Woodrow Wilson delivered one of the poorest presidential responses to disaster in U.S. history in 1918, doing little as the Spanish Flu pandemic killed 675,000. Generations later, George W. Bush drew raves for his leadership in the wake of the horrific attacks of 9/11.

Presidential historian and former White House aide Tevi Troy examines the evolving role of the president in dealing with calamity and assesses how well or badly many have performed in his new book Shall We Wake the President? Two Centuries of Disaster Management from the Oval Office. On the eve of the election of a new president, he joins Steve Edwards, executive director of the University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics and a native Kansas Citian, in a public conversation about the book and the issue.

Program made possible by a generous donation from Kristen and Donald Trigg.