History
June
Monday June 9 2:00-4:00
North, South, and Beyond: The Untold Connections of the American Civil War and Continental North American Conflicts
This program is sponsored by Lee and Chesley Garrett
Join Professor Alan Taylor for a presentation on the entanglement of Canada in the American Civil War to the south which nearly led to a second northern front in that conflict. He will discuss the role of that near conflict in promoting the formation of a Canadian confederation in 1867 and examine the overlap of the Mexican and American civil wars during the 1860s. Initial American neutrality prolonged the Mexican conflict between the Republican liberals and the French-supported monarchists. After the American Civil War ended, the US government brought sufficient pressure to enable the Republican cause to prevail, producing a closer relationship between the US and Mexico for the rest of that century.
Location: CLE Lecture Hall
Alan Taylor is a distinguished American historian and author, specializing in early American history. He won the Pulitzer Prize in American History for The Internal Enemy: Slavery and War in Virginia, 1772-1832 (New York: W. W. Norton, 2013). He also won the Pulitzer Prize in United States History and the Bancroft Prize in American History for William Cooper’s Town: Power and Persuasion on the Frontier of the Early Republic, (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1996). He is the author of nine other books and received numerous honors, including membership in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society. He is the Thomas Jefferson Foundation Chair (Emeritus) in the Department of History at the University of Virginia. In addition to UVA, he has taught at the University of California, Davis, University of Oxford, Boston University, College of William and Mary, and Colby College. He has a B.A. in History from Colby College and a Ph.D. in American History from Brandeis University.
Tuesday June 10 10:00-12:00
Jefferson’s Vision: Education, Democracy, and the Struggle for a Republic
This program is sponsored by Bill Ritchie and Diana Hunt
Join Professor Alan Taylor for an examination of Thomas Jefferson’s program for public education and its essentiality to training citizens who would defend the republic against demagogues and tyrants. He will explain that, despite Jefferson’s urging, the Commonwealth of Virginia failed to fund such a program. He will explore the origins and early years of the University of Virginia and Jefferson’s attempt to reform the leadership class in that state. He will discuss the ways and whys of the frustration of Jefferson’s utopian vision.
Location: CLE Lecture Hall
Alan Taylor is a distinguished American historian and author, specializing in early American history. He won the Pulitzer Prize in American History for The Internal Enemy: Slavery and War in Virginia, 1772-1832 (New York: W. W. Norton, 2013). He also won the Pulitzer Prize in United States History and the Bancroft Prize in American History for William Cooper’s Town: Power and Persuasion on the Frontier of the Early Republic, (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1996). He is the author of nine other books and received numerous honors, including membership in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society. He is the Thomas Jefferson Foundation Chair (Emeritus) in the Department of History at the University of Virginia. In addition to UVA, he has taught at the University of California, Davis, University of Oxford, Boston University, College of William and Mary, and Colby College. He has a B.A. in History from Colby College and a Ph.D. in American History from Brandeis University.
Wednesday June 11 2:00-4:00
Thomas Nast: The Power of a Pen and the Art of Political Influence
Thomas Nast, revered as the “Father of the American Cartoon,” was a German immigrant whose family fled to America in 1840 after his father incurred the wrath of the Bavarian Government. Never a good student, young Nast was recognized at an early age as an artistic prodigy. By the age of 16, his drawings were already appearing in newspapers; by 18, his cartoons were appearing in the prestigious “Harper’s Weekly.” His political cartoons embodied the phrase, “A picture is worth 10,000 words.” A strong moralist and the scourge of crooked politicians, he gained praise from the tenements of New York to the White House while championing the rights of minorities. Nast’s drawings were the chief source of news for Americans during the Civil War, and he is regarded as perhaps the chief influencer of American thought in the late 19th century. He also had a whimsical side, creating the popular image of Santa Claus and the Republican Party elephant. Perhaps most importantly, he instituted respect for the value and importance of political cartooning which remains with us today. Join us as we examine the life of a man considered the most influential popular artist of the 19th century.
Location: CLE Lecture Hall
A Pittsburgh area native, Rick Kistner has lectured on various topics for over twenty years. Based on his dual professional career in local government administration and the performing arts, his topics primarily focus on American History, Biography, and Film and Theater. He holds a B.A. in Urban Studies from Wright State University and a Master’s in Public Administration from the University of Dayton. He served as an adjunct faculty member at two colleges. Since 2006, he has delivered over 500 programs for the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute and Road Scholar programs at Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, FL.
