Speaker History

CRICHTON CLUB SPEAKERS - 1920-2010

SPEAKER: TOPIC

1920
John Drinkwater: Abraham Lincoln
Stephen Graham: The Genius of the Russian People
Hugh Walpole: Modern English Novelist
Nina Tarasova: Singing of Russian Folk Songs in Costume

1920-21
W. L. George: Love and Marriage
Herbert A. Gibbons: The Challenge to European Eminent Domain
G. K. Chesterton: The Ignorance of the Educated
Mr. and Mrs. Ongawa: Performance of Japanese Songs and Dances

1921-22
William Beebe: Pheasant Hunting in Borneo and India
Isaac Marcosson: The World in Transition
Margot Asquith: Reminiscences of Eminent Englishmen
Bruno Roselli: Dante: A Replica of the Typical Italian

1922-23
Emma C. Ponafidine: My Experiences in Soviet Russia
Basil Thomson: My Experiences at Scotland Yard
Olivia R. Agresti: Recent Developments in European History
Ruano Boglislav: Singing of Gypsy and Hungarian Songs

1923-24
Lord Birkenhead: Reminiscences of an English Statesman
Arthur Weigal: Tutankhamen, Recent Discovery in Egypt
Henry Fairfield Osborn: Social and Racial Progress in America
J. C. Faunthorpe: Jungle Life in India

1924-25
Catherine Karoly: Hungary Yesterday and Today
Performance: Von Flotow's Opera "L'Ombre"
Andre Morize: (Unavailable)
John Cowper Powys: (Unavailable)

1925-26
Alexander Wolcott: Behind the Scenes
Manley O. Hudson: The League of Nations in 1925
Timothy Smiddy: Ideals and Activities of the Irish Free State
Thomas F. Lee: Dons, Dictators and Duenas

1926-27
Richard E. Byrd: First Flight to North Pole
Phillip Guedalla: The Political and Industrial Situation in England
Samuel Arthur King and Readings accompanied by Piano
Horace Alwyne
Michael I. Pupin: Fifty Years Progress in Electrical Communication

1927-28
Bertrand Russell: European Chaos
William Beebe: Beneath Tropic Seas
Emil Ludwig: Bismarck and the German Republic
Sherwood Picking: Submarines and Their Operation

1928-29
Arthur Compton: What Things are Made Of
Angna Enters: Episodes: A Series of Pantomines
Cornelia Otis Skinner: Character Sketches
Thornton Wilder: The Bridge of San Luis Rey

1929-30
Grand Duke Alexander: Out of My Life
Ernest Dimnet: The Art of Thinking
Lowell Thomas: With Lawrence in Arabia and Allenby in Palestine

1930-31
Randolph Churchill: Can Youth Be Conservative?
Richard E. Byrd: The South Pole Expedition
George E. Russell (AE): Some Personalties of Modern Ireland
J. B. Priestley: An Englishman's View of Contemporary American Literature

1931-32
Rafael Sabatini: Fiction in History and History in Fiction
Oliver R. Baldwin: The Future of British Politics
Stuart Chase: The End of an Epoch?
Joseph Wood Krutch: The Modern Theatre

1932-33
Margit Bethlen: History in the Making and Personalties Who Made It
William Butler Yeats: The New Ireland
Victoria Sackville-West: Changes in English Social Life
Auguste Piccard: The World From Ten Miles Up

1933-34
Raymond Ditmars: Strange Animals I Have Known
R. D. Blumenfeld: The Destiny of America and Great Britain
Clemence Dane: Drama in Life and On the Stage
P.F.M. Fellowes: The Conquest of Everest

1934-35
Thomas Craven: Modern Art
Ernest Gruening: Democracy's Challenge to Fascism and Communism
Carl E. Guthe: The Greeks of the New World
Cyril A. Alington: The English Public Schools

1935-36
Asgeir Asgeirson: My Country (Iceland) and Its People
Paul Horgan: The Fault of Angels
Robert M. Hutchins: Education in Time of Crisis
Sarah Wambaugh: Europe, What Now?

