Experts in the News | Miller Center

David Brooks: The moral ecology of American democracy

Welcome to the 2nd annual James C. Lehrer Lecture—named in honor of the late Jim Lehrer, PBS NewsHour co-founder and former anchor, and one of America’s leading journalists who reported on every presidency from John F. Kennedy to Barack Obama. Lehrer was also a longtime member of the Miller Center's board. New York Times op-ed columnist and PBS NewsHour commentator David Brooks joins Miller Center Director and CEO William Antholis to discuss Lehrer’s legacy of journalistic integrity, Lehrer's creation of a “moral ecology” at PBS NewsHour, and Brooks’s views on the state of the moral and social foundations of American democracy.

William Antholis

Reflections on a recent trip to Beijing

This is a brief reflection on my experience in Beijing from February 17 to April 20, 2023, followed by two days in Taipei on my way home. I was hired by Schwarzman College as the Boeing Visiting Faculty Chair in International Relations to teach a seminar and to give additional lectures, and I used the opportunity to get in touch with many of my friends in Beijing and beyond. Schwarzman College is an autonomous unit of Tsinghua University (one of China’s top two universities), with an international student body engaged in a one-year master’s program in global affairs. My seminar was titled “Recentering Pacific Asia: Regional China and World Order.” Not coincidentally, this is also the title of my forthcoming book (Cambridge University Press).

Brantly Womack

Illumination Spring 2023

The Health Problems JFK Hid From the Public

“He was always careful to get a suntan, either with a sunlamp or sunshine,” notes Historian Barbara A. Perry, director of Presidential Studies at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center, and an author of numerous books, including a biography of JFK’s mother Rose Kennedy.

Barbara Perry

Pamela Turnure Timmons, Press Secretary to Jackie Kennedy, Dies at 85

“As modern communications took off, there was a need for the first lady to have a media presence,” said Barbara A. Perry, a Jacqueline Kennedy biographer and presidential scholar at the University of Virginia.

Barbara A. Perry

Abortion and the GOP primary

And presidential historians have pointed out that humor can be an effective tool for presidents whose age is a matter of concern for voters. “Reagan neutralized the problem by making fun of it,” said Russell Riley, a presidential historian at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center.

Russell Riley