Thursday June 12 10:00-12:00
Edison Unplugged: The Genius, the Myths, and the Man Behind the Inventions
This program is sponsored by Bobby and Nikki Salerno
In 1847, in a small Ohio town near the shores of Lake Erie, was born a small boy who befuddled those he met. He didn’t talk until the age of four and when he enrolled in school, he was sent home as “unteachable.” Home-schooled, he developed a level of genius rarely seen and would go on to change the world with his many inventions. But the image of a kindly old white-haired man working in his laboratory is largely mythical. Thomas Edison was a product of the Gilded Age, and his main goal in life was to get rich. He would do whatever he could to achieve that goal, ruthlessly crushing competitors, taking credit for the work of others, and estranging himself from his children. Ultimately, his poor business decisions led to the loss of his fortune. Even so, life as we know it today was inexorably shaped by the man known as “The Wizard of Menlo Park.”
Location: CLE Lecture Hall
A Pittsburgh area native, Rick Kistner has lectured on various topics for over twenty years. Based on his dual professional career in local government administration and the performing arts, his topics primarily focus on American History, Biography, and Film and Theater. He holds a B.A. in Urban Studies from Wright State University and a Master’s in Public Administration from the University of Dayton. He served as an adjunct faculty member at two colleges. Since 2006, he has delivered over 500 programs for the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute and Road Scholar programs at Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, FL.
Tuesday June 17 10:00-12:00
We Are Not One People: Secession and Separatism in American Politics Since 1776
This program is sponsored by Chris and Jill Elliott
This presentation will focus on Dr. Atchisons’s co-authored book by the same title that was published by Oxford University Press. E pluribus unum was suggested for the national seal in 1776, but national oneness has been haunted by its opposite ever since. This presentation will examine how the persistence of separatist movements in American history reveals as much about the nation’s politics as it does the wouldbe separatists. The presentation will explore how great swaths of Americans of every ideological stripe, in good times and bad, in and beyond the South, have disputed the nation’s oneness and stressed its divisibility. Trumpeted in American myths, mottos, movies, and songs, separatism is omnipresent in American political culture. We can learn much about the durable appeal and enduring fragility of the United States from those who tried to leave it. As one Vermont separatist quips, leaving is as American “as apple pie.”
Location: CLE Lecture Hall
Dr. R. Jarrod Atchison serves as the John Kevin Medica Director of Debate and Professor of Communication at Wake Forest University. He is a scholar of American public address with an emphasis on public argument. His first book, A War of Words: The Rhetorical Leadership of Jefferson Davis, was published by the University of Alabama Press. His second book, We Are Not One People: Secession and Separatism in American Politics Since 1776, was co-written with Dr. Michael J. Lee and published by Oxford University Press. Dr. Atchison teaches courses on argumentation theory and practice, rhetorical theory and criticism, the rhetoric of the South, and conspiracy theories.
Wednesday June 18 10:00-12:00
The Pursuit of Happiness: Virtue, Self-Government, and the Legacy of the Founding Fathers
This program is sponsored by The Fred A. Moss Charitable Fund/ Freddie Flynt
The expression “pursuit of happiness” became a part of the American lexicon in the Declaration of Independence. Along with life and liberty, it was characterized as a self-evident “inalienable” right. Its etymology was well known to the Founding Fathers from the writings of John Locke to the texts of the early Greek and Roman moral philosophers concerning virtue. In this presentation, Professor Crespino will discuss the qualities of self-mastery deemed essential to a virtuous life and how those qualities influenced the larger enterprise of self-government over time. He will also discuss the struggles of the Founding Fathers in living up to this ideal. In an era characterized by the quest for material success, political polarization, quick fixes, and instant gratification, does the classical understanding of the “pursuit of happiness” still have resonance?
Location: CLE Lecture Hall
Joseph Crespino is the Jimmy Carter Professor of History at Emory University. He is an expert in the political and cultural history of the twentieth century United States and of the history of the American South since Reconstruction. Crespino has published three books, the most recent of which is Atticus Finch: The Biography—Harper Lee, Her Father, and the Making of an American Icon published in 2018. He is currently writing the chapters covering United States history in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries for the textbook America: A Narrative History. He received a BA from Northwestern University and a PhD from Stanford University
Friday June 20 2:00-4:00
Homes in the Sky: Satulah Mountain
This program is sponsored by The Fred A. Moss Charitable Fund/ Freddie Flynt
The year 2025 marks the 150th Anniversary of the founding of the Town of Highlands. On March 6, 1875, Samuel Kelsey and Clinton Carter “C.C” Hutchinson stood on the summit of Satulah Mountain and mapped out a crude survey of the town below. This presentation focuses on the neighborhood that was eventually created on the mountain itself. The lecture will, in part, review the book, Satulah: the Mountain, by James E. Green, originally published in 2010, by focusing on the unique circumstances and personalities of early residents that led them to build their homes in such an extreme location. Though the name of the mountain has uncertain origins, its impact and presence looming over Highlands’ history is most definite today. This program is in collaboration with the Highlands Historical Society.
