PHOTO PROVIDED / THE VILLAGE REPORTER
FROM WATERGATE TO TODAY … Luke Nichter (pictured), a lauded U.S. presidential historian and Toledo native, will be giving a lecture on the 1968 presidential election and its lessons for today’s political environment to students at Swanton High School in October.
By: Jesse Davis
THE VILLAGE REPORTER
jesse@thevillagereporter.com
Luke Nichter, a presidential historian and native of Toledo, is set to give a lecture to Swanton High School students on October 6 at 10 a.m. covering material from his most recent book, “The Year That Broke Politics: Chaos and Collusion in the Presidential Election of 1968.”
According to Swanton Local School District Superintendent Chris Lake, local resident and former Swanton Village Council member Dave Pilliod had struck up correspondence with Nichter via email regarding his YouTube content.
“To my shock, he said he went to Otsego High School and his sister lives in Delta,” Pilliod told the Reporter. “He grew up next door to the historian Douglas Brinkley.”
Pilliod asked Nichter if he would be interested in speaking to Swanton students, which is how the lecture was arranged.
According to his website, Nichter is a professor of history and James H. Cavanaugh Endowed Chair in Presidential Studies at Chapman University, with a specialty in “the Cold War, the modern presidency, and U.S. political and diplomatic history, with a focus on the ‘long 1960s’ from John F. Kennedy through Watergate.”
In addition to being a New York Times bestselling author, Nichter has been recognized with a Best Book of the Year (Politics) designation from the Wall Street Journal for “The Year That Broke Politics,” is a former founding executive producer of C-SPAN’s “American History TV,” and was appointed by the archivist of the United States to serve on the federal government’s Freedom of Information Act Advisory Committee following his work which resulted in the unsealing of records related to Watergate, among other work and recognition.
Nichter holds a Ph.D. in history from Bowling Green State University and lives in Orange, California, and Bowling Green, Ohio. For more information on Nichter and his work, visit his website at www.lukenichter.com.