Sep 12
Opening Convocation: Kai Bird ’73
Carleton’s Opening Convocation is an annual all-college assembly celebrating the beginning of the academic year and recognizing academic achievement. This year's ceremony will feature an address by Kai Bird ’73, a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and journalist. His most recent book, The Good Spy: The Life and Death of Robert Ames, was a New York Times best-seller. Bird chronicled his childhood in the Middle East in his memoir, Crossing Mandelbaum Gate: Coming of Age Between the Arabs and Israelis, and the Dayton Literary Peace Prize. He is the acclaimed author of biographies of John J. McCloy, McGeorge Bundy, and William Bundy, and he is now working on a biography of President Jimmy Carter's White House years. He won the Pulitzer Prize for biography in 2006 for American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer. An elected member of the prestigious Society of American Historians, Bird’s work includes critical writings on the Vietnam War, Hiroshima, Nuclear weapons, the Cold War, the Arab-Israeli conflict and the CIA. Bird’s career as a historian and biographer speak to Carleton’s values and reflect the college’s aspirations. His books not only illustrate the remarkable richness and depth of learning accessible through close examination of the past, but his skillful pursuit of diverse topics exemplifies the adaptability and intellectual strength afforded by a liberal arts degree in interpreting our world. In recognition of his achievements, Carleton College will award Kai Bird an honorary degree, doctor of humane letters honoris causa.
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