Location: CLE Lecture Hall
Tracy L. Foor is the current President of the Highlands Historical Society. The mission of HHS is to “preserve and promote the rich cultural heritage of Highlands for present and future generations.” The Historical Village owned and operated by HHS is home to a museum and the Prince House, Highlands’ oldest surviving residence. It is open from Memorial Day weekend through the end of October each year for visitors with free admission.
Monday June 23 2:00-4:00
Patrick Henry’s Last Stand: Lessons on Loyalty, Opposition, and the Survival of Democracy
This program is sponsored by Cathy Temple
Hyper-partisanship in the 1790s drove the still-new United States to the brink of Civil War. Thomas Jefferson warned that the Federalists’ Sedition Act initiated a “reign of witches” and asked states to “nullify” federal laws. Shocked by the possibilities of state-federal conflict and the possibility of secession, George Washington begged Patrick Henry to come out of retirement to oppose Jefferson’s radical states’ rights agenda. Henry, the great anti-federalist who had opposed ratification of the Constitution as creating a government too powerful and distant from the people, entered his final political campaign to defend the young nation and the Constitution that he had opposed. In the process, Henry explained the role of a “loyal opposition,” offering a lesson for our time. This story — recounted in Dr. Ragosta’s book, For the People, For the Country: Patrick Henry’s Final Political Battle — is the story about how a democracy must work if it is to survive.
Location: CLE Lecture Hall
John Ragosta, a fellow at Virginia Humanities, was previously the acting director of the Robert H. Smith International Center for Jefferson Studies at Monticello. He has taught law and history at the University of Virginia, George Washington University, and Hamilton, Oberlin, and Randolph Colleges. Dr. Ragosta’s most recent book – For the People, For the Country: Patrick Henry’s Final Political Battle – was released in late 2023 by the University of Virginia Press. He is also the author of Religious Freedom: Jefferson’s Legacy, America’s Creed (UVA Press, 2013), Wellspring of Liberty (Oxford 2010), and other works. An award-winning author and frequent commentator, Ragosta holds both a PhD and a JD from the University of Virginia. Before returning to academia, Dr. Ragosta was a partner at Dewey Ballantine LLP. He is also a beekeeper.
Tuesday June 24 10:00-12:00
Hornets, Snakes, Baptists, and Presbyterians: Creating American Religious Freedom
Before the American Revolution, religious freedom in America was seriously limited. Most colonies had an established church, church taxes, and/or required tests for office or even voting. In Virginia, the largest, wealthiest and most populous colony, dissenters from Virginia’s established church, the Church of England, faced serious legal discrimination and persecution. After the Revolution, Virginia adopted Thomas Jefferson’s “Statute for Establishing Religious Freedom,” providing the most eloquent and fullest protection for religious liberty. Jefferson’s Statute later provided a foundation for the First Amendment. Dr. Ragosta will discuss the relatively unknown role of Virginia’s religious dissenters, primarily evangelical Baptist and Presbyterian, in both winning the American Revolution and in establishing religious liberty, including a strict separation of church and state.
Location: CLE Lecture Hall
John Ragosta, a fellow at Virginia Humanities, was previously the acting director of the Robert H. Smith International Center for Jefferson Studies at Monticello. He has taught law and history at the University of Virginia, George Washington University, and Hamilton, Oberlin, and Randolph Colleges. Dr. Ragosta’s most recent book – For the People, For the Country: Patrick Henry’s Final Political Battle – was released in late 2023 by the University of Virginia Press. He is also the author of Religious Freedom: Jefferson’s Legacy, America’s Creed (UVA Press, 2013), Wellspring of Liberty (Oxford 2010), and other works. An award-winning author and frequent commentator, Ragosta holds both a PhD and a JD from the University of Virginia. Before returning to academia, Dr. Ragosta was a partner at Dewey Ballantine LLP. He is also a beekeeper.
Wednesday June 25 10:00-12:00
Remnants of a Golden Era: Exploring Six Decades of Cuban-American History and Cooperation
Cuba is a historical laboratory of buildings, streets, and artifacts that have been mostly untouched since 1960—allowing visitors to transport themselves into a time and space that has not evolved into modern times. In this historical presentation, Mario Cartaya retraces and recalls six decades of friendly and cooperative Cuban-American relations and history
Location: CLE Lecture Hall
Mario Cartaya was born in Cuba and immigrated to the U. S. as a political refugee in 1960. He graduated Magna Cum Laude in Architecture from the University of Florida in 1975, founded Cartaya and Associates Architects in 1979, and became an American architect of note. His award-winning designs were read into the U. S. Congress in 2019 and a U. S. flag flew over the Capitol in 2022 honoring his retirement. He is currently enjoying his new career as an author and lecturer.
