Miller Center 50th anniversary video collection
This special video series, prepared in celebration of the Center's 50th anniversary, highlights our key programs
We see a better way for the nation. A more informed democracy. A nation full of leaders guided by intelligence and driven by an inner need for truth—leaders who know that you have to look back to see ahead, that to comprehend our present, you must first understand our past. At the Miller Center, we strive to illuminate presidential and political history accurately and fairly. To shine a light on all the ways our democracy has worked—and all the times America has struggled. To inspire America’s leaders with unbiased insights, especially on the presidency, that advance democratic institutions and the public good. Now beginning our sixth decade, we make our home at the University of Virginia, the nation’s first presidential university, founded by Thomas Jefferson. We carry forward a unique nonpartisan tradition, generating scholarship in the public interest to help guide the future of American democracy.
The Miller Center is a nonpartisan institution at the University of Virginia that explores how the American presidency meets national priorities and engages scholars with leading citizens to help solve major problems.
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Presidential Recordings Program
Through our unique collection of Secret White House Tapes, we eavesdrop on presidents from Franklin Roosevelt to Richard Nixon to hear their intimate conversations with advisors, world leaders, loved ones, and friends--thousands of hours of Oval Office recordings, each minute holding the potential to let us see history with greater clarity.
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Presidential Oral History Program
We explore the most recent administrations—every presidency from Gerald Ford to Donald Trump—through our Presidential Oral History Program. Leading days-long intensive debriefings with scores of the most important players closest to each president, Miller Center scholars ask probing questions, capture irreplaceable memories, and discover new perspectives on events many of us will always remember—and others that took place behind the scenes.
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Policy Research Program
The Miller Center’s Policy Research Program brings together scholars and practitioners from around the Commonwealth and across the country to enrich scholarly research and public programming. Because the American presidency is so multifaceted, our scholars and practitioners contribute to a wide range of research projects. Core groups of scholars work on health care policy, national defense, bipartisanship, democracy and capitalism, civil rights and civil liberties, immigration policy, and other issues.
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Public Programming
At the Miller Center, we believe that opposing positions can both have merit; that we can investigate questions of fact and discuss questions of opinion; that we can be open to changing our minds; and that our political system benefits from compromise. That’s why every year we bring together Republicans and Democrats, liberals and conservatives. We convene dozens of events fostering civil and intellectual dialogue among scholars, politicians, journalists, and citizens.
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Miller Center Governing Council
The Miller Center, under the oversight of its Governing Council, or board of directors, is an integral part of the University of Virginia, with maximum autonomy within the University system. Our programs are supported by the funds we solicit through the Miller Center Foundation and our endowment. Since 1975, many remarkable individuals have sustained the Miller Center as Governing Council members, bringing different life experiences and fields of expertise to bear on their oversight of the Center’s work.