Annual Stanford Speaker Series
“How the West was Won, and What it Has to Lose” Featuring Prof. David M. Kennedy
The Stanford Club of Northern Nevada & the Sierra cordially invites you to a special evening with David M. Kennedy, Professor of History, Emeritus and Founder and Former Director of the Bill Lane Center for the American West at Stanford University
Date: Tuesday, May 20, 2025
Time: 5:00 – 5:30 PM Optional visit of Galleries 1, 2, and 3 at the National Automobile Museum
5:30 – 6:30 PM Talk in the Museum Theater Please note, we will begin with the talk. Plan to arrive no later than 5:30.
6:30 – 7:30 PM Reception with hors d’oeuvres and beverages
Place: The National Automobile Museum, 1 Museum Drive, Reno 89501
Cost: $40 per person
Payment and advance reservations are required by Friday, May 9th. You may either RSVP by email and mail a check, or register online and pay with a credit card.
To RSVP and pay by check please reply to this email, send an email to northernnevada@stanfordalumni.org, or call Charlotte McConnell at 775-742-9453.
Mail checks, payable to Stanford Club, to:
Debbie Grage
18124 Wedge Pkwy #213
Reno, NV 89511
To register and pay with a credit card you will need an SAA username and password.
The direct link to this event on the SAA web site is
: https://groups.stanford.edu/networks/events/125446
If you don’t have an SAA username, follow the instructions on the web site to set that up.
Contact/Questions: Charlotte McConnell at northernnevada@stanfordalumni.org or 775-742-9453
The Talk
Since WWII, the West has been the most dynamic region in North America, whether measured in terms of population, economy, culture, political heft, or technological innovation. All that phenomenal development did not “just happen”. A combination of historical circumstances and political will has given us the phenomenally successful region we have today. This presentation will explore how the modern West has come to be and ask whether its success story can continue in the decades ahead
About the Speaker
DAVID M. KENNEDY, the Donald J. McLachlan Professor of History, Emeritus, and founder and former Director of the Bill Lane Center for the American West at Stanford University, is a native of Seattle and a 1963 Stanford graduate. He received his Ph.D. in American Studies from Yale University in 1968. He joined the Stanford faculty in 1967.
Professor Kennedy has long taught both undergraduate and graduate courses in the history of the twentieth-century United States, American political and social thought, American foreign policy, American literature, the comparative development of democracy in Europe and America, and the history of the North American West.
Reflecting his interdisciplinary training in American Studies, which combined the fields of history, literature, and economics, Professor Kennedy’s scholarship is notable for its integration of economic and cultural analysis with social and political history, and for its engagement with the question of America’s national character.
The Optional Tour
Galleries 1, 2, and 3 will be open prior to the talk and for self-guided visits. Gallery 1 features vehicles from the 1890s; in Gallery 2 you will find cars from the early teens to the early 30s; and Gallery 3 is dedicated to automobiles from the 30s through 50s.
Directions to the National Automobile Museum
The Museum is located at the northeast corner of Lake Street and Mill Street, across Lake Street from the Renaissance Hotel. There is ample free parking on the east side of the museum building. From Mill Street turn north onto Museum Drive. The parking lot will be on your immediate left.