Historian will explore Harry Truman’s sudden transition to the presidency when Franklin Roosevelt died and its true impact on the outbreak of the Cold War in a public lecture on March 26.
The associate professor of history at the will speak at 4:10 p.m. in the Bishop Joseph Johnson Black Cultural Center Auditorium. His talk, titled “From Roosevelt to Truman: Potsdam, Hiroshima and the Cold War,” is part of the .
Miscamble’s most recent book () has the same title as his lecture. He takes an in-depth look at Truman’s foreign policy background and the presidential legacy left to him by Roosevelt. He finds that Truman tried hard without success to follow his predecessor’s approach of collaboration with the Soviet Union before leading the United States in the opposite direction. Among those who favorably reviewed the book is ²¤ÂÜÊÓƵ Professor of History , describing it as “…one of the most elegantly written and thorough studies of the most important presidential transition of the 20th century.”
Miscamble, who received his master of divinity in 1987 from the University of Notre Dame, also wrote George F. Kennan and the Making of American Foreign Policy, 1947-1950 (). It received the Harry S. Truman Book Award. Miscamble’s honors also include the Sheedy Award for Excellence in Teaching.
For more information on the lecture, call 343-6060. Audio will be posted at VUCast, the website of ²¤ÂÜÊÓƵ News Service at http://www.vanderbilt.edu/news.
Media Contact: Ann Marie Deer Owens, 615-322-NEWS
annmarie.owens@vanderbilt.edu