This month, we have chosen a slightly different theme for our book display. Library staff have selected a range of titles from our collection which tie in to some of the events being held at the Rothermere American Institute (RAI) this month.

Firstly, Peter Feaver, who was a member of the National Security Council during the Clinton and Bush administrations and is now a Professor of Political Science and Public Policy at Duke University, will be giving a talk on Trump 2.0 and America’s Role in the World on 15th October. In it he will discuss how the new policy directions of Trump’s grand strategy have changed the domestic politics of national security and assess how the second Trump administration has remade America’s role in the world.

Picking up themes of this talk, we have chosen two titles looking at American grand strategy during the first Trump administration – Make America first again : grand strategy analysis and the Trump administration and American grand strategy in the age of Trump – to display alongside White House warriors : how the National Security Council transformed the American way of war and Trump’s own Save America.

Next, the RAI will be hosting a book event on 17th October with Andrew O’Shaughnessy, one of the authors of Republic and empire: crisis, revolution, and America’s early independence. In this new book, by looking beyond the familiar borders of the Revolution and considering colonies that did not rebel—Quebec, Nova Scotia, Bermuda, India, the British Caribbean, Senegal, and Ireland—O’Shaughnessy and his co-author Trevor Burnard go beyond the republican, liberal, and democratic aspects of the emerging American nation, providing a broader history that transcends what we think we know about the Revolution.

The VHL will shortly be adding this book itself to our collection. We are also displaying titles relating to the theme of the American Revolution in the broader context of the British Empire, such as The British Atlantic empire before the American Revolution and The Gaelic and Indian Origins of the American Revolution: diversity and empire in the British Atlantic, 1688-1783, including two by the authors in question, Writing early America : from British America to the American Revolution and An empire divided : the American Revolution and the British Caribbean.

The final event highlighted here is another book event, this one with Tom Arnold-Forster, to discuss his book Walter Lippmann : an intellectual biography. Walter Lippmann (1889–1974) was among the most influential and wide-ranging political writers in modern America. As both a journalist and political theorist, he shaped ideas about liberalism and democracy, the nature of public opinion, US power and empire, and the roles of journalists, experts, and citizens. Tom Arnold-Forster provides a bold historical reassessment of Lippmann’s intellectual life, offering fresh perspectives on a career at the intersection of daily news and democratic theory.

Alongside Walter Lippmann : an intellectual biography, we are displaying an earlier biography, Walter Lippmann and the American century, and some of Lippmann’s own writings in Public opinion and Public philosopher : selected letters of Walter Lippmann.

Details of all RAI events, including the ones discussed here, can be found at https://www.rai.ox.ac.uk/events.

The book display can be found on the ground floor on the left hand side, near the armchairs and low table. Many of these books can be loaned out, and some are also available as ebooks via SOLO.

To find out more about using the Vere Harmsworth Library collections please contact the Vere Harmsworth Library (vhl@bodleian.ox.ac.uk).