Edward J. Larson Presentation: October 11, 2014

The National Park Service and North Jersey American Revolution Round Table welcome Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Edward J. Larson to Morristown. Larson will discuss his new book The Return of George Washington: 1783-1789, at Washington’s Headquarters Museum auditorium, Morristown, NJ   Larson will speak about the crucial, yet often overlooked period in George Washington’s equally distinguished career and life. When George Washington retired from the army to lead a quieter life at Mount Vernon in 1783. In The Return of George Washington: 1783-1789, Larson reveals how Washington “saved” the United States by coming out of retirement to not only lead the Constitutional Convention, but to also serve as America’s first president. Vice President of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation and Professor of History at the University of Virginia Dr. Andrew O’Shaughnessy says, “This book is one of the best illustrations of the ability of individuals to change the course of history.”

This special event is free and open to the public, book sales and signing will follow Larson’s program.    Students and teachers especially welcome.

EDWARD J. LARSON is University Professor of history and holds the Hugh & Hazel Darling Chair in Law at Pepperdine University.  Larson is also an inaugural Library Fellow at the Fred W. Smith National Library for the Study of George Washington in Mount Vernon, VA and a Gay Hart Gaines Distinguished Visiting Lecturer of American History for 2013-2014. He received the Pulitzer Prize for History for Summer for the Gods: The Scopes Trial and America’s Continuing Debate Over Science and Religion. His other books include A Magnificent Catastrophe: The Tumultuous Election of 1800, America’s First Presidential Campaign; An Empire of Ice: Scott, Shackleton, and the Heroic Age of Antarctic Science; Evolution: The Remarkable History of a Scientific Theory; Evolution's Workshop: God and Science on the Galapagos Islands; and Trial and Error: The American Controversy Over Creation and Evolution. Larson also co-authored (with Michael P. Winship) The Constitutional Convention: A Narrative History from the Notes of James Madison, published by Modern Library Classics. He lives in California.