Date: Oct, 4, 2010
Contact: Carol Connelly, Director, Media & Communication Services, ext. 5267, cconnelly@pnc.edu

OCTOBER SINAI FORUM FEATURES ROBERT SCHMUHL

The 57th season of the Purdue University North Central Sinai Forum will feature noted presidential historian Robert Schmuhl, on Oct. 24 at 3 p.m. at Elston Middle School .

Schmuhl will speak to “American Politics at the Breaking Point.” With an eye on the 2010 mid-term elections, he will look at the contemporary political landscape – the partisanship, polarization and paralysis that produce what's been called the nation's “second civil war.” He will attempt to answer the question, “Why is there such anger and division within the body politic today and what can citizens do to reduce the nation's democratic discontent?”

His passion to become a presidential scholar was sparked when he attended the Sinai Forum as a St. Mary's School student (now Marquette High School) and heard the program presented by Max Lerner in 1970.

Schmuhl is the first occupant of the Walter H. Annenberg – Edmund P. Joyce Chair in American Studies and Journalism and director of the John W. Gallivan Program in Journalism, Ethics & Democracy at the University of Notre Dame. He earned his bachelor's degree from Notre Dame and his doctorate from Indiana University. He joined the Notre Dame faculty in 1980. He taught abroad in Australia, Ireland, South Africa and England.

He is the author or editor of eleven books, including “ Statecraft and Stagecraft: American Political Life in the Age of Personality” (1990 and 1992) and “Wounded Titans: American Presidents and the Perils of Power” (1996). His writing has appeared in the “Chicago Tribune, ” “ Philadelphia Inquire ,” “ USA TODAY ,” “Washington Post,” “Boston Globe,” “ Sports Illustrated” and “American Journalism Review.”

A book signing will follow Schmuhl's presentation.

Forum subscription tickets are $75 for regular tickets, $125 for donor tickets and $150 for patron tickets. Any student with a valid ID will be admitted free.

Subscription tickets may be purchased in person at the door. For more information visit the Forum's website at www.sinaiforum.org.