George McGovern at TU Dortmund

Something very special happened last Thursday. That something was important to our department of the American Studies. At the moment, our Department (as well as other Humanities Departments at TU Dortmund) is in crisis. I am very concerned about our future at TU Dortmund. There are rumours that our Department will receive less funding, this might jeopardise our existence in this university. But, as I said, these are rumours. I have no evidence to support this information leak. If these "voices from the underground" are based on the facts, consider how important it was having Senator McGovern at TU Dortmund. The event was initiated by my supervisor, Prof. Walter Grünzweig, a talented professor, charismatic American studies scholar, and my forgiving academic "Father", who has a lot of patience reading my stuff.

First of all, a couple of words about McGovern in case the reader of this blog post is not aware about the many deeds of this man. And the narrative about his good deeds as a politician is very long, too long to be covered here. But many people, not only the citizens of the U.S., know McGovern as a former Senator from South Dakota and the Democratic candidate for the Presidential Elections 1972. Some even say, "He is a hero of my lifetime!"

Read more about McGovern's 1972 Presidential Campaign here.

Thanks to the courtesy of my colleague Elena Furlanetto, I have a photograph of me right after asking Mr McGovern a question about his book. To my surprise, the question raised an emotional response. Mr McGovern talked about his latest book, and he reflected on how the idea to write it came to him one day.

I noticed that Mr McGovern carried around a white book with him. He delivered his speech, but never looked up anything in the book, he touched the book several times while reflecting on the crisis of democracy in the U.S.; afterwards, he proceeded to another table where a glass of water was awaiting for him, he sat down, and kept the book right in front of him while answering the questions. I became curious about Mr McGovern's preferences, what books he reads. What is that special book? The Bible?

My question: "Mr McGovern, you brought a book with you onstage. Most of us are students here, and, I am sure, many of us would have liked to know: what are you reading? You are such a busy person, can you afford reading books?"

The answer: "I have read this book very carefully because I wrote it myself."

Laughter in the auditorium.

Mr McGovern wrote and co-authored a number of books:

• War Against Want: America's Food for Peace Program, Walker & Co., 1964.
• Agricultural Thought in the Twentieth Century, Bobbs-Merrill, 1966.
• A Time of War! A Time of Peace, Vintage Books, 1968.
• Guttridge, Leonard F. The Great Coalfield War, Houghton Mifflin, 1972.
• Grassroots: The Autobiography of George McGovern, Random House, 1977.
• Terry: My Daughter's Life-And-Death Struggle With Alcoholism, New York: Villard, 1996.
• The Third Freedom: Ending Hunger in Our Time, Simon & Schuster, 2001.
• The Essential America: Our Founders and the Liberal Tradition, Simon & Schuster, 2004.
• Social Security and the Golden Age: An Essay on the New American Demographic, Speaker's Corner Books, 2005.
• Ending Hunger Now: A Challenge to Persons of Faith, Augsburg Fortress, 2005.
• Out of Iraq: A Practical Plan for Withdrawal Now, Simon & Schuster, 2006.
• Donald C. Simmons, Jr. and Daniel Gaken (eds.) Leadership and Service: An Introduction, Kendall Hunt Publishing, 2008.
• Abraham Lincoln, Times Books, 2008.

McGovern's latest book is titled What It Means to Be a Democrat, it is available for purchase. The Amazon.com product description:

A call to arms by the former presidential candidate that combines personal anecdotes and cultural critiques to remind liberals of their ideological compass and restore confidence.

George McGovern has been a leading figure of the Democratic Party for more than fifty years. From this true liberal comes a thoughtful examination of what being a Democrat really means. McGovern admonishes current Democratic politicians for losing sight of their ideals as they subscribe to an increasingly centrist policy agenda. Applying his wide- ranging knowledge and expertise on issues ranging from military spending to same-sex marriage to educational reform, he stresses the importance of creating policies we can be proud of. Finally, with 2012 looming, McGovern's What It Means to Be a Democrat offers a vision of the Party's future in which ideological coherence and courage rule.

Interesting. Critical. Polarizing. But my question is: why did not he present me with this book? For such a PR effort, you know... Even though it was not intentional...

In his answer to my question, McGovern mentioned his book Terry: My Daughter's Life-And-Death Struggle With Alcoholism, which turned out to be a bestseller:

The former Democratic senator from South Dakota here presents a memorial service for his alcoholic daughter, Terry, who froze to death on the streets of Madison, Wisc., one pre-Christmas night in 1994. (Read the full book review here.)

I do not like politicians talking about their private lives onstage. What for? For compassion? To score some points? But McGovern was very open and calm. He did not dramatize, no tears running down the cheeks. It happened, and he wrote a book about it. And then he wrote other books about other things, most of them were about politics and history. The auditorium was impressed at McGovern's revelations. Not a single chair could be heard squeaking, no cookie crunching while he was talking about his daughter and her death. I think, the student audience adopted McGovern as a sad grandpa, and showed respect.

Unlike in the case of the representative of the Amerika Haus e.V. Nordhein-Westfalen speaking. The speaker said, "Mr McGovern, we were happy having you last night." And some 50 or so German students started giggling. It seems to me that many students in the large auditorium of Audimax were still in their puberty.

Meeting McGovern was a pleasure. It was also an important event for us, the American Studies scholars from Ruhrgebiet. Pr. Grünzweig was in his best mood, his mouth stretched in a wide smile when the audience stood up (!) and loudly applaused McGovern. Overall, the hall hosted more than 700 students, professors, guests... It was impressive.