Pulitzer Prize-Winning Journalist to Deliver Crain Lecture

EVANSTON, Ill. --- Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Hedrick Smith will discuss his newest book, “Who Stole the American Dream?” when he delivers the Gertrude and G.D. Crain Jr. Lecture at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications Wednesday, Jan. 30. 

In 26 years with The New York Times, Smith -- one of the nation’s most distinguished journalists -- covered Martin Luther King Jr., the struggle for civil rights, the Vietnam War, the Cold War and six American presidents. Since 1989, working with PBS, he has created 26 prime-time specials and mini-series on topics from terrorism to Wall Street scandals, Perestroika, Wal-Mart and the fall of Enron. 

Smith’s discussion of the American Dream and its loss will take place at 4 p.m. in the McCormick Tribune Center Forum, 1870 Campus Drive on Northwestern’s Evanston campus. It is free and open to the public.

Smith is author of “The Russians,” a bestseller published in 1976 based on his years as Moscow bureau chief for the Times and “The New Russians,” published in 1990. He started working on “Who Stole the American Dream?” in 2009, after covering the sub-prime housing crisis. In it, Smith outlines a 10-point program to revive and regain the American Dream for the middle class, which includes changes in corporate tax laws and the banking system.

Smith was a member of the Pulitzer Prize-winning team that produced The New York Times’ Pentagon Papers series in 1971. Three years later, he earned a second Pulitzer Prize for his coverage of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.

Smith also is author of “The Power Game: How Washington Works,” which in the late 1980s became something of a required text for newly elected members of Congress and what President Bill Clinton called essential bedtime reading.