CONFERENCES & EVENTS

The Political Narratives that Define Us — And Divide Us

May 14, 2026
7:30 p.m.–8:30 p.m. ET
WEBINAR

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Speaker Leonard Steinhorn will explore the stories and beliefs that have shaped American political culture—past and present—and how these narratives are understood differently across the political spectrum. The conversation aims to illuminate practical paths for bridging divides and imagining a shared way forward. This event is organized by the Network for Responsible Public Policy.

SPEAKERS

LEONARD STEINHORN is a professor of Communication and an affiliate professor of History whose expertise includes American politics, the media, race relations, the 1960s and recent American history. He is author of The Greater Generation: In Defense of the Baby Boom Legacy, co-author of By the Color of Our Skin: The Illusion of Integration and the Reality of Race, and is currently writing a book on America in the 1960s, The Decade That Divides Us: The 1960s in America, to be published in late 2026. He has published in books, journals, the Washington Post, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Politico, The Hill, Political Wire, Chicago Sun Times, Huffington Post, Salon, History News Network, BillMoyers.com, The Fulcrum, among others. For more than a decade he served as the political analyst for CBS News Radio, and before that he served ten years as the political analyst for FOX-5 News in Washington, DC. Steinhorn has appeared as an on-air expert in a number of documentaries, including CNN’s The Sixties and 1968: The Year That Changed America, Superheroes Decoded on the History Channel, and The Kennedy Files on REELZ, and he also appeared in a DVD special feature on the baby boom generation for the final season of AMC’s Mad Men. He has given hundreds of talks at home and abroad, and has lectured on politics and history for One Day University, the Smithsonian, Curiosity University, and the 92nd Street Y. Steinhorn was twice named Faculty Member of the Year by the American University student body. Before joining the American University faculty, he spent 15 years as a political consultant and speechwriter.

EVENT CO-SPONSORS

Network for Responsible Public Policy
The Academy of Political Science