Douglas Brinkley

Early life

Brinkley was born in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1960, but after his father was transferred to the Toledo, Ohio headquarters of Owens-Illinois in 1969, did his remaining elementary and secondary schooling in Perrysburg, Ohio. His mother was a high school English teacher. In fourth grade Doug memorized the Presidents, their vice presidents, as well as the opposing presidential and vice presidential candidates.

Education

Brinkley was educated at Perrysburg High School, followed by Ohio State University, from which he earned a B.A. (1982), and Georgetown University, earning an M.A. (1983) and Ph.D. (1989) in U.S. diplomatic history. He has been on the faculty of Hofstra University, the University of New Orleans, Tulane University, and Rice University.

He received an honorary doctorate for his contributions to American letters from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut.

Life and career

During his time in Georgetown, Brinkley worked as the night manager at Second Story Books in DC. During the early 1990s, Brinkley taught American Arts and Politics for Hofstra aboard the Majic Bus, a roving transcontinental classroom, from which emerged the book The Majic Bus: An American Odyssey (1993). In 1993, he left Hofstra to teach at the University of New Orleans, where he taught the class again using two natural-gas fueled buses. According to the Associated Press, "...if you can't tour the United States yourself, the next best thing is to go along with Douglas Brinkley aboard The Majic Bus."

Brinkley worked closely with his mentor, historian Stephen E. Ambrose, then director of the Eisenhower Center for American Studies at the University of New Orleans. Ambrose chose Brinkley to become director of the Eisenhower Center, a post he held for five years before moving to Tulane University.

Brinkley's first book was Jean Monnet: The Path to European Unity (1992). His second was Dean Acheson: The Cold War Years (1992). He then co-edited a monograph series with Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. and William vanden Heuvel in the 1990s. Brinkley also edited a volume on Dean Acheson and the Making of US Foreign Policy with Paul H. Nitze (1993). In 1999, he published The Unfinished Presidency about Jimmy Carter's active and influential post-presidency.

Brinkley is the literary executor for his late friend, the journalist and author Hunter S. Thompson. He is also the editor of a three-volume collection of Thompson's letters. Brinkley is also the authorized biographer for Beat generation author Jack Kerouac, having edited Kerouac's diaries as Windblown World (2004).

In 2004, Brinkley released Tour of Duty: John Kerry and the Vietnam War, about U.S. Senator John Kerry's prior military service and anti-war activism during the Vietnam War. The 2004 documentary movie Going Upriver: The Long War of John Kerry is loosely based on Brinkley's book.{{cite web|url=http://www.goingupriver.com/synopsis.html |title=Going Upriver: Synopsis |access-date=14 Feb 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041001095639/http://www.goingupriver.com/synopsis.html |archive-date=1 October 2004}} Brinkley also wrote the Atlantic Monthly cover story of December 2003 on Kerry.

Brinkley's book The Great Deluge: Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans, and the Mississippi Gulf Coast is a record of the effects of Hurricane Katrina on the Gulf Coast. The book won the 2007 Robert F. Kennedy Book Award and was a Los Angeles Times Book Prize finalist. He also served as the primary historian for Spike Lee's documentary about Hurricane Katrina, When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts. Critic Nancy Franklin in The New Yorker noted that Brinkley made up a "large part" of the film's "conscience."

Brinkley's biography of Walter Cronkite, Cronkite was published in 2012. It was also selected as a Washington Post Book of the Year.

Brinkley and Johnny Depp were nominated for a Grammy for their co-authoring of the liner notes to the documentary: Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson. He also co-edited with Johnny Depp the long lost novel of Woody Guthrie titled House of Earth.

