal roles presidents performed in the “American Century,” this course will examine how the concept of the “personal president” developed alongside media technology to reshape the office of the US presidency. Scholarly readings and primary sources (speeches, recordings, and oral histories) will illuminate issues US presidents from Theodore Roosevelt to Bill Clinton faced, including wars, economic crises, domestic policies, scandals, Congressional relations, Supreme Court cases, political party leadership, illnesses, and tragedies. A lecture on the First Ladies of the twentieth century will also be offered.
President Bill Clinton delivering the State of the Union Address, by Maureen Keating, Washington DC, January 24, 1995 (Library of Congress)
You may attend Professor Perry’s book talk on Jacqueline Kennedy: First Lady of the New Frontier, regardless of which symposium course you select. Symposium participants who attend the optional book talks earn additional PD credit.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt (center) with Gen. Douglas MacArthur (left) and Adm. Chester Nimitz aboard USS Baltimore, July 26, 1944 (National Archives)
Barbara A. Perry is the J. Wilson Newman Professor in Presidential Studies at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center, where she co-directs the Presidential Oral History Program. She has authored or edited seventeen books on presidents, First Ladies, the Kennedy family, the Supreme Court, and civil rights and civil liberties. Perry has conducted more than 150 interviews for the George H. W. Bush, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Donald Trump, and Joe Biden Presidential Oral History Projects; participated in the Bill Clinton interviews; and directs the Edward Kennedy Oral History Project. She served as a US Supreme Court fellow and has worked for both Republican and Democratic members of the Senate.
Keisha Rembert is the 2019 Illinois History Teacher of the Year. She is passionate about anti-racism and equity in schools. Currently, Keisha is a doctoral student and an assistant professor of teacher preparation at National Louis University. Prior to entering teacher education, she spent more than fifteen years teaching middle school English and US History in the Chicagoland area. She is the 2019 recipient of the National Council for Teachers of English (NCTE) Award for Outstanding Middle-Level English Educator.