Historian Fisher talks presidential leadership
By: Lindsay Merwin
Issue date: 2/22/08 Section: News
As DePauw celebrated the appointment of future president Brian Casey Thursday, acclaimed historian David Hackett Fischer's lecture on leadership seemed more than appropriate. Fischer had a large audience in Peeler Auditorium late yesterday afternoon for the Walker Horizon Lecture in History, which disucssed how U.S. presidents have shaped history and how history is defined by the present.
Fischer, an author and professor at Brandeis University, is also a Pulitzer Prize winner for his 2004 book, Washington's Crossing.
"History is the most eclectic of all academic disciplines," Fischer began, explaining the various approaches - social, cultural and others - that have been used to examine history. He proposed that combining old and new methods of looking at the past would create "a power fusion that might carry us forward" in examining leadership today.
Senior Ryan Hoffman was impressed with the turnout. "I was half expecting it to be half-empty, especially with the Casey thing, but it went really well." He said that the talk was familiar, but interesting. "I didn't learn anything new, just new ways to look at [history.]"
"Americans love to play the game of rating the presidents," Fischer said to chuckles from the audience. He pointed out that in multiple surveys taken by diverse groups, Washington, Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt always came out on top. He went on to discuss these past presidents as examples of superior leadership. Though they served in different time periods and came from different regions, political leanings and social and economic origins, he said they all had a cause and worked towards it with flexibility and openness.
"They all had great discipline," Fisher said. "They were silent men when they chose to be … they developed a new way of working with people."
With no need for notes, Fischer left the podium, standing in front of a projection of the famous painting, "George Washington Crosses the Delaware," and giving anecdotes of Washington's time as a general and Commander in Chief.
Fischer, an author and professor at Brandeis University, is also a Pulitzer Prize winner for his 2004 book, Washington's Crossing.
"History is the most eclectic of all academic disciplines," Fischer began, explaining the various approaches - social, cultural and others - that have been used to examine history. He proposed that combining old and new methods of looking at the past would create "a power fusion that might carry us forward" in examining leadership today.
Senior Ryan Hoffman was impressed with the turnout. "I was half expecting it to be half-empty, especially with the Casey thing, but it went really well." He said that the talk was familiar, but interesting. "I didn't learn anything new, just new ways to look at [history.]"
"Americans love to play the game of rating the presidents," Fischer said to chuckles from the audience. He pointed out that in multiple surveys taken by diverse groups, Washington, Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt always came out on top. He went on to discuss these past presidents as examples of superior leadership. Though they served in different time periods and came from different regions, political leanings and social and economic origins, he said they all had a cause and worked towards it with flexibility and openness.
"They all had great discipline," Fisher said. "They were silent men when they chose to be … they developed a new way of working with people."
With no need for notes, Fischer left the podium, standing in front of a projection of the famous painting, "George Washington Crosses the Delaware," and giving anecdotes of Washington's time as a general and Commander in Chief.
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