The National History Center of the American Historical Association and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, announce the latest in a series of meetings of the Washington History Seminar on the theme “Historical Perspectives on International and National Affairs.” It is "The Past and Future of the Foreign Relations Series,” by
Stephen P. Randolph, Historian, U.S. Department of State. Richard Immerman (Temple University) and Warren Kimball (Rutgers University) will comment. The session will take place on Monday, January 27, 2014, at 4:00 p.m., in the Woodrow Wilson Center, 6th Floor Moynihan Boardroom, Ronald Reagan Building, Federal Triangle Metro Stop. Reservations are requested because of limited seating: mbarber@historians.org or 202-450-3209,
In more than 450 volumes produced since its inception in 1861, the U.S. Department of State's Foreign Relations of the United States series presents the official documentary historical record of major U.S. foreign policy decisions and significant diplomatic activity. FRUS, as it is known, is widely and rightly regarded as exemplary. In recent decades the topics and themes have become increasingly intricate and complex, involving numerous actors outside the State Department and documents originally created in a growing variety of media. Stephen P. Randolph will discuss the series' past as well as the many challenges facing it today, not least technological developments that threaten the future of the bound volumes familiar to generations of diplomats and historians. What adjustments might be necessary to uphold the tradition of a thorough, accurate, and reliable record?
Stephen Randolph has been head of the Office of the Historian of the Department of State — with the official title The Historian — since 2012. Warren Kimball is a past chairman of the Advisory Committee on Historical Diplomatic Documentation, which reviews and makes recommendations on the Foreign Relations series. Richard Immerman is the present chairman of the committee.
