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Presidential Peace Prize Winners
History Study Center
In addition to President Barack Obama, three other U.S. presidents have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. These winners include Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, and Jimmy Carter.
Each of these leaders lived in different times, had different temperaments and talents, and faced unique challenges. In this new History Study Center (trials) activity, explore the lives and accomplishments of these Nobel Laureates—what they have in common and what distinguishes their contributions to fostering world peace.
President Roosevelt won the prize in 1905 for his efforts in bringing the Russo-Japanese war to an end. In 1919, President Wilson was given the Nobel Peace Prize in recognition for his involvement in international affairs and for helping to found the League of Nations.
In 2002, more than twenty years after President Carter had left office, he was honored for "his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development." And as noted above, President Obama was awarded the prize in 2009 for promoting international cooperation.
President Roosevelt at the Treaty of Portsmouth
(History Study Center)
Activity
- Divide the class into four groups for the purpose of research on each of the U.S. presidents who have won the Nobel Peace Prize—Roosevelt, Wilson, Carter, and Obama. Assign each group a different president.
- Students can find relevant biographical and historical information on each of the presidents by doing searches in History Study Center and focusing on the reference materials available there.
- Have students link to the Nobelprize.org site. There they can find the list of Nobel Peace Prize Laureates and learn much more each of the presidents by reading the prize announcements, press releases, presentation and acceptance speeches, etc. Students should pay particular attention to discovering why these men were awarded the peace prize but should also look for relevant biographical information.
- Require each group to prepare a ten-minute presentation to the rest of the class in which they provide brief biographical information on the president they have researched, focusing especially on the accomplishments that led to that individual becoming a Nobel laureate.
- After the groups have completed their presentations, lead a discussion with the entire class in which you explore what all of the men have in common. Are there any noteworthy distinctions to be made among the men? Did winning the Nobel Peace Prize have a lasting impact on the legacy of these individuals?
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