Dr. Don Carleton is the founding executive director of the Briscoe Center for American History and the J. R. Parten Chair in the Archives of American History at The University of Texas at Austin. A specialist in American political and news media history, he is the author of 14 books, including Red Scare; Conversations with Cronkite; Struggle for Justice: Four Decades of Civil Rights Photography; and The Governor and the Colonel: A Dual Biography of William P. Hobby and Oveta Culp Hobby. He is also the executive producer of two PBS documentaries: When I Rise (2010) and Cactus Jack: Lone Star on Capitol Hill (2016). Prior to the creation of the Briscoe Center, he served as founding director of the Houston Metropolitan Research Center (HMRC), an urban history archive. A native of Dallas, Texas, Carleton earned his doctorate in U. S. history at the University of Houston.
2025 Festival Session