On October 27th the Institute for Strategic Policy Solutions at St. Petersburg College will bring author, documentary television writer, and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Hedrick Smith to the Seminole campus Conference Center to discuss his most recent book Who Stole the American Dream?.

Admission is $30 for guests, $25 for Village Square members and educators, and $20 for SPC students. The program runs from 6 PM until 8:15 PM and includes a question-and-answer period. Students in the Writing for Mass Media class and Sandbox News volunteers will be covering the event live on Twitter and Instagram.

Hedrick Smith was a reporter, and later Washington, D.C. bureau chief for The New York Times. In more than a quarter century of reporting for the Times, Smith covered stories from Martin Luther King’s march on Washington in 1963 to the end of the cold war. With Neil Sheehan, he published the Pentagon Papers in 1971, a story which the Nixon administration attempted to suppress, and led to the Supreme Court decision in Times v. United States that held that the government could not prevent the Times from publishing the Pentagon Papers, a key legal victory upholding the freedom of the press. His work on the Pentagon papers earned Smith a Pulitzer, and his reporting on Russia brought home his second Pulitzer prize. In addition to his work for the Times, Smith has also created 26 documentaries for the Public Broadcasting System, for which he has won two Emmy awards, two National Public Service awards, and two Dupont-Columbia awards for best public affairs programs on American television. His books include The Russians, The New Russians, and The Power Game: How Washington Works.

In his latest book, Who Stole the American Dream?, Smith shows how Democrats and Republicans transferred wealth and power from the middle class to the wealthiest Americans. Smith reveals the unpleasant truth, that America has gone from the land of opportunity to ranking below much of Europe in social mobility and that today’s children in America are unlikely to do better than their parents. Who Stole the American Dream? has received praise from The New York Times Book Review, Reuters, and Kirkus Reviews. The audience has a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to hear the author, one of America’s most accomplished journalists, discuss the most pressing problem facing our nation today: the ever widening gap between the haves and have-nots, and what Americans can do about it.

This event is the final event of the 2014 Village Square season at the Institute for Strategic Policy Solutions. Each year the Village Square provides a forum for civil discussion of some of the most pressing issues facing Pinellas county, Florida, and the nation. The Institute brings recognized leaders and experts to their forums to inform citizens and give the public an opportunity to ask questions and join the discussion. Learn more about the Institute for Strategic Policy Solutions on their webpage, and follow them on Facebook.

This event will be covered live, follow @SandboxSocial on Twitter, and Sandboxnews on Instagram.