2008-2009 Peter O'Donnell Grant Awards

Wesley Borucki, Palm Beach Atlantic University

"Character Matters: The Life and Presidency of George H.W. Bush"

O'Donnell grant funds support research for a biography of George H.W. Bush as part of the First Men: America's Presidents Series. The series illustrates "the qualities displayed by American presidents that suggest excellence in leadership based upon policies both foreign and domestic, moral example and qualities of citizenship, and effective personal traits related to professional and personal accomplishments." The resulting biography is scheduled to be published by Nova Science Publishers.

Brian Domitrovic, Sam Houston State University

"The Money Touch: The Supply Side Revolutionaries and the Restoration of American Prosperity"

O'Donnell grant funds support research for a history of supply side economics and its role in fostering the growth of the United States economy between 1982 and 2007. The resulting monograph is scheduled to be published in 2009 by ISI Books.

Michael Hammond, University of Arkansas

"Constructing a New Majority: Race and Religion in U.S. Politics from Roe to Reagan"

O'Donnell grant funds support research for a Ph.D. dissertation in American history focusing on race and religion in electoral politics in the 1970s and how the White House and other political organizations reached out to leaders of religious and civil rights groups.

Lori Han, Chapman University

"A President Upstaged: The Public Leadership of George Bush"

O'Donnell grant funds support research for a book manuscript that will examine the legacy of President George H.W. Bush and how his relationship with the press corps, communication style, and public image combined to create a distinctive style of public leadership.

Diego Pagliarulo, Universita degli Studi "Roma Tre"

"A Way to Deal with Crises in an Area of Cooperation: The United States, the United Nations, and the Challenge of a New World Order"

O'Donnell grant funds support research for a Ph.D. dissertation in political science on the evolution of American foreign policy in the early 1990s with a specific focus on the period between the end of the Gulf crisis and President Clinton's Executive Order of May 1994 that limited United States involvement in United Nations' peacekeeping operations.

Svetlana Savranskaya, National Security Archive

"The Wall That Fell on Them: The Soviet Leadership and the Fall of the Berlin Wall"

O'Donnell grant funds support a major research project resulting in a book chapter on the Soviet reaction to the fall of the Berlin wall, submitted at the 2009 Scowcroft Institute of International Affairs Ansary Foreign Policy Conference, The Cold War Is History: 20 Years after the Fall of the Berlin Wall. The book chapter, co-written with William Taubman of Amherst University, will be published in an edited volume entitled The Fall of the Berlin Wall: The Revolutionary Legacy of 1989, scheduled for release by Oxford University Press in autumn of 2009.

Sarah Snyder, Yale University

"Promising Everything under the Sun: How Human Rights Activists Helped Bring Down the Iron Curtain"

O'Donnell grant funds support research for a book manuscript examining how the human contacts provisions and follow-up mechanism of the Helsinki Final Act spurred the development of a transnational network of activists pushing for reform in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. The manuscript further explores how the rise of organized dissent and the acceptance of human rights norms by the Soviet Union played a role in ending the Cold War.

2007-2008 Peter O'Donnell Grant Awards

Roger Biles, Illinois State University

"Urban Program Conceived in Washington, D.C. after 1945"

O'Donnell grant funds support research for a study on the various approaches of different presidential administrations in formulating and implementing urban policies.

David Brown, Elizabethtown College

"First Families: The Patrician Tradition in American Conservatism"

O'Donnell grant funds support research for a book manuscript on patrician conservatism in the United States. The final book will include a chapter on the political fortunes of three generations of the Bush family, from Prescott Bush to George W. Bush.

Joel K. Goldstein, St. Louis University School of Law

"The Vice Presidency since Walter Mondale"

O'Donnell grant funds support research for a book on the evolution and character of the office of the vice president since Mondale. The book argues that since Mondale, the vice presidency has grown into an integral part of the executive branch.

Paul Kershaw, New York University

"Negotiating a New Economic Regime in Mexico, 1976-1990"

O'Donnell grant funds support research for a Ph.D. dissertation on the intellectual and political history of the development of structural adjustment policies as an economic strategy shaped by U.S. and Mexican policymakers to address the economic crises of the 1970s and 1980s.

David Palkki, University of California—Los Angeles

"April Glaspie and the Myth of the Green Light"

O'Donnell grant funds support research for a Ph.D. dissertation about the build up to the first Persian Gulf War and a critical examination of the belief that U.S. Ambassador to Iraq, April Glaspie, gave Saddam Hussein a "green light" to invade Kuwait.

Brandon Rottinghaus, University of Houston

"President Bush's Mail: Examining the White House Mail and White House Mailroom, 1989-1993"

O'Donnell grant funds support this study of the origins, adaptations, and utility of public opinion mail sent to the White House. Research conducted at the Bush library will be part of a larger book-length project that will examine public opinion mail sent to the White House from Franklin Roosevelt to George H.W. Bush.

Bartholomew Sparrow, University of Texas

"Brent Scowcroft and the Struggle for the Soul of U.S. Foreign Policy"

O'Donnell grant funds support research for a biography of Brent Scowcroft and an examination of his key role in forming U.S. foreign policy over the last third of the Cold War, the interim period, and the current era after the attacks of September 11, 2001.

Jaclyn Woolf, Midland College

"Before Advice and Consent: The Rationality of Presidential Selection of Judicial Nominees"

O'Donnell grant funds support this Ph.D. dissertation on the nomination stage of federal judicial nominees. The study examines the assumption that the presidential selection of judicial nominees follows a rational choice model, with presidents selecting nominees based on ideological fit and the likelihood of receiving confirmation.

Leah Wright, Princeton University

"Black Republicans and the Emergence of Contemporary Republican Ideology, 1964-1992"

O'Donnell grant funds support research for a Ph.D. dissertation on the beliefs and behaviors of Black Republicans and the ramifications of both for the larger racial and social constructions in United States history.