On April
3, 2009, the New-York Historical Society presented
Drew Gilpin Faust, acclaimed historian and president of
Harvard University with the Society's fourth annual American
History Book Prize at its Weekend with History Gala in New York.
The prize is in recognition for her book This Republic of Suffering:
Death and the American Civil War (Alfred A. Knopf, 2008),
which examines how death on an unprecedented scale during the Civil
War changed the life of the nation. Drew Gilpin Faust received
a $50,000 cash award, an engraved medal and the title of American
Historian Laureate at the ceremony.
The 2009 Weekend with History features a two-day program
of informal conversations and presentations by scholars and cultural
figures including Paul Kennedy, Lawrence Kudlow, Jim Dale, Bill T.
Jones and N-YHS Chairman Roger Hertog and trustees Jim Chanos, George
Pataki, and Byron Wien. The Chairman's Council, chaired by Pam Schafler,
is comprised of the Society's most committed supporters.
Dinner guests included Robert Caro and Ina Caro, Kyle MacLachlan and
Desiree Gruber, Richard Gilder, Debby Applegate and Bruce Tulgan, Bunny
Beekman and Bill Beekman, Diana Benzaquen and Norman Benzaquen, Ann
Charters and Tom Charters, William Friedman, Julie Dale and Jim Dale,
Marjorie Hart and Gurnee Hart, Victoria McManus and John McDermott, Valerie
Paley, Jennifer Raab and Michael Goodwin, David Reynolds and Suzanne
Reynolds, Bernard Schwartz and Irene Schwartz, William Shutzer and
Fay Shutzer, Richard Sylla, Michael Weisberg and Leah Weisberg.
