Michael Beschloss | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Michael Richard Beschloss November 30, 1955 Chicago, Illinois, U.S. |
| Occupation | Historian |
| Education | Williams College (BA) Harvard University (MBA) |
| Subject | United States presidency |
| Spouse | Afsaneh Mashayekhi |
| Children | 2 |
Michael Richard Beschloss [1] (born November 30, 1955) [2] is an American historian specializing in the United States presidency. [3] [4] [5] He is the author of nine books on the presidency. [3]
Beschloss was born in Chicago, grew up in Flossmoor, Illinois which is south of Chicago, and was a student at Eaglebrook School in Deerfield, Massachusetts; Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts; Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts; and Harvard University. [6] He majored in political science, studying under James MacGregor Burns at Williams College [7] from which he graduated with Highest Honors, and earned a MBA at Harvard Business School, originally intending to write about history while he held a position as an executive at a foundation. [8]
Beschloss has been a frequent commentator on the PBS NewsHour and is a NBC News presidential historian. He is a trustee of the White House Historical Association and the National Archives Foundation. [9] He sits on the board of the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History and has been a trustee of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation (Monticello), the Urban Institute, the University of Virginia's Miller Center of Public Affairs [10] and the PEN/Faulkner Foundation.
He also sat on the advisory board to the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission and was a member of the President's Commission on White House Fellowships. He held appointments in history at the Smithsonian Institution, [11] as a senior associate member at St. Antony's College (University of Oxford), [11] a visiting scholar at the Harvard University Russian Research Center, [11] a Senior Fellow of the Annenberg Foundation, and a Montgomery Fellow and Dorsett Fellow at Dartmouth College. Since 2014, he has been chair of the annual Robert F. Kennedy Book Awards. He has appeared on The Daily Show in 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2010. He was portrayed by Chris Kattan on NBC's Saturday Night Live on February 14, 1998. [12]
Beschloss has had a X account, @BeschlossDC, since October 2012. [13] [3] Time included his account in their "Best Twitter Feeds of 2013". [14] He has contributed columns on history with the title HistorySource to The New York Times . [15] He is also the editor of Washington by Meg Greenfield (2001) and Essays in Honor of James MacGregor Burns (with Thomas Cronin) in 1988.
Beschloss received a 2005 News and Documentary Emmy Award for being the host of Discovery Channel's Decisions That Shook the World, the category was "Outstanding Individual Achievement in a Craft: Research". He has received the Williams College Bicentennial Medal, [16] Illinois' Order of Lincoln (the state's highest honor), the Harry S. Truman Public Service Award, the Ambassador Book Award, the Rutgers University Living History Award, the New York State Archives History Award, the Founders Award of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, and the Phillips Academy Andover Alumni Award of Distinction. He has received honorary doctorates from Lafayette College, Williams College, St. Mary's College of Maryland, Saint Peter's College, Governors State University and Allegheny College. [10]
Beschloss was inducted as a Laureate of The Lincoln Academy of Illinois and awarded the Order of Lincoln (the state's highest honor) by the governor in 2004 in the area of Communications and Education. [17] In October 2022, Beschloss received the National Archives' annual Records of Achievement Award. In 2019, he received The Lincoln Forum's Richard Nelson Current Award of Achievement. [18]
Beschloss is the son of Ruth and Morris Beschloss, who was a Jewish refugee from Nazi Germany. He has two sons with his Iranian-born wife Afsaneh Mashayekhi Beschloss. [11] [9] Afsaneh is president and CEO of the Rock Creek Group, a Washington D.C. investment firm. They are advisory board members of Resources for Inner City Children. [19] Beschloss' brother Steven is also a writer and journalist.
Co-authored Books
Edited Books
Edited transcriptions of Lyndon B. Johnson's conversations, as captured by his taping system, with historical annotation and commentary. A third Johnson volume is forthcoming.
President Bill Clinton told People in December 1997 that the first audiobook he ever listened to was Taking Charge by Michael Beschloss. [20] In Bob Woodward's Plan of Attack , President George W. Bush is quoted as telling the author Elie Wiesel in February 2003, "I read your views on Auschwitz in Michael Beschloss' book", referring to The Conquerors. [21] Bush refers to Beschloss' book Presidential Courage in his 2010 memoir Decision Points . [22]
John Frankenheimer's last film, Path to War (HBO, 2002), starring Donald Sutherland and Michael Gambon, was based in part on Beschloss' two books about Lyndon B. Johnson.
Lyndon Baines Johnson, often referred to as LBJ, was the 36th president of the United States, serving from 1963 to 1969. He became president after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, under whom he had served as the 37th vice president from 1961 to 1963. A Democrat from Texas, Johnson previously served as a U.S. representative and U.S. senator.
Bill Moyers is an American journalist and political commentator. Under the Johnson administration he served from 1965 to 1967 as the eleventh White House Press Secretary. He was a director of the Council on Foreign Relations, from 1967 to 1974. He also worked as a network TV news commentator for ten years. Moyers has been extensively involved with public broadcasting, producing documentaries and news journal programs, and has won many awards and honorary degrees for his investigative journalism and civic activities. He has become well known as a trenchant critic of the corporately structured U.S. news media.
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James MacGregor Burns was an American historian and political scientist, presidential biographer, and authority on leadership studies. He was the Woodrow Wilson Professor of Government Emeritus at Williams College and Distinguished Leadership Scholar at the James MacGregor Burns Academy of Leadership of the School of Public Policy at the University of Maryland, College Park. In 1971 Burns received the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award in History and Biography for his work on America's 32nd president, Roosevelt: The Soldier of Freedom.
Afsaneh Mashayekhi Beschloss is an American economist and entrepreneur. She is the CEO of RockCreek, an investment firm that she founded in 2003. Since the firm's inception, it has invested over $15 billion in woman-owned and minority-owned firms.
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