Congressional hearing

On November 18, 2011, during his testimony before a Congressional hearing on drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Brinkley had a heated exchange with Rep. Don Young. Young, who had not been present during Brinkley's testimony, nonetheless characterized it as "garbage" and addressed Brinkley as "Dr. Rice." In response, Brinkley stated, "It's Dr. Brinkley. Rice is a university. I know you went to Yuba College and couldn't graduate." (In fact, Young had graduated from Yuba Community College with an associate's degree, and later received a bachelor's degree from Chico State.) Brinkley also noted that Young's comments were made even though Young had not been present during his testimony.{{cite news |access-date=November 19, 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120601173253/http://newsminer.com/pages/full_story/push?blog-entry-Historian+gets+into+it+with+Don+Young+during+Congressional+hearing%20&id=16495266&instance=blogs_editors_desk |archive-date=June 1, 2012

Critical reception

Stephen Ambrose called Brinkley "the best of the new generation of American historians." Brinkley and Ambrose had co-authored three books. Patrick Reardon of the Chicago Tribune called Brinkley America's "new past master." In addition, during the 2013 inauguration coverage, CNN referred to him as "a man who knows more about the presidency than just about any human being alive." In contrast, in 2006, historian Wilfred McClay in the New York Sun appraised Brinkley's scholarship as one that has failed to "put forward a single memorable idea, a single original analysis, or a single lapidary phrase." Similarly, author Bill Bryson characterized Brinkley as "a minor American academic and sometime critic whose powers of observation and generosity of spirit would fit comfortably into a proton and still leave room for an echo".

Garrett Graff wrote that Brinkley's books on the Second World War, The Boys of Pointe du Hoc; Voices of Valor and The World War Two Memorial, "changed forever how history will view the sacrifices of both the living and dead of World War Two.”

Awards and honors

• In the spring of 2024, Brinkley was a fellow at the USC Center for the Political Future.
• In 2023, Brinkley won a Grammy Award for Fandango At The Wall In New York by Arturo O'Farrill and the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra, featuring the Congra Patria Son Jarocho Collective (Grammy Award for Best Latin Jazz Album).
• In 2022, Brinkley was nominated for two Grammy Award categories; for co-producing two projects: Black Men Are Precious by Ethelbert Miller (Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Poetry Album), and Fandango At The Wall In New York by Arturo O’Farrill and the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra, featuring the Congra Patria Son Jarocho Collective (Grammy Award for Best Latin Jazz Album).
• On April 25, 2022, Brinkley received the Frank and Bethine Church Award for Public Service from the Frank Church Institute of Boise State University.
• In the summer of 2021 Brinkley was named the inaugural historian in residence at the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library.
• In 2021, the Garden Club of America awarded Brinkley the Frances K. Hutchinson Medal for his distinguished service to conservation efforts.
• In 2020, Brinkley won an Audie Award for his book American Moonshot, in the History/Biography category.
• In 2020, Brinkley's book American Moonshot: John F. Kennedy and the Great Space Race was given the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction (Longlist).
• in 2018 Brinkley was awarded an honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters from St Edwards University.
• In 2017, Brinkley was named Presidential Historian for New York Historical Society, helping to advance and articulate the mission, goals, and activities of the Historical Society's Presidency Project.
• In 2017, Brinkley won a Grammy Award Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album for co-producing Presidential Suite: Eight Variations on Freedom by the Ted Nash Big Band.
• In 2016 the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service awarded him their Heritage Award.
• In 2015 he was awarded the Robin W. Winks Award for Enhancing Public Understanding of National Parks by the National Parks Conservation Association.
• Cronkite (2012), a biography of Walter Cronkite, received the Ann M. Sperber Prize for 2013.
• In 2009, Brinkley wrote the official inaugural book Barack Obama; The Official Inaugural Book with Tom Brokaw and U.S. Representative John Lewis and is an advisory board member for the Obama Presidency Oral History Project at Columbia University.
• Wilderness Warrior: Theodore Roosevelt and the Crusade for America (2009) received the National Outdoor Book Award in the History/Biography category 2009.
• Driven Patriot (1992), a biography of James Forrestal, received the Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt Naval History Prize.
• Brinkley received an honorary doctorate from Hofstra University at commencement in May 2012.
• In 2004, Brinkley was given the Humanist of the Year award by the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities.
• In 1995 he was awarded the Stuart L. Bernath Lecture Prize from the Society of Historians of American Foreign Relations (Ceremony: Chicago, Illinois, April 1996).

Personal life

Brinkley lives in Austin, Texas with his wife Anne and three children, Johnny, Benton, and Cassady. He is a member of the Century Association, the Council on Foreign Relations and Society of American Historians.

