VCU President Trani to discuss Cold War book on statewide public radio program

By Joe Kuttenkuler

"Memories and Legacies of World War I" is the title of an upcoming public radio program segment that will feature an interview with VCU President Eugene P. Trani, Ph.D., who will discuss his latest book, "The First Cold War: The Legacy of Woodrow Wilson in U.S.-Soviet Relations." The interview can be heard during the "With Good Reason" program the week of May 17-23.

Trani and co-author Donald E. Davis, Ph.D., professor of history at Illinois State University, released the book late last year. Since then, Trani has lectured extensively including stops at the Truman Presidential Museum & Library in Independence, Mo., and the Woodrow Wilson Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C.

The book proposes the Cold War actually took root in 1917 during the Wilson administration and the rise of Bolshevism in Russia, when attitudes toward the former Soviet Union soured and Lenin's rise to power led to a U.S. diplomatic quarantine. The authors argue the resulting actions shaped U.S. Cold War policy for much of the 20th century and ultimately led to the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Trani will share the program with Mark Facktnitz, a professor at James Madison University, who will discuss how France, Great Britain and the United States remembered their fallen soldiers during the war.

"With Good Reason," which is carried on 12 different stations throughout Virginia, can be heard locally each Saturday at 1 p.m. on WCVE 88.9. Previous shows can be accessed through the program's Web site at http://www.virginia.edu/vfh/wgr/.

Founded in 1992, "With Good Reason" is produced for the Virginia Higher Education Broadcasting Consortium by the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities and is broadcast in partnership with public radio stations in Virginia, Tennessee and Washington, D.C. It is the only statewide public radio program in Virginia.