War, politics, culture, business, the '50s and baseball: all subjects that have been addressed in his books and just some potential topics of discussion for Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist David Halberstam at The Centennial Colloquium.
"The focus of the Centennial Lecture is to bring individuals with expertise in varying areas," said Jennifer Adkins, program coordinator of the Barrett Honors College. "We wanted to have David Halberstam because he's so well-written and prolific. He's written about so many different issues."
Halberstam will be giving a talk on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. at Gammage Auditorium, with free admission, but tickets are required. Although Halberstam began his career as a journalist, his work as an author is a notable part of his career and has received nationwide recognition for his books.
"'The Best and the Brightest' is my trademark book," he said. "It was number one on the The New York Times bestseller list; it is about how and why we went to war."
Halberstam did not want to reveal the details of what his lecture, "America and the World: New Challenges in a Time of Uncertainty" would address. He is well-known for his political commentary, and his latest bestseller titled, "Firehouse," which is about the firefighters lost on Sept. 11, 2001.
Halberstam said he also didn't want to give too much away about his opinion on a possible war with Iraq.
"I think I'm going to try to place where we are now, in a historical context," he said.
Halberstam, a Harvard graduate, began his journalistic career as a managing editor for the Harvard Crimson before going on to cover the Vietnam War from 1962 to 1964. He recently completed his 18th book, which is about life-long friendship.
"I never went into this business to be popular," he said regarding the Kennedy administration's attempts to remove him from Vietnam because his reporting contradicted the optimistic government view of the war. "No good journalists do."
Halberstam upset the government when he exposed the fact that America was losing the Vietnam War through his brand of uncensored reporting, which earned him a Pulitzer Prize at the age of 30.
"We knew [the Vietnam War] wasn't working out, within weeks or months," he said. "My job is to tell ordinary people what's happening; it's a natural role for journalists. People I knew were risking their lives out there, I'm not going to lie about what I saw."
Reach the reporter at nicole.girard@asu.edu.