1936-37
Andre Geraud: Can European Peace be Saved?
Gordon Enders: The Story of Tibet
Clifton Fadiman: Why Best Sellers Sell
E. M. Delafield: The Provincial Lady in Moscow

1937-38
Mai-Mai Sze: Modern Woman in China
Victor Heiser: More of an American Doctor's Odyssey
John Langdon-Davies: Behind the Spanish Barricades
Sinclair Lewis: It Has Happened Here

1938-39
Paul Van Zeeland: How Can International Disorganization Be Remedied?
Bhicoo Batlivala : Influence of the West on Ancient Indian Culture
John Gunther: Inside Europe Now
Andre Maurois: French Wit, English-American Humor

1939-40
Ernest A. Hooten: An Anthropologist Looks at the Belligerants
Alfred Duff Cooper:The Survival of Liberty
Erwin Edman: Fashions in Ideas
Hugh Gibson: An American Diplomat's Approach to Present European Problems

1940-41
H. R. Knickerbocker: At the Ringside of History
Margaret Webster: Shakespeare without Tears
William L. Shirer: German Today
Robert A. Millikan: Science and War

1941-42
Hugh R. Wilson: America's Role in the World Crisis
J. R. Ybarra: Friends and Foes in Latin America
Hallett Abend: How We Can Beat the Japanese
Margaret Bourke-White: Lenses Behind the News

1942-43
Walter Duranty: When East Meets West in Battle
Francis B. Sayre: The Road Forward
Hermann Rauschning: The Secret Aim of National Socialism
Cornelia Otis Skinner: Character Sketches

1943-44
Otto Tolischus: History in Action
Michael Karpovich: Russia and the Postwar World
Robert St. John: The Balkans, Powder Keg of Europe
Alexander Loudon: Some Postwar Problems

1944-45
Reinhold Niebuhr: The End of an Era
Maria Osmena: The Heart of the Philippines
Frank Lloyd Wright: The Architecture of Democracy

1945-46
R.V.C. Bodley: The Truth About the Arabs
Owen Lattimore: A Practicable Treatment of Japan
John Farrar: The Development of American Writing Between Two Wars
Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr.: The National Outlook

1946-47
Walter Duranty and Debate: Can Russia Be Part of One World?
H.R. Knickerbocker
Sumner Slichter : The Problem of Industrial Relations
Eve Curie: France in the Postwar World

1947-48
Harlow Shapley: The One World of Science
Herbert Agar: England Today
Cord Meyer, Jr.: World Federation or World War III?

1948-49
Norman Cousins: The Seige of Berlin
Robert Magidoff: Report on Russia Today
Finn Ronne: Antartica Adventure

1949-50
Mark F. Ethridge: The Middle East
Mary Garden: Music - Yesterday and Today
David E. Lilienthal: Atomic Energy for Peace

1950-51
Edith and Osbert Sitwell: Readings from Their Own Poems
Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.: The Crisis of Our Time
James Michener : The Real South Pacific

1951-52
Edward Weeks: In the Editor's Chair
Jan Papanek: United Nations Report
Paul Bigelow Sears: What Kind of a Country Do We Want?

1952-53
Robert Ruark: Life Among the Curious Natives of America
Carlos Romulo: America's Stake in the Far East
Margaret Mead: Anthropology in Action
Lydia Kirk: Life in Russia Today

1953-54
Joyce Cary : A Novel as a Picture of Society
Erwin D. Canham: Business at Bat: In Washington and on Main Street
John C. Caldwell: Our Program Toward Asia

1954-55
Ruth Draper: A Program of Original Sketches
J. W. Fulbright: The United States and World Affairs
Hanson Baldwin: Danger from the East

1955-56
Henry Hull: An Evening with Mark Twain
George E. Mylonas: Mycenae. The Capital City of Agamemnon
Hans Kohn: Is Modern Western Civilization in Decline?

1956-57
Hubert W. Alyea: Atomic Energy - Weapon for Peace
Barbara Ward: The Unity of the Free World
Robert Frost: An Evening with Robert Frost

1957-58
Catherine Drinker Bowen: A Biographer Looks for News
Walter Sullivan: South Pole
Peter Viereck: The Unadjusted Man: A New Hero for Americans

1958-59
John Gielgud: The Ages of Man
K. C. Wu: An Appraisal of Red China
J. B. Glubb : The Middle East: Storm Center of the World

1959-60
Margaret Webster: An Evening with George Bernard Shaw
Madam Pandit: Eastern Ideas and Western Values
Paul Tillich: The Meaning of Health

1960-61
Dorothy Stickney: Portrait of Edna St. Vincent Millay
Anthony Wedgewood Benn: A Britisher Looks at the African Revolution
Arthur Larson: World Rule of Law

1961-62
C. P. Snow and Pamela : Personal Views of the Two Cultures
Hansford Johnson
Santha Rama Rau: New Voices of the Far East
Henry Kissinger : Strategy and Foreign Policy

1962-63
Aldous Huxley: Human Potentiality
Dexter Perkins: Reflections on the Foreign Policy of a Democracy
Cilli Wang: The World of Cilli Wang

1963-64
Terence Hanbury White: The Pleasure of Learning
Pierre Mendes-France: A Modern Conception of Democracy
Cleveland Amory: Who Killed Society?

