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spent perfecting his prose and intense research. Brinkley says his most valuable gift is an intense desire to learn, or just curiosity. ?That?s what drives me to write. A great historian must be curious, always. Suddenly, (as work begins on a subject) I?m on a learning adventure. Right now, I?m in the middle of writing Rosa Park?s biography, and it?s just amazing . . . you get a whole different kind of sweeping view ... and you just have to find out how the story is going to end. So, it?s a lot like writing a novel.?
Convincingly, when Brinkley speaks of history and his work, his expressive eyes light up and grow large.
He is clearly enthused and wants you to share in the moment. ?My influences are historical ones, like Thomas Jefferson, whom I just loved so much growing up, Andrew Jackson, and Patrick Henry . . . ? When Brinkley speaks of Thomas Jefferson, for a moment you wouldn?t be surprised if the author of the Declaration of Independence walked into the room and Brinkley added, ?Oh, Tom, we were just talking about you.?
Beyond his published work, both the histo-
CAMPAIGN ?96 TOUR
-SPAN
ries and contributions to various periodicals (Brinkley is also a frequent contributor to such journals and newspapers as Newsweek, Time, The New Yorker, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal), Brinkley?s work on television has put him into an exclusive club of historians who are almost routinely asked to provide commentary on TV. He comments for CNN, C-SPAN, and PBS and has appeared on numerous television programs including Good
Above: Brinkley was the adviser for the creation of C-SPAN?s ?Yellow School Bus,? a 45-foot rolling television studio and media center that broadcasts stories from historical sites across the country. Brinkley?s book The Majic Bus inspired the project.
The Majic Bus: An American Odyssey chronicled Brinkley?s cross-country trek in 1992 with his history students in their classroom on wheels.
HUNTER S. THOMPSON
THE FEAR ANB LOATHING IETTEBS, VOLUME ONE
Brinkley was editor for The Proud Highway: Saga of a Desperate Southern Gentlemen, the collected letters of Hunter S. Thompson (1997).
STEPHEN E. AMBROSE and DOUGLAS G. BRINKLEY
RISE TO GLOBALISM
AMERICAN FOREIGN POLICY SINCE 193a
Rise to Globalism was published in 1997 with historian Stephen Ambrose and was a survey of foreign policy since 1938.
DRIVEN PATRIOT
THE LIFE AND TIMES OF
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Townsend hoopes Douglas Brinkley
Brinkley co-wrote Driven Patriot: The Life and Times of James Forrestal, a 1993 profile of the secretary of the Navy under Truman.
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