One of the nation's preeminent historians, Douglas Brinkley, will be in Kansas City on Thursday for a conversation with David Rubenstein at the Truman Library Institute's Wild About Harry annual gala.
Brinkley has written a number of books on American history, including books on the space race, Rosa Parks, Theodore Roosevelt and much more.
Ahead of his visit to Kansas City for Thursday's gala, he discussed several presidents throughout American history with KCUR's Up To Date. But he made sure to add that Harry Truman is among his favorites.
"We owe a lot to Truman," Brinkley told KCUR's Up To Date. "We live in Truman's world right now, and the things that he did, like creating the CIA, the NSC, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the whole idea of the Pentagon and the Air Force department and the courage he had to do an executive order to desegregate the army. It goes on and on, we'll have an interesting evening talking about it all."
- Douglas Brinkley, historian and author
Wild About Harry Annual Gala, 7 p.m., Thursday, April 23 at Muehlebach Tower, Marriot Downtown 200 West 12th Street, Kansas City, MO 64105.