Thursday June 26 2:00-4:00
Lafayette’s Legacy: The Hero of Two Worlds and His Enduring Impact on American Identity
This program is sponsored by The Fred A. Moss Charitable Fund/ Freddie Flynt
The Marquis de Lafayette (1757-1834) became the most popular foreigner in the American Revolution, but he became even more famous during a triumphal return visit to every American state in 1824-25. This program will examine Lafayette’s lifelong actions and ideas as well as the reasons for the vast, nationalist celebration of Lafayette during his nineteenth-century tour. We’ll discuss his contributions to early American nationalism and his current significance for the thousands of Americans who are now commemorating the bicentennial of his tour in the cities to which he returned as “The Hero of Two Worlds.” Why do Americans find this steadfast, French defender of human rights and democratic institutions to be a stillrelevant historical symbol in 2025, and why are so many American towns called Fayetteville or Lafayette?
Location: CLE Lecture Hall
Lloyd Kramer is a Professor Emeritus of History and a former chair of the History Department at UNC, Chapel Hill, where he also served for ten years as the Director of Carolina Public Humanities. His research and teaching have focused on modern France and the wider Atlantic world, and his most recent book, Traveling to Unknown Places: Nineteenth-Century Journeys Toward French and American Selfhood, was published in 2024 by the UNC Press. He received his Ph.D. from Cornell University and is coauthor of A History of Europe in the Modern World, which is now in its 12th edition.
Friday June 27 10:00-12:00
Rising from Ruin: How Failure Shapes Nations, Individuals, and History
Americans like to celebrate national and personal success, but every society and every individual must respond to failures and unexpected defeats. Nobody can really succeed unless they know how to survive painful failures. This program will examine some great national failures, from the collapse of ancient Athenian democracy after military defeats to the decimation of Napoleon’s army in early 19th-century Russia. But we’ll also discuss writers who lost their reputations in literary failures, investors who lost their money in “stock bubbles,” and workers who lost their jobs in the Great Depression. Historians and philosophers have long analyzed the ways in which people interpret great failures, and they have posed a question that will shape our discussion: How do historical perspectives help us understand and move beyond the setbacks, defeats, and failures that are forever reshaping human lives?
Location: CLE Lecture Hall
Lloyd Kramer is a Professor Emeritus of History and a former chair of the History Department at UNC, Chapel Hill, where he also served for ten years as the Director of Carolina Public Humanities. His research and teaching have focused on modern France and the wider Atlantic world, and his most recent book, Traveling to Unknown Places: Nineteenth-Century Journeys Toward French and American Selfhood, was published in 2024 by the UNC Press. He received his Ph.D. from Cornell University and is coauthor of A History of Europe in the Modern World, which is now in its 12th edition.
Monday June 30 2:00-4:00
Art and Upheaval: From Impressionism to Surrealism in Times of Political Turmoil
This program is sponsored by Al and Martha Pearson
This presentation will review two major modern art movements, 19th c. Impressionism and 20th c. Surrealism, and place them in the context of the social and political upheavals that gave rise to them. We’ll review the bitter and brutal Siege of Paris during the Franco-Prussian War and the subsequent internecine violence of the Paris Commune to reveal the connection between a failed revolution and Impressionism in the last decades of the 19th c. We will then pivot to the advent of Surrealism as a response to the horrors of World War I. Participants will come away with a better appreciation of the tight connection between art, society, and politics.
Location: CLE Lecture Hall
Max Owre is the Executive Director of Carolina Public Humanities. A graduate of the University of Vermont, he obtained his PhD in modern European history from UNCCH in 2008. Max is a lecturer in the History Department, teaching courses in European, world and colonial history since 2007. Max is a principal organizer, and frequent host and moderator of CPH Events. He also lectures frequently for CPH on various topics in French and European history.
July
Thursday July 10 10:00-12:00
Washington’s Constitution
This program is sponsored by Al and Martha Pearson
During the summer of 1787, fifty-five delegates from twelve states met for over three months in Philadelphia to frame a new constitution for the young republic. Every delegate wanted a stronger federal union with centralized control over national defense and interstate and international commerce. They accepted that this central government needed the power to tax and spend for the general welfare. They sharply differed on other matters, particularly the residual power of the states, representation within the federal congress, power of the executive, and protections for state-sanctioned slavery. Unanimously elected to preside over the convention, George Washington came to Philadelphia with a vision for federal union. He orchestrated the compromises that kept the drafting process moving. The assumption that he would lead the new government resulted in delegates granting vast powers to the presidency. His visible support led to its ratification and his leadership as president shaped its implementation.
