Since graduating from Carleton in 1973, Kai Bird has built a distinguished career in journalism and the writing of history and biography. The richness of detail, and thoughtful perspective characteristic of his work surely reflect his rigorous and multifaceted undergraduate liberal arts education education—as well as his master’s degree in journalism from Northwestern University. But Bird’s sophisticated and arresting prose and perspective also reveal his cosmopolitan background, which—due to his father’s postings in the Foreign Service—included extended residencies in the Middle East and Asia.
Bird served as associate editor—and later a columnist—for The Nation magazine. He has written a succession of critically-acclaimed histories and biographies, including volumes on American lawyer and public servant John J. McCloy; prominent New Frontiersmen and brothers McGeorge and William Bundy; and the decision to drop an atomic bomb on Hiroshima and the controversial legacy of that action. He was awarded the 2006 Pulitzer Prize in biography for American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer, which he co-wrote with Martin Sherwin. His most recent biography, The Good Spy: The Life and Death of Robert Ames, was a New York Times best-seller. Bird is currently working on a book about the Carter presidency—a volume that many of us eagerly look forward to reading and learning from.
In addition to that highly-coveted Pulitzer, Bird has won many other accolades over the course of his distinguished career, including the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Duff Cooper Prize for history. His evocative and haunting memoir, Crossing Mandelbaum Gate: Coming of Age Between the Arabs and Israelis, was a finalist for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize. He has received fellowships from the Guggenheim, Alicia Patterson, MacArthur, and Rockefeller Foundations. Not to be outdone, Carleton’s Alumni Association presented Bird with a Distinguished Achievement Award in 2008.
It is with great pleasure that Carleton College confers on Kai Bird the degree Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa.