July 1, 2003

An intensive two-week professional development program for eighteen secondary teachers of American History will be held at the Eisenhower Library in Abilene, continuing in the summers of   2004 and 2005.  Several programs will be open to the public.

Congress appropriated over 99 millon dollars for the Teaching American History Grant program, administered by the U. S. Department of Education.The Eisenhower Library is a partner in the grant given to the Chanute, Kansas, School District.  Only local educators and agencies may receive the grants.  Other participants include the Kansas State Historical Society, the Kansas Council for History Education, the Kansas Department of Education, and Emporia State University.   The teachers will utilize the historical holdings of the Eisenhower Library for primary research to introduce them to educational resources,  and will discuss improved teaching strategies for the history classroom. The Library arranged for the renowned historians and political scientists to present lectures to the teachers and to engage them in academic discussions.

Dr. Jack Holl, professor of History at Kansas State University who heads up the TASK summer institute commented, “The Institute is pleased that through its partnership with the Eisenhower Library we are not only able to foster the Eisenhower legacy, but also offer exciting and pertinent content on recent American history for classroom teathers.”

The two-week institute will include several events open to the public:

Wednesday, July 16
8:30 a.m. – Carlo D’Este – “Eisenhower: West Point to Supreme Allied Commander”
D’Este is a distinguished military historian, and author of books on Patton, Eisenhower, and World War II.
7:00 p.m. – 8:30 p.m. Sue Zschoche – “The 1950s”
Zschoche, chair of the department of history at Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS, specializes in the history of American women.

Thursday, July 17
8:30 a.m. – 9:45 a.m. Carold D’Este – “Eisenhower: The Supreme Allied Commander as Leader, Decision-maker, and Diplomat”

Friday, July 18
8:30 a.m. – 10 a.m. – “Eisenhower and Religion”  and 10:15 a.m. to 11:15 a.m., “Eisenhower and His Paintings” Jack Holl
Holl has been on the faculty at Kansas State University since January 1989, and is Director of the Summer Institute.

Monday, July 21
8:30 a.m. – 10 a.m. – William Pickett – “Protecting a Way of Life: Ike’s Transcendent Duty”
Pickett is a professor of history at Rose-Hulman Insttitute of Technology, Terre Haute, Indiana.  He is author of Dwight D. Eisenhower and American Power  and Eisenhower Decides to Run: Presidential Poltics and Cold War Strategy.
l p.m. – 3 p.m. – Fred Greenstein – “Eisenhower and His Times”
Greenstein is Professor Emeritus of Political Science and Director of the Research Program in Leadership Studies at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University.  He is the author of The Hidden-Hand Presidency: Eisenhower as Leader.”

Tuesday, July 22
8:30 a.m. – 10 a.m. – Fred Greenstein – “Using the Archives to Better Understand Eisenhower”
1 p.m. – 3 p.m. – H. W. Brands – “Ike at Home”
Brands is a history professor at Texas A&M and has authored seventeen books, edited four others, and published dozens of articles and reviews.
3:30 p.m. – 5 p.m. – Panel: William Pickett, Fred Greenstein, H.W. Brands – “Eisenhower and His Times”

Wednesday, July 23
8:30 a.m. – 10 a.m. – H.W. Brands – “Ike and the Cold War”
7 p.m.-8:30 p.m. – Charles Sanders – “Eisenhower and the Little Rock Desegregation Crisis.”
Sanders has been an assistant professor in the History Deparment at Kansas State University since the fall of 2001, and earned his Ph.D. in history from Kansas State University that same year.

There is no charge for the public to attend any of these sessions. For reservations or more information, please call the Library at 785-263-4751 or 877- RING IKE.