Location: CLE Lecture Hall
Ed Larson holds the Darling Chair in Law and is University Professor of History at Pepperdine University. Recipient of the 1998 Pulitzer Prize in History for Summer for the Gods: The Scopes Trial and America’s Continuing Debate Over Science and Religion, Larson received a Ph.D in the history of science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a law degree from Harvard. He taught for twenty years at the University of Georgia, where he chaired the history department. The author of fifteen books and over eighty published articles, his books also include A Magnificent Catastrophe: The Tumultuous Election of 1800; Evolution: The Remarkable History of a Scientific Theory; and New York Times bestsellers, The Return of George Washington, 1783-1789 and Franklin & Washington: The Founding Partnership. Larson recently published, American Inheritance: Liberty and Slavery in the Birth of a Nation, 1765-1795. His next book, Declaring Independence: Why 1776 Matters, is due out in November, 2025.
Wednesday July 16 2:00-4:00
Roots of Conflict: The History Behind Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine
This program is sponsored by Mark and Genevieve Crozier
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 created a global shockwave which threatened the stability of Europe and created food and energy security risks globally. This lecture will focus on the twentieth-century history of Russian-Ukrainian relations with an eye to the deeper historical factors behind the recent conflict. Beginning with an assessment of Russia’s two main justifications for war— ideas about Ukraine in Russian nationalist ideology and the role of NATO in Eastern Europe—the lecture will review Ukraine’s Soviet history from the revolution to the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. This more recent history—why the Soviets drew borders the way they did, why Ukraine suffered under Stalin, how Ukraine became an independent country in 1991, and where the West fits in—provides the critical context for the war.
Location: CLE Lecture Hall
Joseph Kellner received his Ph.D. in European history from the University of California, Berkeley in 2018, and is now assistant professor of Russian and Soviet history at the University of Georgia. His forthcoming book, The Spirit of Socialism: Culture and Belief at the Soviet Collapse, is the first cultural history of the end of the Soviet Union and is scheduled for publication by Cornell University Press in June of 2025.
Thursday July 17 2:00-4:00
Revolution or Terror? Unpacking the Roots of Political Violence
This program is sponsored by The Fred A. Moss Charitable Fund/ Freddie Flynt
“One man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom-fighter”– so begins the debate about terrorism as a political concept and legal definition. While terrorism has plagued the modern world since the “long nineteenth century,” it remains deeply misunderstood. Seeking to understand terrorism as a sociopolitical phenomenon, this session investigates the full emergence of terrorism in Europe during the second half of the nineteenth century, when anarchist revolutionaries hoped that “propaganda by the deed” would inspire revolutions and create a new and more equitable and peaceful world.
Location: CLE Lecture Hall
Dr. Jordan Kuck is associate professor of history and chair of Humanities at Brevard College. Dr. Kuck is an expert on the modern history of Northeastern Europe, and his research deals with the history of nationalism and authoritarianism in the Baltic States during the interwar period. Dr. Kuck has published chapters in edited volumes that marked the centennial of Latvian independence and contributed chapters to three recent or forthcoming books, Dictatorship and Daily Life in Twentieth Century Europe, Transnational and Transatlantic Fascism in East Central and Southeastern Europe, 1918–2018, and Food and Food Policies under 20th-Century European Dictatorships. Dr. Kuck is also currently working on a manuscript on the Kārlis Ulmanis regime in Latvia. Dr. Kuck has also given high-profile public talks, including as a spotlight speaker for the World Affairs Council’s national conference in Washington, D.C. He has received in support of his research a Fulbright, a U.S. Department of Education Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowship, as well as a grant from the Association for the Advancement of Baltic Studies.
Tuesday July 22 2:00-4:00
Henry Ossawa Tanner: America’s First Internationally Recognized African-American Artist
This program is sponsored by Terry Adamson and Ede Holiday
In this lecture Dr. Harvey sketches the career of Henry O. Tanner, from his roots in the AME Church to his studies with Thomas Eakins in Philadelphia and his blossoming career in Paris. Although he is best known for his religious subjects, painted after his arrival in Paris in 1892, Tanner has an important connection to Highlands, where he spent the summer of 1888 during a teaching stint in Atlanta at Clark University. His experiences here influenced two of his widely admired paintings of the African-American community, The Banjo Lesson (1893) and The Thankful Poor (1894), both exhibited to wide acclaim in Europe. This program is in collaboration with the Highlands Historical Society.
Location: CLE Lecture Hall
Join us after Dr. Harvey’s presentation from 4:30 - 6:30 for a wine reception at High Country Wine & Provisions!
Eleanor Jones Harvey is senior curator of 18th and 19th century American art at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. She earned a B.A. with distinction in art history at the University of Virginia, and a Ph.D. from Yale University. Dr. Harvey studies the intersection of landscape painting and American culture. In 2012 she organized The Civil War and American Art which then traveled to the Metropolitan Museum of Art; and her most recent project was Alexander von Humboldt and the United States: Art, Nature, and Culture, on view at SAAM during 2020 and 2021.
