Free Feb. 3 town hall to take place via Zoom
Rice presidential historian Douglas Brinkley’s insights were in high demand following the Jan. 6 insurrection in the U.S. Capitol. He first spoke that afternoon with WNYC-FM in New York in an interview that aired across 175 National Public Radio stations as the crisis unfolded, then continued providing historical context on the unprecedented events in Washington to global news outlets, from CNN (where he serves as the network's presidential historian) to the Associated Press to Reuters.
“I think (former President Donald Trump) is the bottom of the barrel of American presidents,” Brinkley told CNN’s Anderson Cooper Jan. 20. “He will be known for the Trump insurrection. He will be known for claiming that he was a wartime commander in chief when the COVID-19 virus hit America and we had a pandemic and he really did nothing.”
Brinkley, the Katherine Tsanoff Brown Professor in Humanities and professor of history at Rice University, will offer a deep dive into what could follow the insurrection during a special town hall Feb. 3 at 4 p.m. via Zoom.
“In the Wake of January 6, 2021: The Future of the American Presidency” is free and open to the public, although registration is required. The conversation will be moderated by Dean of Humanities Kathleen Canning, the Andrew W. Mellon Professor of History, and Fay Yarbrough ‘97, associate professor of history and associate dean for undergraduate programs and special projects.
In addition to teaching history at Rice and appearing on CNN, Brinkley is a prolific writer. His articles and commentaries routinely appear in outlets such as the New York Times, which recently ran his final interview with baseball legend Hank Aaron, and he has written and edited 30 books, including the 2019 bestseller “American Moonshot: John F. Kennedy and the Great Space Race.”
Anyone interested in attending the Feb. 3 town hall can register online.