Often called the "Dean of Moderators," Jim Lehrer has presided over eleven presidential and vice-presidential debates. "In his quiet but intense way, Jim Lehrer earns the trust of the major political players of our time," notes Barbara Walters. "He explains and exposes their hopes and dreams, their strengths and failures as they try to put their best foot forward." For many years Lehrer has been the executive editor and anchor of The NewsHour on PBS; he is also the author of 20 novels, two memoirs, and three plays. In Tension City, he illuminates the critical turning points and rhetorical faux pas that helped determine the outcome of the United States' presidential elections—and with them the course of history—from Kennedy-Nixon to Obama-McCain.

In conversation with New York Times columnist, David Brooks

Ellis Wachs Endowed Lecture