For Immediate Release						April 3, 1996
 
Historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr. Examines Threats to National Unity in Lawrence
University Convocation
 
 
	APPLETON, WIS. - Two-time Pulitzer Prize winning author and renown
American historian Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. will discuss the devisive ethnic,
racial and religious forces threatening the United States as well as other
nations around the world and how to offset increasing national fragmentation
Tuesday, April 16 in a Lawrence University convocation.   
	Schlesinger's address, "The Politics of Identity:  Will It Shape the
Future?" at 11:10 a.m. in the Lawrence Memorial Chapel, is free and open to the
public.  He also will participate in a question-and-answer session at 2 p.m. in
Riverview Lounge in the Memorial Union.  Schlesinger's appearance is in
conjunction with Lawrence's 1995-96 convocation series, "The Ideas That Shape
Our Time, The People Who Shape Our Ideas." 
	Known for his ability to connect social and cultural influences to
historical events, Schlesinger has been described as the "vital center" of the
intellectual positions of liberalism.  He has written more than a dozen books,
earning among his many honors, two Pulitzer Prizes and two National Book
Awards.  
	Schlesinger, 78, was awarded his first Pulitzer Prize in history in 1946
for "The Age of Jackson," in which he challenged the accepted interpretation of
Jacksonian democracy as a frontier phenomenon.  In 1966, his controversial
memoir, "A Thousand Days:  John F. Kennedy in the White House," was awarded the
Pulitzer Prize in biography. 
	In addition to literary acclaim, Schlesinger earned praise from fellow
historians for his multivolume book, "The Age of Roosevelt," an on-going work he
began in the mid-1950s.  During the Reagan presidency, he wrote "The Cycles of
American History," which dealt with the cyclical rise and fall of liberal and
conservative leadership in America.  His most recent work, "The Disuniting of
America," published in 1991, took a harsh view of the current emphasis on
minority groups and multiculturalism, which Schlesinger sees as a threat to
individual rights and liberties in the United States.
	The son of distinguished American historian Arthur M. Schlesinger, the
younger Schlesinger has split his career between academics and politics.  He
spent 16 years (1946-62) on the faculty of Harvard University teaching history
before serving as a special assistant in the administrations of both Presidents
Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson.  In 1966, he returned to teaching at City University
of New York where today he is a professor emeritus of the humanities.
	Born in Columbus, Ohio, Schlesinger earned his bachelor's degree summa
cum laude from Harvard University in 1938.  
  



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