William Oliver Stone is an American film director, screenwriter, producer and veteran. Stone came to public prominence between the mid-1980s and the early 1990s for writing and directing a series of films about the Vietnam War, in which he had participated as an infantry soldier. Many of Stone's films focus on contemporary and controversial American political and cultural issues. Stone has received three Academy Awards for his work on the films Midnight Express, Platoon, and Born on the Fourth of July. He was presented with the Extraordinary Contribution to Filmmaking Award at the 2007 Austin Film Festival. Oliver Stone and Peter Kuznick co-wrote the script The Untold History of the United States, a 10-part series. When the first three episodes of the series premiered at the New York Film Festival on October 6, 2012, Indiewire described them as "extremely compelling" and "daring". The series is supplemented by a 750-page companion book of the same name, also written by Stone and Kuznick, released on October 30, 2012 by Simon & Schuster.
Professor Peter J. Kuznick is an expert on twentieth-century American history and director of American University’s award winning Nuclear Studies Institute. He writes often and lectures frequently about nuclear issues in general and the atomic bombings in particular. In 2003, he helped found the Committee for a National Discussion of Nuclear History and Current Policy in response to the latest Smithsonian Enola Gay exhibit and helps coordinate the Nuclear Education Project. He has also written a screenplay on the early Cold War. He regularly provides commentary to the media on a broad range of subject and was selected Organization of American Historians Distinguished Lecturer, 2004-2007.