Works

References

References

1. "Douglas Brinkley | Department of History | Rice University".
2. "Brinkley's page @ HarperCollins Publishers".
3. Franz Brotzen. (17 May 2007). "Author, historian Douglas Brinkley to join Rice faculty".
4. "National Archives Foundation board of directors".
5. Tahree Lane. (7 March 2009). "Historian Douglas Brinkley will speak at the Stranahan Theater". ToledoBlade.com.
6. [http://www.thegreatdeluge.net/Douglas_Brinkley_Bio.php Biography of Douglas Brinkley at the site for The Great Deluge (2006)] {{webarchive. link. (November 16, 2007)
7. Douglas Brinkley. (14 September 2017). "After the Hurricane Winds Die Down, Larry McMurtry's Houston Trilogy Lives On". The New York Times.
8. Joy Stilley. (23 May 1993). "Trip results in more than travel book". Bowling Green Daily News.
9. Joy Stilley. (23 May 1993). "Trip results in more than travel book". Bowling Green Daily News.
10. Douglas Brinkley. (December 2003). "Tour Of Duty".
11. Nancy Franklin, [http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/television/2010/08/30/100830crte_television_franklin "Unnatural Disasters,"] ''The New Yorker'', vol. 86, no. 25 (August 30, 2010), pp. 82-83.
12. (July 6, 2012). "And That's the Way It Was". The New York Times.
13. (16 October 2012). "Johnny Depp Launches His Own Book Imprint".
14. (January 26, 2013). "Suzanne Vega on House of Earth by Woody Guthrie".
15. "Jobs and Drilling in Arctic National Wildlife Refuge". [[National Cable Satellite Corporation]].
16. [http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/brinkley.html Brinkley @ New York State ''Writers'' Institute - University at Albany, SUNY - Albany.edu] {{webarchive. link. (June 20, 2006)
17. [http://history.rice.edu/uploadedFiles/Faculty/Bios/brinkley-cv.pdf Douglas Brinkley curriculum vita] {{webarchive. link. (March 19, 2013)
18. [https://www.chicagotribune.com/2001/09/27/the-new-past-master/ Patrick T. Reardon, "The New Past Master," ''Chicago Tribune'', September 27, 2001]
19. [http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1301/20/pmt.01.html CNN "Piers Morgan", January 20, 2013]
20. Wilfred M. McClay, "[http://www.nysun.com/arts/flood-of-words-on-katrina/32704/ A Flood of Words on Katrina]," ''The New York Sun'', May 15, 2006, accessed June 25, 2012.
21. (8 October 2015). "The Road to Little Dribbling: More Notes from a Small Island". Doubleday.
22. (2024-06-04). "Opinion {{!}} Why We Must Keep the Memory of D-Day Alive".
23. (February 2024). "USC Center for the Political Future Fellow".
24. (February 6, 2023). "Rice Owls win big at Grammy Awards".
25. (November 21, 2022). "Douglas Brinkley nominated for two Grammys".
26. (April 25, 2022). "Presidential Historian Douglas Brinkley".
27. DURA, JACK. (2021-05-05). "Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library names 'inaugural historian in residence'".
28. (March 9, 2021). "Medalists: The Garden Club of America".
29. "Audio Pub".
30. (November 19, 2020). "Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction 2020".
31. (May 9, 2018). "Douglas Brinkley will be 2018 Commencement Speaker".
32. (September 25, 2017). "New York Historical Names Douglas Brinkley Its Presidential Historian".
33. (February 13, 2017). "Historian Brinkley wins Grammy".
34. "USFWS/NCTC - History and Heritage".
35. "Douglas Brinkley Official Website".
36. (November 20, 2013). "Douglas Brinkley Wins the Sperber Award for "Cronkite"".
37. "Douglas Brinkley board member profile". ‘”Columbia University”.
38. "Winners of the 2009 National Outdoor Book Awards". ‘”National Outdoor Book Awards”.
39. (May 11, 2012). "Hofstra University Announces 2012 Spring Commencement Activities and Speakers Sunday, May 20".
40. (February 20, 2017). "LEH Humanities Award Recipients, 1985–2015".
41. (February 20, 2017). "The Stuart L. Berth Lecture Prize".