Historian and best-selling author to speak here Thursday on 'Election 2008: How Will You Decide?'
Emmy-winning author, professor and historian Rick Shenkman will speak on "Election 2008: How Will You Decide" at 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 30, in the auditorium of O'Shaughnessy Educational Center on the St. Paul campus of the University of St. Thomas.
The lecture, free and open to the public, is sponsored by the University Lectures Committee at St. Thomas. For more information, contact Sandy Moran, the committee's chair.
Rick Shenkman
On the week before the Nov. 4 election, he will discuss how to know what to believe when trying to select the best candidate.
As noted on a Web site about the talk, "By the end of the presidential election you will know whether the candidates wear boxers or briefs, who they've slept with and the name of their dog or cat. You'll know if they ever smoked dope, dodged the draft or were stupid enough - like Gary Hart in 1988 - to allow their picture to be taken while sitting on the lap of a half-naked woman aboard a boat called the 'Monkey Business.'
"But how do you know what to believe? How do you figure out when you're being manipulated, lied to or misled by either the media, the candidates or both?"
Shenkman is editor and founder of George Mason University's History News Network, a Web site that features articles by historians on current events. An associate professor of history at George Mason, he is regularly seen on Fox News, CNN and MSNBC.
He is a New York Times best-selling author of six history books, including Legends, Lies & Cherished Myths of American History and Presidential Ambition: How Presidents Gained Power, Kept Power and Got Things Done. His latest book is Just How Stupid Are We? Facing the Truth about the American Voter (Basic Books, June 2008).
When his article, " 5 Myths About Those Civic-Minded, Deeply Informed Voters," appeared in the Sept. 7 Washington Post, it was that issue's second-most e-mailed story.
