Richard Pells received his B.A. from Rutgers University in 1963 and his Ph.D. in history from Harvard in 1969 where he taught for three years. Subsequently, he was awarded fellowships from the Rockefeller Foundation, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, and the Guggenheim Foundation, as well as six Fulbright chairs and lectureships for teaching abroad, particularly in Europe and Asia. Currently, he is Professor of History Emeritus at The University of Texas at Austin.
Pells is not a traditional historian. He is primarily interested in 20th century American culture - movies, radio, television, art, music, literature, and the theater. He has written five books and through his work, readers are treated to a history of American cultural life from the 1930s to the present.
War Babies: The Generation That Changed America examines the lives and careers of Americans born between 1939 and 1945. No one had written such a book about this generation, long overshadowed by the Baby Boomers. It was the War Babies who grew up with the cold war, the McCarthy hearings, black listing, the Korean War, and Vietnam, just to name a few of the events that changed the course of the country.
War Babies deals especially with musicians and composers like Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Simon and Garfunkel, Barbra Streisand; with film directors like Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese and George Lucas; actors like Pacino and De Niro, Faye Dunaway, Harrison Ford; journalists Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, Tom Brokaw; and with politicians and humanitarians.
Pells shows us that the influence of the War Babies continues "to shape our lives and culture in the 21st century."
Do not miss this lunch. Richard Pells is a wonderful speaker, his subject is fascinating and his viewpoint very personal.
He will bring copies of his book to sign.