Calendar of Events

Martin Sherwin will discuss his new book, Gambling with Armageddon: Nuclear Roulette from Hiroshima to the Cuban Missile Crisis. Martin Sherwin, co-author of Pulitzer Prize winning American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer, investigates the United State’s use of nuclear weapons in World War II, and the years since, demonstrating how nuclear weapons are more of a threat than deterrent to world peace. In dramatic detail, Mr. Sherwin shows how leadership and luck prevented world destruction during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Martin Sherwin is a Professor of History at George Mason University and also author of A World Destroyed: Hiroshima and its Legacies. Mr. Sherwin will sign bookplates for those who have purchased his book. Email the Stevenson Center the names you wish inscribed.

Bruce Cumings, Professor of History at the University of Chicago, specializes in Korea and international policy. Bruce Cumings won the John King Fairbank Award for his book, The Origins of the Korean War. Additionally, he is the author of Dominion from Sea to Sea: Pacific Ascendancy and American Power and the editor of the Cambridge History of Korea plus numerous articles. The Center is delighted to welcome him back to Center programs.

Adrianne Benton Furniss will discuss, “The Infrastructure of Opportunity,” especially important now that the current health, economic, and social justice crises have brought into sharp focus the inequities of our broadband ecosystem. As the pandemic has forced learning, work, healthcare, and more into our homes, universal access to robust broadband infrastructure is imperative to the health of our communities, our country’s economic recovery, and our democracy.

The Benton Institute was founded by Charles Benton in 1981 and chaired by him until his death in 2015. The Benton Institute believes that communication policy, rooted in the values of access, equity, and diversity, has the power to deliver new opportunities and strengthen communities to bridge our divides.

Adrianne Benton Furniss, Executive Director of the Benton Institute, formerly worked for eight years as Vice President for International Television for Children’s Television Workshop (now Sesame Workshop) among other content-creating companies.