Monday July 28 2:00-4:00
Triumph and Tragedy: Zionism, the Palestinians, and the Creation of Israel, 1917-1948
Join Professor Kevin Jones for this session covering the early history of the Israel-Palestine conflict, from the beginning of the British Mandate to the creation of the state of Israel. We will cover four key thematic questions: (1) Why were the Zionists more successful than the Palestinians in establishing organizations and institutions that could function as the nucleus of an independent state? (2) Why did Palestinians turn from diplomacy to resistance and rebellion against both Britain and the Zionists during the course of the colonial period, and how successful was the strategy of violence? (3) How did the relatively small Israeli army (IDF) so decisively defeat the much larger combined forces of the Palestinians and their Arab state allies? (4) Did the Palestinian refugees “flee” or were they “expelled” from their homes during the 1948 war, and why has the ensuing Palestinian refugee crisis endured for so much longer than other comparable refugee crises?
Location: CLE Lecture Hall
Kevin Jones is Associate Professor of History and Department Head at the University of Georgia. He earned his PhD in History from the University of Michigan and was a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at the George Washington University Institute for Middle East Studies before beginning his current position at the University of Georgia. His work has appeared in Social History, and his book, The Dangers of Poetry: Culture, Politics, and Revolution in Iraq, was published by Stanford University Press in 2020.
Tuesday July 29 10:00-12:00
The Gun and the Olive Branch: Palestinian Armed Struggle and the Peace Process, 1967-2025
This session covers the history of the Palestinian national movement from the Six-Day War of June 1967 until the present day. Professor Kevin Jones will cover four key thematic questions: (1) How did the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) justify its use of violence, including attacks on Jewish civilians and airplane hijacking, and how “successful” were these strategies of warfare and terrorism? (2) Given the widespread popular support among both Palestinians and Israelis for the idea of a two-state solution endorsed by the Oslo Accords, why did the Peace Process ultimately fail? (3) Why did Palestinian public opinion gradually shift away from secular political movements like the PLO and toward religious movements like Hamas and Islamic Jihad in the 1990s and 2000s? (4) What did Hamas hope to accomplish with the high-profile attack of October 7th, 2023, and how is the ensuing war in Gaza likely to reshape the future of the conflict?
Location: CLE Lecture Hall
Kevin Jones is Associate Professor of History and Department Head at the University of Georgia. He earned his PhD in History from the University of Michigan and was a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at the George Washington University Institute for Middle East Studies before beginning his current position at the University of Georgia. His work has appeared in Social History, and his book, The Dangers of Poetry: Culture, Politics, and Revolution in Iraq, was published by Stanford University Press in 2020.
Thursday July 31 2:00-4:00
Borders and Beliefs: Debunking Myths About Immigration
Immigration was a huge issue in our recent election, so huge that it might seem like unrestricted immigration is a recent phenomenon. In fact, migration is as old as human history; what’s new is the idea that governments can and should restrict people’s movements. For most of human history, governments have encouraged, not barred, migrants. Professor Hahamovitch will discuss common myths about immigration and the rise of the biggest myth of them all: the idea that migration can be stopped.
Location: CLE Lecture Hall
Cindy Hahamovitch is the B. Phinzy Spalding Distinguished Professor of History at the University of Georgia. A historian of international and US labor migration, she is the author of The Fruits of Their Labor: Atlantic Coast Farmworkers and the Making of Migrant Poverty, 1870-1945, and the tripleprize winning, No Man’s Land: Jamaican Guestworkers in America and the Global History of Deportable Labor. She is past president of the Labor and Working Class History Association and of the Southern Labor Studies Association. In addition to writing books about human trafficking and Jim Crow South Florida, she is producing very short films on the history of Athens, Georgia, for 11th grade classrooms.
August
Friday August 1 10:00-12:00
Oceans of Grain: How Wheat and War Shaped Empires and World History
Though we often speculate, it is difficult to pinpoint how empires are made and how they fall. But by tracing a single crop — wheat — historian Scott Reynolds Nelson demonstrates its profound impact on the world economic and political stage in his critically acclaimed book: Oceans of Grain: How American Wheat Remade the World. He will describe how the US, from its founding in 1776, sought to replace Imperial Russia as the breadbasket of Europe and only succeeded when the US Civil War threatened to end the republic. He’ll show how three microscopic organisms that traveled with food - fungi, a potato blight, and the plague - rewrote world history
Location: CLE Lecture Hall
Scott Reynolds Nelson is the Georgia Athletic Association Professor of History at UGA. His 2006 book Steel Drivin’ Man, about the legend of John Henry won four national awards including the Curti Prize for best book in US history. His latest book, Oceans of Grain: How American Wheat Remade the World compares the conflicts over western American expansion in the Civil War to conflict over Russian expansion into the Black Sea. It has been featured on BBC, CBC, NPR, and received rave reviews in the Wall Street Journal and The Financial Times.
