JOIN THE SOLD-OUT EVENT VIA LIVE STREAM.

Join us for an extraordinary event featuring world chess champion, author and master of strategy, Garry Kasparov. The Berlin Airlift was a tremendous practical achievement as well as a potent example of individual and collective leadership and courage. With Russia’s war on Ukraine raging and China increasingly aggressive, Kasparov calls for an immediate renewal of the will shown by President Harry Truman to stand up to belligerent authoritarian regimes on every front.

Seats for this special event are sold out, however, you can join the program via live stream.

Born in Baku, Azerbaijan, in the Soviet Union in 1963, Garry Kasparov became the under-18 chess champion of the USSR at the age of 12 and the world under-20 champion at 17. He came to international fame at the age of 22 as the youngest world chess champion in history in 1985. When the Soviet sports authorities pressured Kasparov for using his chess fame to criticize the Communist system, he and his family fled ethnic pogroms in Baku in 1990, relocating to Moscow. In 2005, still ranked #1 in the world, Kasparov retired from professional chess to form the first Russian pro-democracy opposition coalition against the rising dictatorship of Vladimir Putin. In 2012, Kasparov was named chairman of the New York-based Human Rights Foundation, succeeding Václav Havel. HRF promotes individual liberty worldwide and organizes the annual Oslo Freedom Forum. Facing imminent arrest during Putin’s crackdown, Kasparov moved from Moscow to New York City in 2013.

In 2017, Kasparov founded the Renew Democracy Initiative, dedicated to promoting the principles of the free world through education and advocacy. Bringing together leaders and representatives from across the political spectrum, RDI has become a leading voice for political reform and standing up for democratic values against authoritarian regimes and influences worldwide.

In 2022, in response to Putin’s all-out invasion of Ukraine, Kasparov co-founded the Russian Action Committee with former political prisoner Mikhail Khodorkovsky and other oppositionists at the Free Russia Forum. The Committee has published a plan for a Russian transformation to a parliamentary democracy post-Putin, including abandoning all claims on Ukrainian and other foreign territory, reparations to Ukraine, accountability for Russian officials, and decentralization of power inside Russia.

In 2016, Kasparov was named a Security Ambassador by Avast Software, where he discusses cybersecurity and digital rights. The US-based Kasparov Chess Foundation non-profit promotes the teaching of chess in education systems around the world.

Since 1990, Kasparov has been a regular contributor to many major publications, including The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, CNN, and The New York Daily News. His Twitter and Facebook boast over a million followers. Kasparov speaks frequently to business audiences around the world on strategy, decision-making, politics, and artificial intelligence.

Kasparov’s book How Life Imitates Chess on strategy and decision-making is available in over 20 languages. He is the author of two acclaimed series of chess books, My Great Predecessors and Modern Chess. Kasparov’s prescient book, Winter Is Coming: Why Vladimir Putin and the Enemies of the Free World Must Be Stopped, was released in 2015. His latest book on AI and the human-machine relationship is Deep Thinking: Where Machine Intelligence Ends and Human Creativity Begins (2017).

THE AUDITORIUM IS SOLD OUT, BUT THE PROGRAM WILL BE LIVE STREAMED AT 6 PM (CT).
Livestream Link for “A Free World with Unity and Purpose”

New York Times best-selling author A. J. Baime shares the thrilling story of the 1948 presidential election, one of the greatest election stories of all time, as Truman mounted a history-making comeback and staked a claim for a new course for America. On the eve of the 1948 election, America was a fractured country. Racism was rampant, foreign relations were fraught, and political parties were more divided than ever. Americans were certain that President Harry S. Truman’s political career was over. “The ballots haven’t been counted,” noted political columnist Fred Othman, “but there seems to be no further need for holding up an affectional farewell to Harry Truman.” Truman’s own staff did not believe he could win. Nor did his wife, Bess. The only man in the world confident that Truman would win was Mr. Truman himself. And win he did. 1948 was a fight for the soul of a nation. In Dewey Defeats Truman, A. J. Baime sheds light on one of the most action-packed six months in American history, as Truman not only triumphs, but oversees watershed events–the passing of the Marshall plan, the acknowledgement of Israel as a new state, the careful attention to the origins of the Cold War, and the first desegregation of the military. Not only did Truman win the election, he succeeded in guiding his country forward at a critical time with high stakes and haunting parallels to the modern day.

A.J. Baime is the New York Times bestselling author of The Accidental President: Harry S. Truman and the Four Months That Changed the World, Dewey Defeats Truman: The 1948 Election and the Battle for America’s Soul, and The Arsenal of Democracy. He is a longtime regular contributor to the Wall Street Journal and his articles have appeared in The New York Times, Popular Science, and Men’s Journal. He holds an MA in literature from NYU and currently lives in northern California.

This event is free and open to the public, but reservations are required.

We are expecting a sell-out crowd; to guarantee your seat, register today by emailing attendee name(s) to: Truman.Events@nara.gov.

This Distinguished Author Event is offered in conjunction with the Truman Library Teacher Conference 2023. All registrants are invited to attend a pre-event reception in the Atrium, from 5-6 p.m.

On July 26, 1948, with the stroke of a pen, President Harry S. Truman changed the course of American history. By signing Executive Order 9981, “Establishing the President’s Committee on Equality of Treatment and Opportunity in the Armed Services,” he officially declared that “there shall be equality of treatment and opportunity for all persons in the armed services without regard to race, color, religion or national origin.” His action reflected the growing realization by more and more Americans that our nation could no longer reconcile segregation with the values we had fought a war to uphold.

Seventy-five years on, a three-day public symposium in Washington, D.C. will commemorate the anniversary of this watershed moment for advancing civil rights in America. The significance of this occasion is reflected by the stellar – and growing – list of participating organizations and individuals, including nationally prominent military and civilian leaders, elected officials, journalists and historians. Together, we will honor the service and sacrifice of Black veterans, celebrate this landmark decision that paved the road for civil rights legislation and Supreme Court decisions in the 1950s and 1960s, and explore the legacy of President Truman’s executive order “to secure these rights.”

LEARN MORE AND SAVE THE DATE

The Harry S. Truman Presidential Library & Museum proudly presents Rooted among the Ashes: Hibakujumoku / A-bombed Trees, featuring the photography of Katy McCormick. Having explored Japan’s two Atomic-bombed cities, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, McCormick’s photography portrays the survivor trees or hibakujumoku, subjected to the first use of Atomic bombs in 1945. Standing in school yards, temple grounds, and city squares, the A-bombed trees are living memorials, rooted among the ashes just below the surfaces of now-thriving cities. Predicated on “walking and remembrance,” the exhibition invites a promenade through space and time, memory and history, urging reflection upon how the past haunts the present—warning, teaching, urging care.

This special exhibition runs through October 1, 2023 and is included with general admission. Truman Library Institute members enjoy free admission.

PLAN YOUR VISIT