Peter Kuznick, Professor of History and Director of the Nuclear Studies Institute at American University

Is author of Beyond the Laboratory: Scientists As Political Activists in 1930s America, co-author with Akira Kimura of  Rethinking the Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki: Japanese and American Perspectives, co-author with Yuki Tanaka of Nuclear Power and Hiroshima: The Truth Behind the Peaceful Use of Nuclear Power, and co-editor with James Gilbert of Rethinking Cold War Culture. Active in the Civil Rights, anti-Vietnam War and anti-nuclear movements, in 1995, he founded American University’s award-winniing Nuclear Studies Institute, which co-hosted major exhibits on the atomic bombings, with the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1995 on the 50^th anniversary and in 2015 on the 70^th.  The 1995 exhibit displayed many of the artifacts that were originally supposed to be part of the Smithsonian’s ill-fated Enola Gay exhibit. Every summer, since 1995, he has taken Institute students on a study-abroad class in Kyoto, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki. In 2003, he cofounded the Committee for a National Discussion of Nuclear History and Current Policy and the Nuclear Education Project with Hiroshima Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba and Professors Mark Selden and John Dower. He and filmmaker Oliver Stone co-authored the 12-part Showtime documentary film series and book The Untold History of the United States (2012-2013). He and Stone also recently co-authored The Concise Untold History of the United States (2014), based on the documentary scripts, and the first of four volumes of the young readers edition for middle school students. The books have been translated into numerous languages and the documentaries have shown around the world. The graphic novel of Untold History is due out later this year. He regularly provides commentary for all the major U.S. and international media, giving almost 200 interviews last year alone, and has begun his fourth three-year term as Organization of American Historians Distinguished Lecturer.