Celebrated author David McCullough and Mortimer Zuckerman of U.S. News and World Report will present next two University Lectures at Syracuse University

Celebrated author David McCullough and Mortimer Zuckerman of U.S. News and World Report will present next two University Lectures at Syracuse UniversityFebruary 13, 2002Judy Holmesjlholmes@syr.edu

Author and historian David McCullough and Mortimer B. Zuckerman, publisher of U.S. News and World Report and the New York Daily News, will make separate presentations as part of the Spring 2002 University Lectures at Syracuse University. Both lectures are free and open to the public.

McCullough, whose biography “John Adams” (Simon and Schuster, 2001) was number one on the New York Times Best Sellers list, will present “First Principles” at 7:30 p.m. March 5 in the College of Law’s Grant Auditorium. The lecture will focus on the changes accelerating all around as a result of September 11 and the need for greater understanding and appreciation of those principles upon which the Republic was founded.

Zuckerman’s presentation will be at 2 p.m. March 6 in Room A-1 of the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. Zuckerman’s appearance at SU is co-sponsored by the Newhouse School.

McCullough has been called the “master of the art of narrative history.” His books are critically acclaimed for their narrative sweep, scholarship, literary distinction and insight into American life. A gifted speaker, McCullough has lectured all across the United States and abroad. He has been a guest at the White House as part of the White House Presidential Lecture Series and is one of the few private citizens to speak before a joint session of Congress.

McCullough has been an editor, essayist, teacher, lecturer and familiar presence on public television as host of “Smithsonian World” and “The American Experience,” and as narrator of numerous documentaries, including “The Civil War” and “Napoleon.”

McCullough has twice won both the National Book Award and the prestigious Francis Parkman Prize, and he received a Pulitzer Prize for “Truman” (Simon and Schuster, 1992). He is the recipient of the National Book Foundation Distinguished Contribution to American Letters Award, the National Humanities Medal, the St. Louis Literary Award, the Carl Sandburg Award and the New York Public Library’s Literary Lion Award.

In addition to “John Adams” and “Truman,” McCullough’s books include “The Johnstown Flood” (Smith Peter, 1990) “The Great Bridge” (Simon and Schuster, 2001) and “Mornings on Horseback” (Simon and Schuster, 1994) among others.

In addition to his role as publisher, Zuckerman is the editor in chief of U.S. News and World Report and the founder of Boston Properties Inc.

Zuckerman is a graduate of McGill University, McGill Law School, the Wharton Graduate School of Business and Harvard Law School, and he has received honorary degrees from a number of universities. He is also the recipient of the Commandeur De L’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, awarded by the French government.

Zuckerman is a trustee of Memorial Sloan-Kettering and New York Univeristy; he serves on the advisory board of the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California, Berkeley, and is on the boards of the Chase Manhattan Corporation National Advisory Board, the Washington Institute for Near East Studies and Applied Graphics Technologies, Loews Cineplex and the Center for Communications.

Zuckerman is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the International Institute of Strategic Studies. He currently serves as chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations. He is a former faculty member of the Harvard Graduate School of Design, a former lecturer at Yale University and a past president of the board of trustees of the Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston.

The University Lectures is a cross-disciplinary lecture series that brings to the University individuals of exceptional accomplishment in the areas of architecture and design; the humanities and the sciences; and public policy, management and communications. The lecture series is supported through a generous contribution by SU Trustee Robert B. Menschel ’51 and is consistent with initiatives in the University’s Academic Plan directed at expanding multidisciplinary discourse for students.