JON MEACHAM

From FDR and Churchill to Bush and Blair: The Changing Face of Leadership

Tuesday, April 6 at 7:30pm · Mountainlair Ballroom

At the age of 29 Jon Meacham became the managing editor of Newsweek and was named "one of the most influential editors in the news magazine business" by The New York Times. In 2001 Newsweek won the National Magazine Award for Excellence—the industry's highest honor—for its coverage of the attacks of September 11 and the aftermath.

Now 34, Meacham is also the bestselling author of Franklin and Winston: An Intimate Portrait of an Epic Friendship, an exploration of the fascinating relationship between the two great leaders who led the free world to victory in World War II. The book has received national acclaim and has been called "masterful" by Time magazine and "an eloquent, well-researched account of one of the twentieth century's most vital friendships" by Publishers Weekly.

In addition to directing Newsweek's coverage of politics, international affairs, and breaking news, Meacham has also written cover stories on guns in America, race in the new millennium, the theological implications of sexual abuse scandals in the Catholic Church, the fall of Senate leader Trent Lott, and modern depictions of World War II in Hollywood movies.

Meacham began his journalism career as an intern at the Chattanooga Times and then graduated cum laude with an English degree from the University of the South. In 1993 he became the editor of The Washington Monthly and eventually moved to New York to begin his career with Newsweek.

In 2001, he edited Voices in Our Blood: America's Best on the Civil Rights Movement, a collection of distinguished nonfiction about the midcentury struggle against Jim Crow. Tom Wicker of Mother Jones wrote: "Jon Meacham ... has done about the best job of anthologizing the movement that I've seen."

As a contributing editor to Smithsonian and The New York Times Book Review, and as a member of such organizations as the University of the South's Board of Regents, the Council on Foreign Relations, and the World Economic Forum, Meacham has been a featured guest on such news programs as Larry King Live, the Charlie Rose Show, the Today Show, MSNBC, and CNN.