Douglas Brinkley is one of the most prominent historians in the U.S. — and CNN's presidential historian - having charted American history and significant figures for decades. He is also the official Presidential Historian for The New York Historical Society, an essayist, and a prolific and renowned biographer. He has published over three dozen highly acclaimed books, including many discerning biographies and shrewdly edited collections of presidents and presidential records. His subjects have ranged from Presidents Teddy Roosevelt, JFK, FDR, Ronald Reagan, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, and Richard Nixon to the life of Rosa Parks, Hurricane Katrina, the space race and American Catholicism.
Currently, Brinkley is an esteemed professor at Rice University as the Katherine Tsanoff Brown Chair in Humanities and Professor of History, He is also a member of the Century Association, Council of Foreign Relations and the James Madison Council of the Library of Congress. His early teaching career included positions at the U.S. Naval Academy, Princeton, and Hofstra University. At Hofstra, he spearheaded an acclaimed American Odyssey course which took students across the country in a sleeper bus, visiting historical sites and meeting with cultural icons and is the subject of his travelogue The Majic Bus.
“America’s New Past Master” - The Chicago Tribune
During his tenure at the University of New Orleans as Professor of History and Director of the Eisenhower Center for American Studies, he wrote two books with Stephen E. Ambrose: Rise to Globalism: American Foreign Policy Since 1938 and The Mississippi and the Making of a Nation: From the Louisiana Purchase to Today. In 2005, he became a Tulane University Distinguished Professor of History and the Director of the Roosevelt Center, where he taught courses on U.S. foreign policy, published several books on American culture, and edited Jack Kerouac’s diaries.
Brinkley is also actively involved in the environmental conservation and historic preservation communities. He has held board or leadership advisory roles in support of the American Museum of Natural History, Yellowstone Park Foundation, National Audubon Society, and the Rockefeller-Roosevelt Conservation Roundtable. In 2015 he was awarded the Robin W. Winks Award for Enhancing Public Understanding of National Parks by the National Parks Conservation Association. In 2016 the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service honored him with their annual Heritage Award.
Six of his books have been selected as New York Times Notable Books of the Year.His most recent book, American Moonshot: John F. Kennedy and the Great Space Race, was a New York Times bestseller. His book The Great Deluge covers more recent history, offering a careful chronicle of Hurricane Katrina through the eyes of its survivors, and received the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award for writing which reflects RFK’s concern for the powerless and his struggle for even-handed justice. His two-volume annotated The Nixon Tapes won the Arthur S. Link – Warren F. Kuehl Prize. His book, Cronkite, draws upon letters, diaries, and artifacts from the Cronkite Archive to offer a personal portrait of the famed news anchor, won the Sperber Prize for outstanding biographies in the field of journalism. Brinkley has also received a Grammy Award for the Jazz ensemble album Presidential Suite, as well as seven honorary doctorates in American Studies.
![[Brinkley with actor Sean Penn (left) helping with relief work in the wake of Hurricane Katrina] ](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d03d3e13dba730001281532/1618458232016-ZVE6L95QBC5WVZRJG0IB/DB7.jpg)
[Brinkley with actor Sean Penn (left) helping with relief work in the wake of Hurricane Katrina]
![[Brinkley, wife Anne and daughter Cassady, with John Lewis on the Edmund Pettus Bridge]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d03d3e13dba730001281532/1618458321471-85SU48AHOYDI9WUZMYMR/DB8.jpg)
[Brinkley, wife Anne and daughter Cassady, with John Lewis on the Edmund Pettus Bridge]
Brinkley with Author Kurt Vonnegut, 1994
A graduate of The Ohio State University and Georgetown University, Brinkley lives in Austin, Texas with his wife and three children.
The Common Good was pleased to host him on several occasions in the past, including Assessing the Presidency with Lesley Stahl, Douglas Brinkley, Jonathan Alter and Ed Rollins on April 11th, 2013 and in 2018 alongside Roger Cohen, David Frum, Dana Perino, and Ed Rollins at the “Trump – Year One” Panel.
Brinkley currently serves as a member of The Common Good Honorary Advisory Board.
Twitter: @ProfDBrinkley
Selected Media:
Brinkley for The New York Times: President Trump, Please Read 'Desert Solitaire'
Articles Listed: http://douglasbrinkley.com/articles/
Books Published:
American Moonshot: John F. Kennedy and the Great Space Race, 2019
JKF: A Vision For America, 2018
Rightful Heritage: Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Land of America 2016
The Nixon Tapes : 1971-1972 and The Nixon Tapes: 1973, 2015, with coauthor Luke A. Nichter
Cronkite, 2012
The Quiet World: Saving Alaska’s Wilderness Kingdom, 1879-1960, 2011
The Notes: Ronald Reagan's Private Collection of Stories and Wisdom, 2011
Rise to Globalism: American Foreign Policy Since 1938 9th edition with Stephen Ambrose, 2010
The Wilderness Warrior: Theodore Roosevelt and the Crusade for America, 2009
Gerald R. Ford, The American Presidents Series, 2007
The Ronald Reagan Diaries, Edited by Brinkley, 2007
Kerouac: Road Novels 1957-1960, selected journals edited by Brinkley, 2007
The Great Deluge: Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans, and the Mississippi Gulf Coast, 2006
Parish Priest: Father Michael McGivney and American Catholicism, 2006
Rosa Parks: A Life, 2005
Voices of Courage: The Battle for Khe Sanh, Vietnam, with co-author Ronald Drez, 2005
The Boys of Pointe Du Hoc: Ronald Reagan, D-Day, and the U.S. Army 2nd Ranger Battalion, 2005
Tour of Duty: John Kerry and the Vietnam War, 2004
Voices of Valor: D-Day: June 6, 1944, words and recorded voices of those who served at D-Day, edited by Brinkley, 2004
Wheels for the World: Henry Ford, His Company, and a Century of Progress, 2003
The Mississippi and the Making of a Nation: From the Louisiana Purchase to Today, with Stephen Ambrose, 2002
Fear and Loathing in America: The Brutal Odyssey of an Outlaw Journalist, collected letters of Hunter S. Thompson, edited by Brinkley, 2000
Witness to America: An Illustrated Documentary of the History of the United States from the Revolution to D-Day, 1999
The Unfinished Presidency: Jimmy Carter’s Journey Beyond the White House, 1998
American Heritage: History of the United States, 1998
Hunter S. Thompson: The Proud Highway, Saga of a Distemperate Southern Gentleman 1955-1967, collected letters, edited by Brinkley, 1997
FDR and the Creation of the U.N., 1997
The Majic Bus: An American Odyssey 1993
Dean Acheson: The Cold War Years, 1953-71 1992
Driven Patriot: The Life and Times of James Forrestal, 1992
More can be found at http://douglasbrinkley.com/all-books/
