The Bridges House Is Honored To Announce Our 3rd Author Series With...

James Wright

Enduring Vietnam:
An American Generation and Its War

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 5TH, 2017 ~ 11 AM TO 3 PM

Mr. Wright will be reading from and discussing his newest release Enduring Vietnam: An American Generation and Its War. He will entertain questions from the guests, and afterward, will be available to sign books. Light lunch items, snacks, and refreshments will be served before his program commences. Don’t miss the chance to spend an afternoon with this incredible historian, former college president, advocate, and Marine. Books will also be sold at the event.

$20 PER PERSON EVENT FEE

PLEASE CLICK HERE FOR OUR DONATION LINK - CONTRIBUTE THE CORRESPONDING AMOUNT FOR THE NUMBER OF PEOPLE (RESERVATIONS) NEEDED.

Registration will be limited to 125 people, so please reserve your space TODAY!

The Friends of Bridges House board will be sponsoring 65-75 Vietnam and other era Veterans to attend our event. ALL proceeds collected before and during this event will be "given back" to our NH-based Vietnam Veterans.

If you have any questions or run into any problems when reserving your space(s), please contact us via email at bridgeshousenh@gmail.com or call the web administrator at (978) 808-1066.

ABOUT JAMES WRIGHT

In 2005, Wright began a series of visits to U.S. military medical facilities in Washington, D.C., where he met Marines and other U.S. military personnel who had been wounded in the course of service in Iraq and Afghanistan. (He had himself enlisted in the Marine Corps for three years when he was seventeen years old. He was discharged at the rank of Lance-Corporal.) In over two dozen visits since then, he encouraged the injured servicemen and women to continue their education, and he subsequently joined in establishing and assumed responsibility for raising funds to support an educational counseling program for wounded U.S. veterans, Severely Injured Military Veterans: Fulfilling their Dreams, offered through the American Council on Education (ACE). President Wright worked with Senators Jim Webb, John Warner, and Chuck Hagel on language for the GI Bill that was passed by Congress and signed by President Bush in June 2008. His interest, successfully met, was to provide a means for private institutions to partner with Veterans Affairs in supporting veterans who matriculated at these institutions (the "Yellow Ribbon Program").

He served as an honorary co-chair for the fall 2008 and the fall 2009 dinner of the Iraq-Afghanistan Veterans of America. President Wright wrote the Spring 2008 cover story on veterans in higher education for The Presidency, a publication of the American Council on Education for college and university presidents. He spoke about some of this work on February 2, 2009, at the annual meeting of the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities. Twenty-seven Iraq-Afghanistan veterans are currently enrolled as undergraduates at Dartmouth. On Veterans Day 2009, Wright spoke at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. at the invitation of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund. As the Jefferson Memorial Lecturer at the University of California, Berkeley in February 2010, he delivered "War Veterans and American Democracy" and was a participant in a follow-up panel about veterans. In November 2010 he was invited to Yonsei University’s Underwood International College in South Korea as the Shinhan Bank Distinguished Professor. He spent a week in residence teaching a seminar on “American Culture and Those Who Fight America’s Wars,” and presented a public lecture, “Veterans Day In America: The Place of the Korean War in a National Day of Memory.”

Since he stepped down from the Dartmouth College presidency in 2009, Wright has focused on support of veterans and research, writing, and public speaking on matters relating to education and veterans. In his 44th year at Dartmouth, he taught a senior seminar on America's wars in the winter term of 2013 and again in 2014. Over the last few years, he has written articles that have appeared in online publications, the New York Times, Foreign Affairs, The Atlantic, and the Huffington Post. The theme that runs through all of these is the way in which American society largely ignores those who fight and sacrifice in the country's wars.

Wright's most recent book, Enduring Vietnam: An American Generation and Its War, released by Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin's Press in April 2017, provides a rich account of an American war and the Americans who served there, and the enduring impact of the Vietnam experience. In Those Who Have Borne the Battle: A History of America's Wars and Those Who Fought Them, released in April 2012,  he provides a historical overview of American views of wars and those who have fought them, from the American Revolution to the current wars, and shares some of his own experiences and insights.

In May 2007, The New York Times presented a feature on Wright's work with injured veterans, and "ABC World News with Charles Gibson" featured Wright as its Person of the Week. The New England Council recognized him as the New Englander of the Year, and he received the Council of College and Military Educators “President’s Award” in February 2008. He was honored in April 2008 by the Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation, which conferred upon him its Semper Fidelis Award in recognition of his efforts to ensure educational opportunities for wounded veterans. In March 2009 President Wright received a commendation for his work from General James Conway, the Commandant of the Marine Corps. In June 2009 the Boston Red Sox recognized his contributions to education and to supporting veterans by inviting him to throw out the “first pitch” at a Red Sox game. In August of 2009 at the annual convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars Wright received the Commander-in-Chief’s Gold Medal of Merit Award and Citation. In March of 2010, the New England Board of Higher Education recognized him with the Eleanor M. McMahon Award for Lifetime Achievement. He received the Secretary of the Army Public Service Award in February 2017.

READ MORE ABOUT MR. WRIGHT'S NEW BOOK BY CLICKING HERE.