Dole Institute announces first summer series

The Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics has announced its Summer Series of three programs on consecutive Thursday nights beginning July 21.

The programs feature authors of new books on presidents Ronald Reagan and Herbert Hoover and the home-front lives of military families at a special base in Salina.

“ We are very pleased with the high quality, variety and unique appeal of these programs,” said Bill Lacy, director of the institute.

The programs will begin at 7:30 p.m. and will feature a lecture and Q&A followed by a book signing. They are free and open to the public.

For reservations or more information, call 864-4900 or e-mail doleinstitute@ku.edu

Dole Institute Summer Series

July 21: Hal Elliott Wert, Hoover, the Fishing President. An intensely private and shy man, Herbert Hoover was largely unknown to the American public. In this biography devoted to the angling side of Hoover, Wert examines the often-overlooked life of the 31st president.

July 28: Political strategist Craig Shirley, Reagan’s Revolution. The book argues that President Ronald Reagan’s only losing campaign, waged for the GOP nomination against incumbent Gerald Ford in 1976, was actually the spark that led to Reagan’s election in 1980 and the huge changes his presidency brought.

Aug. 4: Donna Moreau, Waiting Wives: The Story of Schilling Manor, Home Front to the Vietnam War. This study of the effects of war on soldiers’ families examines how an old Air Force base on the Kansas plains became the only facility set aside for the wives and children of soldiers assigned to Vietnam.