For Immediate Release
January 24, 2008
Media Contact:
Emily Coleman Dibella (703) 799-8607
edibella@mountvernon.org
Mount Vernon, VA – The Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association has named award-winning author Harlow Giles Unger as the Gay Hart Gaines Distinguished Visiting Fellow of American History for 2008. Mr. Unger’s 15 books include the acclaimed biographies Lafayette and The Unexpected George Washington: His Private Life. Mr. Unger will deliver three talks at Mount Vernon on June 17, September 16, and November 18. His lectures on “The Hidden Genius of George Washington” will reveal America’s First President as one of the towering 18th-century intellects, statesmen, and visionaries.
“We are so pleased to have Harlow Unger as our Gay Hart Gaines Visiting Fellow of American History,” said Mrs. Shepard Ansley, Regent of the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association. “His talent for delving into little-known aspects of the personalities and character of historical figures make him an incredibly compelling speaker and scholar.” The Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association is a nonprofit organization that owns and operates Washington’s home.
A veteran journalist, educator, and historian, Mr. Unger was dubbed “America’s most readable historian” by Florence King of the National Review. His most recent book, America’s Second Revolution: How George Washington Defeated Patrick Henry and Saved the Nation, describes the struggle among the Founding Fathers over how to govern themselves and their countrymen following independence from Britain.
“The Gay Hart Gaines lectures will be an opportunity to further the work of the Regent, Vice Regents, scholars, and staff at Mount Vernon in expanding the range of knowledge about our great first president,” Mr. Unger commented. “George Washington did far more than lead America’s Revolutionary War. He was also the father of our Constitution and architect of our system of government, which revolutionized the world by entrusting citizens with rights never before granted to ordinary people in the annals of man.”
Mr. Unger is a graduate of Yale University and holds a Master of Arts degree from California State University. He began his career with the New York Herald Tribune Overseas News Service in Paris, before becoming a foreign correspondent and American affairs analyst for The Times, The Sunday Times (London), and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. A former adjunct associate professor of English and journalism at two New York-area colleges, he is the author of many books on American education, including the award-winning, three-volume Encyclopedia of American Education, a standard reference work in academic and reference libraries.
The Gay Hart Gaines Distinguished Visiting Fellow of American History was created in 2005 in honor of the Regent of the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association, through the generous sponsorship of Lewis Lehrman. Northwestern University Distinguished Professor of History William H. Fowler, Jr., served as the first Gay Hart Gaines fellow in 2006, followed by Yale University Professor of History Joanne B. Freeman in 2007.
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Public Information: 703-780-2000; 703-799-8697 (TDD); www.mountvernon.org
Since 1860, over 80 million visitors have made George Washington’s Mount Vernon Estate & Gardens the most popular historic home in America. Through thought-provoking tours, entertaining events, and stimulating educational programs on the Estate and in classrooms across the nation, Mount Vernon strives to preserve George Washington’s place in history as “First in War, First in Peace, and First in the Hearts of His Countrymen.” Mount Vernon is owned and operated by the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association, America’s oldest national preservation organization, founded in 1853. A picturesque drive to the southern end of the scenic George Washington Memorial Parkway, Mount Vernon is located just 16 miles from the nation’s capital.