1964-65
William Patterson: A Profile of Holmes
Alfred Kazin: The Fascination of Henry Adams
John Kenneth Galbraith: A Modern Foreign Policy

1965-66
Phillip Burton and Christian Alderson: Pageant of Kings
David Schoenbrun: The Three Lives of Charles DeGaule
Nelson Gleuck: Deities and Dolphins: The Story of the Nabataens

1966-67
William Mauldin: Political Satire and the Cartoonist
E. O. Reischauer: United States, Japan and Asia
Marietta Tree: Internationalism versus Nationalism

1967-68
Emlyn Williams: Dylan Thomas Growing Up
Henry Steele Commager: Was America a Mistake?
Malcolm Muggeridge: English and Americans

1968-69
Morris B. Abrams: The University in the Vortex
Lord Harlech: Great Decisions, 1969
Archibald MacLeish: Readings and Reflections

1969-70
Harrison Salisbury: America, Russia, China. Triple Alliance or Three-way War?
Willie Morris: The National Magazine in American Life Today
John Archibald Wheeler: A Few Glimpses of an Open World

1970-71
Lord Caradon: What Hope for Peace in the Middle East?
Rene Dubos: The Living Past
Pierre Berton: Why Canadians are Different

1971-72
Jon M. Lindbergh: The Oceans: Conservation or Exploration?
Carl M. Loeb, Jr.: Victims of Crime - All Honest Victims
Daniel Patrick Moynihan: The American Presidency

1972-73
Ross Terrill: China Today: A Firsthand Account
Barbara Ward Jackson: Basic Conditions for Tomorrow's World
Richard Wilbur: A Reading of His Poems with Commentary

1973-1974
Thomas Hoving : Present and Future Developments at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Joseph C. Harsch: State of the Nations
Max Lerner and R. Buckly: Will the American Republic Survive Into the 21st Century?

1974-75
Duncan Williams: Trousered Apes: Sick Literature in a Sick Society
Dixie Lee Ray: U.S. Involvement in Science and Technology
S. Dillon Ripley: Facing Problems of the Environment

1975-76
Winston S. Churchill: The Soviet Threat in the Middle East and Western Europe
John R. Silber: Bicentennial Reflections on the No-Fault Life
Alexander Scourby: An Evening with Alexander Scourby

1976-77
Richard Adams: Education for Literature
Rosamond Bernier: Great Artists in Close-up
Willard R. Johnson: The American Stake in the Achievement of Freedom in Southern Africa

1977-78
Hedrick Smith: The Texture of Russian Life
Helmut Sonnenfelt: An Appraisal of our Foreign Policy
David Atlee Phillips: Secret Intelligence: An American Dilemma

1978-79
John Cairney: The Robert Burns Story
William H. Webster: Tasking the FBI in a Free Society
Elmo R. Zumwalt, Jr.: The World and Regional Tensions

1979-80
Francis Robinson: The Night the Opera Stopped
David Halberstam: The Media-ization of America
Walter Sullivan: Black Holes - The Edge of Space, The End of Time

1980-81
La Condesa de: American Women in International
Romanones y Quintanilla: Politics
Jack Reynolds: Asia Today
Daniel Bell : The U.S. in the 1980's: The Problems Ahead

1981-82
Iris Love: Archaeology Today
Alfred Kahn: Solving the Economic Issues of the Eighties
Joseph Engelberger: Robotics: An Executive Overview

1982-83
John Cairney and Alannah O'Sullivan: "Two for a Theatre"
Robert J. Ryan, Jr.: Caribbean Basin Initiative
Donald C. Johanson: In Search of Man's Origins

1983-84
Jonathan B. Gans: The Middle East
Robert Hughes: The Face of Power: Art, Politics and Propaganda
Mouza Coutelais-du-Roche Zumwalt: China Revisited

1984-85
Strobe Talbott: Nuclear Arms Control: The Current Stalemate and the Prospect for the Future
James Q. Wilson: Private Virtue and the Public Good
James S. Trefil: The Moment of Creation

1985-86
Roger Fisher: Negotiating with the Russians: What would be a Successful Summit?
Peter Eisenman: The State of Architecture
Albert Shanker: The Future of American Education: What Direction Will We Take?

1986-87
Heywood Hale Brown: The Art of Winning
Charles Murray: New Perspectives on Social Policy
Sherman Lee: The Significance of Far Eastern Art

1987-88
Michael Duffy: A Reporter in Washington: Stumbling Through the Mine Field
Lee H. Hamilton: The Iran-Contra Affair as Viewed by the Co-Chairman of the Investigative Committee
Seyned H. Nasr: The Islamic World View: Sunni and Shia

1988-89
Diana Eck: Religion at the Crossroads: The Challenge of Religious Diversity Today
Charles Kaiser: 1968 In America
Paul Goldberger: Buildings Versus Cities: The Struggle for a Sense of Place

1989-90
Howard Nemerov: A Reading of His Poems with Informal Comments
John Brooks Slaughter: Putting Integrity Back into Athletics
S. Frederick Starr: Is the Soviet Union Collapsing? If so, What Then?

