Tim Rives, Deputy Director, Eisenhower Presidential Library
Proposal Type
Panel
Seeking
- Seeking Additional Presenters
- General Feedback and Interest
Related Topics
- Civic Engagement
- Museums/Exhibits
- Memory
Abstract
The panel will discuss the “politics of the middle.” President Dwight D. Eisenhower is a representative figure. A middle child from Middle America, Eisenhower’s two terms straddled the middle years of the American Century. (His seventy-eight years of life also bridged the 19th and 20th centuries; he was born the year the frontier was declared closed and died the year American astronauts landed on the moon.) Eisenhower’s moderate “Middle Way” political philosophy, which eschewed extremes of Right and Left, is an instructive example from the age of Consensus in which he governed .
Seeking
The political middle has largely disappeared from national politics. The panel offers an opportunity to discuss not only President Eisenhower’s quintessential role as a man of the middle but other figures of the center, of any political persuasion. I seek additional panelists to discuss what these historical exemplars of the “middle” can offer our polarized national polity. Discussion topics could include: How have historians narrated and adjudged the middle? How have museums interpreted the political middle? What is the culture of the middle? Mass culture? Popular culture? Did America’s middle decades represent a distinct “middle” role in US history, or is this a meaningless periodization?
If you have a direct offer of assistance, sensitive criticism, or wish to share contact information for other people the proposer should reach out to, please get in contact directly: Tim Rives
If you have general ideas or feedback to share please feel free to use the comments feature below.
All feedback, and offers of assistance, should be submitted by July 3, 2016.