Wednesday, March 01, 2006

Wilmington, N.C. - David Halberstam, one of the most distinguished social and political commentators in America, will speak at 7 p.m. on Monday, March 20 in Kenan Auditorium at University of North Carolina Wilmington. In his lecture, "America & the World: New Challenges in a Time of Uncertainty," he will discuss America's strengths, its weaknesses, and the double-edged weapon of freedom. The talk, sponsored by UNCW Presents Leadership Lecture Series, will be followed by a question and answer period and book-signing.

Halberstam is a legendary figure in American journalism. His landmark trilogy of books on power in America, The Best and the Brightest, The Powers That Be, and The Reckoning have helped define the latter part of this century more than any journalistic works, and have won him innumerable awards, including a Pulitzer Prize at the age of 30. They deal with, respectively, the path that the Kennedy-Johnson administrations used to take America to war in Vietnam, the dramatic and sudden rise of the power of modern media, and the ascent of the Japanese as a rival economic superpower.

He is the author of 11 best-selling books. The Reckoning, his prophetic account of the Japanese challenge, was voted in a Wall Street Journal poll of 400 CEOs as The Most Important Book of the Year. The breadth of Halberstam's work is demonstrated by the vastly different subjects of two of his books that were number one on the best sellers list: The Best and the Brightest, and 17 years later, Summer of '49, a nostalgic look at a pennant race-and a very different America-which existed 40 years ago.

Halberstam attended Harvard University and graduated with a degree in journalism in 1955. He began his career as the one reporter on the Daily Times Leader in West Point Mississippi and later at The Nashville Tennessean before joining The New York Times in 1960. He first came to national prominence in the early sixties as part of a small handful of American reporters who refused to accept the official optimism about Vietnam and who reported that the war was being lost. Halberstam won a Pulitzer Prize at age 30 for his prophetic reporting in the early days of the Vietnam War. Reflecting his tenure as a major analyst on the American scene, 38 years later his best-seller, War In A Time Of Peace, was a runner up for the Pulitzer.

Halberstam appears often on Nightline, Charlie Rose and Face the Nation. Mark Bowden, author of Black Hawk Down, said of him, "The best war reporter of his generation, Halberstam has become of the great synthesizers of modern American history."

BOX OFFICE AND TICKET INFORMATION

Tickets are free for UNCW students, faculty and staff, and $6 for the general public. For tickets and information, call the Kenan Box Office at 962.3500 or 800.732.3643 or visit www.uncw.edu/arts. Ticket office hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Friday. To request a season brochure, telephone the UNCW Presents office at 910.962.7971 or visit www.uncw.edu/arts.

ABOUT THE LEADERSHIP LECTURE SERIES

The Leadership Lecture Series invites nationally and internationally-known speakers who enlighten, challenge, inspire and demonstrate that all people have the ability to lead if they have the desire to make a difference. Sponsored by UNCW Presents, the series serves as a forum for intellectual inquiry and discussion offering the campus and community opportunities to discuss and explore the political, cultural, and economic trends and issues that shape and affect our communities today. By inviting a speaker to the campus, the university does not endorse any particular position.

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Media Contact: Shannon Hooker

910.962.7600 or hookers@uncw.edu