Schlesinger: the Imperial Historian—Richard Aldous with Frances FitzGerald

Richard Aldous discusses the first major biography of preeminent historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr., which he wrote making extensive use of the Schlesinger papers at the New York Public Library. He speaks with Pulitzer Prize– and National Book Award–winning journalist Frances FitzGerald.

The work of two-time Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award winner Arthur Schlesinger Jr. shaped decades of discussion about America’s past and redefined the art of presidential biography. Best known today as the architect of JFK’s presidential legacy—and the myth of Camelot—Schlesinger chronicled the administrations of Andrew Jackson and FDR, worked on the campaigns of John F. and Robert Kennedy, and served in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations.

Richard Aldous’s Schlesinger: the Imperial Historian is the first major biography of one of America’s great political image-makers. It draws on oral histories, rare archival documents, and Schlesinger’s own papers, which are stored in the New York Public Library—the historian requested this be their final resting place, and the Library announced their acquisition in 2007, shortly after Schlesinger’s death. Aldous will be joined by Frances FitzGerald, whose first book Fire in the Lake, won both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, and whose most recent book, The Evangelicals, was longlisted for the National Book Award.

The Schlesinger papers comprise correspondence, journals, writings, research material, office files and personal records. They provide insight into Schlesinger’s philosophical, political, and historical thinking, while offering a glimpse of his daily activities. They attest to his vocation as a popular and academic historian, as well as his life as a political activist and advisor.

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