by Whitney Hale & Courtney Quinn

The University of Kentucky Libraries Wendell H. Ford Public Policy Research Center will present a lecture by William H. Chafe, author of "Bill and Hillary: The Politics of the Personal" and the Alice Mary Baldwin Professor of History, Emeritus, at Duke University. The lecture, which is free and open to the public, will be presented at 3 p.m. Monday, Nov. 12, in the 18th floor conference room of Patterson Office Tower.

Chafe is the author of 13 books, including pioneering works on women’s history, civil rights history, and American political history. At Duke, he co-founded the Duke Oral History Program and theCenter for Documentary Studies, and from 1995 to 2004 served as dean of the faculty of Arts and Sciences.

Chafe's book, "Civilities and Civil Rights" won the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award, and a book he co-authored, "Remembering Jim Crow," won the Lillian Smith Book Award. He is a past president of the Organization of American Historians (OAH), and last year received the Roy Rozenzweig Prize for Distinguished Service from the OAH.

"Bill and Hillary: The Politics of the Personal" is described as a book about two determined achievers with dysfunctional families and corresponding personalities. Chafe argues, the personal chemistry between the Clintons molded their political careers. Their relationship had as many lows as it did highs, but the course of the Clintons' political lives can only be understood through the prism of their personal relationship.

A book signing will follow Chafe's lecture.

The Wendell H. Ford Public Policy Research Center was established in 1999 and supports research and programming dealing with issues relating to public policy, politics and Congress. The center provides UK faculty, involved in teaching and research in these areas, the opportunity to work closely with the Ford Center on specific or general topics.

The Ford Center develops public and educational programming and exhibits on public policy, politics, and Congress. These exhibits are made available on the UK campus as well as other institutions and agencies throughout Kentucky. In addition, the Ford Center works closely with UK Libraries' Special Collections and Digital Library Services to support digitizing primary source materials pertaining to public policy, politics and Congress and placing them on the Web. The Wendell H. Ford Public Policy Research Center is co-directed by Tracy Campbell and Deirdre Scaggs and is located in the Margaret I. King Building.