Wednesday August 6 2:00-4:00
Free Expression from Ben Franklin to Facebook
This program is sponsored by Al and Martha Pearson
What do we mean when we say that free expression should be regulated by the “free marketplace of ideas?” This seductive metaphor has gained widespread currency in the modern United States. For this reason, it is worth thinking about its history. Who popularized the idea? Who opposed it? How is the market to be regulated (as all markets are)? This illustrated lecture surveys the long history of free expression in the United States from the enactment of the First Amendment in 1791 which limited the power of Congress to restrict the press, to the rise of the Internet, and the challenges posed by AI. Among the topics that we will consider will be the abolitionist mails controversy of the 1830s, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.’s famous dissents in First World War era sedition cases, the regulation of movies and radio during the Second World War, and a little known law—Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996—that has structured public discourse on social media platforms and other on-line communications today.
Location: CLE Lecture Hall
Richard R. John is a Professor of History and Communications at Columbia University. He specializes in the history of business, technology, communications, and American political development. He teaches and advises graduate students in Columbia’s Ph.D. program in communications at the Columbia Journalism School and is a member of the core faculty of the Columbia history department, where he teaches courses on the history of capitalism and the history of communications. His publications include many essays, eight edited books, and two monographs: “Spreading the News: The American Postal System from Franklin to Morse” (1995) and “Network Nation: Inventing American Telecommunications” (2010). He has a B.A. in social studies, a M.A. in history and a Ph.D. in the history of American civilization, all from Harvard University.
Thursday August 7 10:00-12:00
Exclusive! How Journalists Skewered Big Business in U. S. History—and Why It Mattered
This program is sponsored by Al and Martha Pearson
Thoughtful Americans have long resented special privilege and foreign domination. For much of U. S. history, one word—monopoly--symbolized both of these perils. To combat these perils, journalists —in conjunction with jurists, government officials, social scientists, and business people—have popularized an anti-monopoly vision that has shaped law, public policy, and popular culture. This illustrated lecture (with lots of cartoons) surveys the long history of journalistic representations of big business in U S. history. Why is big business so often represented as an octopus? What about “Mr. Money Bags”—the comic figure in the popular board game “Monopoly”? Anti-monopoly is often conflated with the “big is bad” ethos identified with an 1890 law known as the Sherman Act. This is misleading. The journalistic critique of big business in U. S. history is much more capacious. In 1904, for example, journalist William Randolph Hearst ran for president on a platform that was anti-trust, but pro-municipal ownership. The journalistic indictment of big business—in cartoons, fiction, and oratory, as well as the law—offers us a window on one of the most enduring political impulses in American history. In this lecture, we will not only see how, but also why, this indictment mattered in the past, and how it can help us think more constructively about plutocracy, health care, finance, digital media platforms, and the “tech-industrial complex” of the present.
Location: CLE Lecture Hall
Richard R. John is a Professor of History and Communications at Columbia University. He specializes in the history of business, technology, communications, and American political development. He teaches and advises graduate students in Columbia’s Ph.D. program in communications at the Columbia Journalism School and is a member of the core faculty of the Columbia history department, where he teaches courses on the history of capitalism and the history of communications. His publications include many essays, eight edited books, and two monographs: “Spreading the News: The American Postal System from Franklin to Morse” (1995) and “Network Nation: Inventing American Telecommunications” (2010). He has a B.A. in social studies, a M.A. in history and a Ph.D. in the history of American civilization, all from Harvard University.
Wednesday August 13 2:00-4:00
Jimmy Carter: An American Giant
This program is sponsored by Terry Adamson & Ede Holiday
Join US Presidential Historian Douglas Brinkley for a discussion on why Jimmy Carter is one of the great figures of the 20th and 21st centuries. He will evaluate the lasting importance of Carter’s Camp David Accords; personal diplomacy with China’s Deng Xiaoping; lifetime humanitarian work in Africa; and the sudden controversial Panama Canal treaty. Brinkley will also discuss in detail why Carter was the most successful land and water conservation president since Theodore Roosevelt. Having written a biography of Carter ‘s post White House years titled, The Unfinished Presidency, Brinkley will offer personal stories about his own experiences with the ex-president including Habitat for Humanity house builds and travels to Israel/Gaza.