1990-91
Lisbeth Schorr: The Anomaly of an American Underclass: What Can Be Done?
John Seigenthaler: Freedom of the Press: A 200 Year Old Luxury or Liability?
Helen Thomas: Watchdog at the White House: Covering Presidents from Kennedy to Bush

1991-92
Edward L. Warner III: The Disintegration of the Soviet Union: Is the Sum of the Parts Greater than the Whole?
Bernard C. Watson: Changes and Choices: Are We Prepared to Face Reality?
John E. Frohnmeyer: The War on Culture

1992-93
James O. Freedman: Higher Education and the Promise of American Life
Charlotte Ray: An Evening with Charlotte Ray
Jerrold M. Post: The Mind of the Terrorist

1993-94
Paul E. Peterson: Intergenerational Conflict: Should Children have the Right to Vote?
Anna Kisselgof: The Arts in the 21st Century
Martin Marty: Uncommon Faiths and the Common Good: Religion and American Multiculturalism Today

1994-95
Paul M. Kennedy: Reforming the United Nations: Problems and Opportunities
Patricia Neighmond: Whatever Happened to Health Care Reform? Medicine and Politics in the United States
Robert P. Kirshner: Taking the Measure of the Universe

1995-96
John Galvin: United States Strategy- -Post Cold War
Charles Gwathmey: Architecture: A Process of Discovery
David Warren: Riding the Tiger of Change

1996-97
Mark Tushnet: The First Amendment into the 21st Century
Catherine Stimpson: Who Is Creative Now?
Elizabeth Langland: Jane Austen and the Silver Screen

1997-98
Elliot Engle: The Charles Dickens We Never Knew
Charles Hermann: The Multi-Dimensional Legacy of George Bush: The Good, The Bad, and the Uncertain
Brian Urquhart: The United Nations and International Relations

1998-99
Richard Bangs: 21st Century Exploration: Worldwide Expeditions Using the Internet as Ice Axe and Paddle
Brock Evans: Squandering Our "Real" Wealth
Philip Wilcox, Jr.: Terrorism: Strategic Threat or Psycho Drama

1999-2000
Stephen Jay Gould: Charles Darwin's Revolution in Human Thought
Anthony Lewis: The Press: Friend or Foe
Judah Folkman: The Best Laid Plans of Mice for Men and Women

2000-2001
Anne Fadiman: What Kind of Reader Are You?
Jean Kirkpatrick: The Changing World: The New NATO, The Balkans and The Middle East

2001-2002
Arthur Golden: The Deception of Fiction: A Novelist's Sleight of Hand
C. J. Peters: Emerging Infections and Society: Push and Pull
General Lewis Mackenzie: Message to America: Stay Off the Front Line of Peacekeeping

2002-2003
Carl Djerassi: Sex and Fertilization: Ready for Divorce?
Judy Richardson: Will the Circle Be Unbroken: Lessons from the Civil Rights Movement
James Fallows: Iraq, What's Next?

2003-2004
Stephen Pinker: The Blank Slate, The Modern Denial of Human Nature
Henry Petroski: Success and Failure in Engineering Design
William McGlaughlin: A Tale of Two Cities: Music in New York and Paris, 1892-1929.

2004-2005
Salman Rushdie: Step Across This Line: An Evening with Salman Rusdie
Henry Greenspan: REMNANTS
Louise Leakey: Passion for Discovery: Continuing the Family Tradition

2005-2006
Spencer Wells: The Journey of Man
Siegfried Hecker: The North Korean Nuclear Crisis
Mira Nair: Between Two Worlds

2006 - 2007
Lewis Lapham: The Role of Dissent in Vital Democracies: A Historical
Perspective
Colum McCann: The Literary Journey of an International Mongrel
Wade Davis: Life at the Edge of the World

2007 - 2008
Eric Foner: The Story of American Freedom, 1776-2007
Stephen Prothero: Religious Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know...And Doesn't
Michio Kaku: The Physics of the Impossible

2009-2009
David Brancaccio, host of PBS's "Now" - "America Now - The Longview on Politics, Culture and Business"
Michael Shermer, Editor of Skeptic Magazine - "Why People Believe Weird Things - Science, Pseudoscience and the Paranormal"
Charles Wheelan - Univ. of Chicago Economist - "Economic Priorities of the New Presidency (or What the heck is going on?)"

2009-2010