Franklin College to host Pulitzer Prize-Winning Historian Jon Meacham

Franklin College will commemorate the nation’s 250th anniversary this fall with a Constitution Day Convocation featuring Pulitzer Prize-winning author, presidential historian and commentator Jon Meacham, one of America’s foremost public intellectuals.

Meacham’s lecture will take place on Thursday, Sept. 17, 2026, at 7 p.m. in Spurlock Center on the Franklin College campus. The lecture is part of Franklin College’s America250 programming and its collaboration with the City of Franklin. The event is free and open to the public. Book sales and author signing will follow the lecture. Advance registration is appreciated at tinyurl.com/ez77w8b5.

Titled “America 250: Hope Through History,” Meacham’s lecture explains how the American past is the story of challenges overcome, crises resolved and progress made. In this nonpartisan speech, Meacham will walk the audience through moments that have seemed intractable – the Influenza Pandemic of 1918, the battle against polio, FDR’s reaction to the first days of the Depression, Winston Churchill’s decision to fight on against Hitler and the Cuban Missile Crisis – to offer lessons for leaders in how to endure and prevail.

Meacham is the author of numerous New York Times bestsellers examining pivotal moments and figures in American history. His works include The Soul of America, which explores periods in which national division gave way to renewal. He also wrote And There Was Light: Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle, which received the Lincoln Prize and spent 16 weeks on the bestseller list.

His other acclaimed titles include presidential biographies such as Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush and American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House, which earned the Pulitzer Prize. Meacham also co-wrote Impeachment: An American History and has written extensively on leaders such as John Lewis and Thomas Jefferson.

Beyond his books, Meacham reaches broad audiences through his podcasts Hope Through History and It Was Said, which explore defining moments in American history and the voices that shaped them.

Meacham’s appearance is made possible through the Tillman Lecture Fund and the Dietz Lecture Fund.

Contact the Franklin College Office of Communications at (317) 738-8189 for more information.

Jon Meacham Photo Credit: Heidi Ross