One Year Down ... Next?

How successful has President Biden's first year been, compared to other embattled presidents?

Join the Harvard Club of Merrimack Valley for an hour of education, enlightenment and enrichment as Professor Ted Widmer, a professor, historian, writer, librarian, speech writer, Harvard Lampoon editor and musician discusses the successes and failures of the Biden Administration one year after the inauguration.

This event is free, but please register for zoom access: https://harvard.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJ0sdeGqqjosG9MgiIFYm-ac8QPEGi261mSO

DATE 27 January 2022 

TIME 5:00 - 6:00 PM

SPEAKER Professor Edward “Ted” Widmer

TOPIC Biden at Year Two: A historical assessment About the Topic

As we mark the one-year anniversary of President Joe Biden's inaugural, the country remains bitterly divided. While there have been many landmark acts of legislation and executive action, Republicans and Democrats have generally disagreed on every conceivable point, and the mid-term elections of 2022 promise to be bruising. How successful has President Biden's first year been, compared to other embattled presidents? Is it too early to provide a historical assessment of a presidency that is still defining itself?

About the Speaker Professor Edward (Ted) Ladd Widmer is a historian, writer, librarian, and musician who served as a speechwriter in theClinton White House. His latest book is Lincoln on the Verge: Thirteen Days to Washington. Prof. Widmer obtained an A.B. in the history and literature of France and the United States, an A.M. in history, and a Ph.D. in the history of American civilization from Harvard University. At Harvard, he was an editor at the Harvard Lampoon. Widmer was appointed lecturer on history and literature at Harvard University from 1993 until 1997. From 1997 to 2001, he worked in the White House as a special assistant to President Bill Clinton, foreign policy speech writer and Senior Advisor for Special Projects, which involved advising on history and scholarship related issues. In 2006 he was appointed Director and Librarian of the John Carter Brown Library at Brown University, where he led efforts to digitize the library’s holdings, and raised funds to save Haitian libraries in the wake of the 2010 earthquake. From 2012 to 2013, Widmer was a senior advisor to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Between 2010 and 2015, he helped to create and often contributed to The New York Times Disunion, a digital history of the Civil War. In October 2016, Widmer was appointed Director of the Kluge Center at the Library of Congress.

Questions? Contact Stuart Peskoe (sepeskoe@gmail.com), or text to 508-353-2510