Prominent historian to speak at La Salle 150th anniversary event

Presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin will be speaking at La Salle University this evening, the signature event highlighting the school's 150th anniversary.

Her speech, titled "Civil War and Philadelphia," begins at 7:30 p.m. at the Tom Gola Arena at Hayman Center on campus. Admission is by ticket only and the event is sold out.

But to see it web-streamed, go to http://www.lasalle.edu/150/goodwin/ and register.

Members of La Salle's anniversary committee wanted to highlight the university's relationship with Philadelphia and the university's founding during the Civil War, said spokesman Jon Caroulis. The school was founded in 1863; it became a university in 1984.

Kearns is a Pulitzer prize winner in history and a well-known political commentator. She wrote "Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln."

"Anniversary celebrations are always about the future as well as the past, and we also like that Ms. Goodwin's book raises issues of how to govern in a highly partisan environment, a problem that did not die with the assassination of a president in Ford's Theater," said James Butler, an English professor on the anniversary committee.