Gil Klein

Gil Klein is now Resident Director of the University of Oklahoma’s Washington Journalism Program after teaching Journalism and New Media at American University’s Washington Semester Program. Coming to Washington in 1985 from the Tampa Tribune, he was a national correspondent for the Media General News Service for 22 years, writing for 23 Southern newspapers.

Mr. Klein was the 1994 president of the National Press Club and now is chair of its History and Heritage committee. In 2008, he toured the United States for the Club, moderating forums with leading local journalists on the future of journalism and how to protect its core values.

He is the author of Trouble in Lafayette Square: Assassination, Protest and Murder at the White House and Tales from the National Press Club, both published by The History Press.

Articles by this Author

Fifty Years at National Geographic, Winter 2023 | Vol. 68, No. 1

For Gilbert Grosvenor, running National Geographic was a legacy, motivated by a passion to leave the world a better place.

Truman Serenades Bacall, November/December 2021 | Vol. 66, No. 7

Harry Truman's wife Bess was not amused when she saw the photo of her husband playing the piano while Lauren Bacall's legs dangled in front.

Decatur’s Heroic Life and Tragic Death, November/December 2021 | Vol. 66, No. 7

After an illustrious career in the Navy, Stephen Decatur died in his home on Lafayette Square following a duel with Commodore Barron.

It's a Wonderful Life, Redux, November/December 2021 | Vol. 66, No. 7

A new radio broadcast of the beloved Frank Capra movie is available online or by downloadable podcast.

Biden Predicts 9/11 Attack on 9/10, Winter 2021 | Vol. 66, No. 1

When he was Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Joe Biden pointed out the real threat to America.

The ”Holy Grail” of Broadcast Journalism , November 2020 | Vol. 65, No. 7

Historic microphone used by Edward Murrow for London broadcasts to be loaned to the National Press Club

Lafayette Square: Seven Acres of History, June 2020 | Vol. 65, No. 3

Now closed to the public as part of the enlarged White House security zone, the Square has witnessed many historic moments over the last two centuries.

Remembering Ernie Pyle, Spring 2020 | Vol. 65, No. 2

The great war correspondent, who died 75 years ago during the battle of Okinawa, had a knack for connecting with everyday people, both on the front lines and at home.

Featured Authors

Acheson, Dean

Dean Acheson (1893-1971) was an attorney and statesman who served as Secretary of State from 1949 to 1953 under President Harry Truman. A key architect of the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan, Acheson stressed the importance of multilateral organizations in the fight against totalitarianism. Prior to his service in the Truman Administration, Acheson clerked for Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, worked at Washington law firm Covington & Burling, and served as Undersecretary of the Treasury for one year under President Franklin Roosevelt.

Ambrose, Stephen E.

Stephen E. Ambrose (1936-2002) was a historian and professor who wrote on military history, presidential history, and American expansion and foreign policy. Ambrose has been praised for his biographies of Presidents Eisenhower and Nixon, and for helping to galvanize interest in World War II.

Becker, Elizabeth

Elizabeth Becker is an award-winning journalist and the author of several books. Her history When The War Was Over: Cambodia and the Khmer Rouge won accolades from the Robert F. Kennedy book award, while her recent biography of female conflict journalists You Don’t Belong Here: How Three Women Rewrote the Story of War won the 2022 Sperber Book Prize and Harvard’s Goldsmith Book Prize. She is also the author of America’s Vietnam War: A Narrative History for young adults.

Bird, Kai

Kai Bird is a historian and Executive Director of Leon Levy Center for Biography at the City University of New York. He is best known for writing about the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Vietnam War, US-Middle East relations and biographies of political figures. Bird is the author of American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer, for which he won a Pulitzer Prize, and The Good Spy: The Life and Death of Robert Ames, a New York Times bestseller. His most recent book is The Outlier: The Unfinished Presidency of Jimmy Carter.

Blight, David W.

David W. Blight is the Class of 1954 Professor of American History and Director of the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance & Abolition at Yale University. Recently, Blight has written A Slave No More: Two Men Who Escaped to Freedom, Including Their Narratives of Emancipation, and Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory, which won the Bancroft Prize, the Abraham Lincoln Prize, and the Frederick Douglass Prize.