2025 marks the 25th anniversary of the John W. Kluge Center at the Library of Congress. The Center was founded on October 5, 2000, thanks to the generous gift of $60 million from John W. Kluge, Metromedia’s former president, philanthropist, and chairman of the Madison Council. Kluge, in collaboration with then-Librarian of Congress James H. Billington, envisioned the Center as a place for the world’s leading thinkers to convene and draw on the Library’s vast treasures and resources. The Kluge Center’s mission is to connect top thinkers to lawmakers and other policy leaders, creating vital lines of conversation between scholars and elected representatives.
The Center has fulfilled that mission spectacularly: since its founding, more than 1,000 scholars have spent time at the Library to conduct research, participate in talks and seminars, and meet with members of Congress and their staff. Kluge Center scholars have brought expertise in fields ranging from international relations and political science, to U.S. and world history, to science and technology studies and media studies, as well as philosophy and ethics. Post-graduate researchers have come early in their careers, many to work on their first books. Others arrived at the Center at the height of their career as chairs or distinguished visiting scholars to share their knowledge and pursue new directions.
Over the past twenty-five years, the Kluge Center has fostered scholarship that has generated conferences, public talks, articles, musical compositions, and more than 140 books. Scholars enjoy unparalleled access to the Library’s over 178 million items, the largest collection in the world, which includes original manuscripts, as well as legal history, maps, and music, film, and photography archives. Housed in the Thomas Jefferson Building, dedicated study and meeting spaces provide a both peaceful and engaging academic environment that encourages creative exchange, while giving scholars the time, space, and focus to dedicate to their work.
To celebrate the Kluge Center’s anniversary, the 25 for 25 blog series will spotlight 25 books that were researched or written while their authors were in residence at the Kluge Center.
Selecting just 25 titles from hundreds of award-winning, ground-breaking, and widely different works was a daunting task. As a first step, a team of interns spent several weeks combing through the Kluge Center’s alumni roster to compile a long list of noteworthy publications. Kluge staff then further reviewed that list, ensuring each title met some key criteria: each book was at least partly researched or written at the Kluge Center, and the books were representative of the wide-ranging scholarship the Kluge Center is known for. Finally, a staff committee met to cull the shortlist to the 25 works you will see in this series. These conversations were challenging, in the best possible way, and involved lots of debate since the possible choices were so numerous. The 25 books that were ultimately selected represent only a small fraction of the Kluge Center’s diverse, rigorous, and imaginative scholarship, so we invite you to browse our full alumni list to learn more about our enterprising community.
The 25 for 25 series launches today—join us as we celebrate our Silver Jubilee!