Location: CLE Lecture Hall
Douglas Brinkley is Professor of History at Rice University, a CNN Presidential Historian, and award winning author of numerous books of American History. He has written biographies of Dean Acheson, James Forrestal, Jimmy Carter, Henry Ford, Rosa Parks and Walter Cronkite, among others, and was the editor of President Ronald Reagan’s presidential diaries. He is the New York Historical Society’s official U.S. Presidential Historian. He has written many books that address political leadership and environmental concerns, including: The Wilderness Warrior: Theodore Roosevelt and the Crusade for America; The Quiet World: Saving Alaska’s Wilderness Kingdom, 1879-1960; Rightful Heritage: Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Land of America; and most recently, in 2022, Silent Spring Revolution: John F. Kennedy, Rachel Carson, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard Nixon, and the Great Environmental Awakening. He has held leadership advisory roles in support of the American Museum of Natural History, Yellowstone Park Foundation, National Audubon Society and the Rockefeller-Roosevelt Conservation Roundtable. He has edited books about Jack Kerouac and Hunter Thompson, as well as two volumes of The Nixon Tapes: 1971-72 and 1973. He has been on the Board of Trustees at Brevard College and the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library. He is a member of the Century Association, Council of Foreign Relations and James Madison Council of the Library of Congress. He received his M.A and PhD from Georgetown University.
Thursday August 14 10:00-12:00
The Boys of Pointe du Hoc: D Day and the US Army 2nd Rangers
This program is sponsored by Milton and Margie Ruben
Join Douglas Brinkley for a discussion on the history of D Day ( June 6, 1944) from the perspective of the US Army 2nd Rangers who stormed the coast of Normandy by climbing the 100 foot promontory known as Pointe du Hoc. Facing arguably the toughest task to befall US forces during World War II , the brave special ops battalion boldly seized control of the fortified cliff and set in motion the Liberation of Europe.
Location: CLE Lecture Hall
Douglas Brinkley is Professor of History at Rice University, a CNN Presidential Historian, and award winning author of numerous books of American History. He has written biographies of Dean Acheson, James Forrestal, Jimmy Carter, Henry Ford, Rosa Parks and Walter Cronkite, among others, and was the editor of President Ronald Reagan’s presidential diaries. He is the New York Historical Society’s official U.S. Presidential Historian. He has written many books that address political leadership and environmental concerns, including: The Wilderness Warrior: Theodore Roosevelt and the Crusade for America; The Quiet World: Saving Alaska’s Wilderness Kingdom, 1879-1960; Rightful Heritage: Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Land of America; and most recently, in 2022, Silent Spring Revolution: John F. Kennedy, Rachel Carson, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard Nixon, and the Great Environmental Awakening. He has held leadership advisory roles in support of the American Museum of Natural History, Yellowstone Park Foundation, National Audubon Society and the Rockefeller-Roosevelt Conservation Roundtable. He has edited books about Jack Kerouac and Hunter Thompson, as well as two volumes of The Nixon Tapes: 1971-72 and 1973. He has been on the Board of Trustees at Brevard College and the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library. He is a member of the Century Association, Council of Foreign Relations and James Madison Council of the Library of Congress. He received his M.A and PhD from Georgetown University.
Monday August 25 2:00-4:00
Beyond Rosie: Women and World War II
This program is sponsored by The Fred A. Moss Charitable Fund/ Freddie Flynt
More so than any war in history, World War II was a woman’s war. Motivated by patriotism, the opportunity for new experiences, and the desire to serve, women participated in the global conflict and became invaluable in the fight for victory. Rosie the Riveter became the most enduring image of women’s involvement in World War II. What Rosie represented, however, is only a small part of a complex story. Join Dr. Catherine Lewis as she examines how women became wartime production workers, enlistees in auxiliary military units, members of voluntary organizations or resistance groups, wives and mothers on the home front, journalists, and USO performers. American women met the challenge and changed the everyday social, cultural, and economic realities of life in the United States for generations to come.
Location: CLE Lecture Hall
Dr. Catherine Lewis is Assistant Vice President of Museums, Archives & Rare Books and KSU Libraries and Professor of History at Kennesaw State University. She is the author, co-editor, or co-author of fifteen books, including Don’t Ask What I Shot: How Eisenhower’s Love of Golf Shaped 1950s America (McGraw Hill) and Kick Up Some Dust: Lessons on Thinking Big, Giving Back, and Doing It Yourself with Bernie Marcus (William Morrow). She has curated more than 40 exhibits for organizations around the nation including the Atlanta History Center, the Breman Museum, Delta Air Lines, Augusta National Golf Club, and the United Way. Dr. Lewis’s research interests are varied and include World War II and the Holocaust, Jewish history, public history, sport history, African-American history, women’s history, and museum studies. Dr. Lewis completed her second term as president of the Georgia Association of Museums and Galleries in 2016. She serves on several boards, including the Women’s Leadership Committee at Kennesaw State University, the Yates Scholarship Board for the Georgia State Golf Association, and the Museum Committee for the United States Golf Association. She is the chair of the Bobby Jones Scholarship Advisory Committee, a partnership between Emory University and the University of St. Andrews.
Tuesday August 26 10:00-12:00
Hollywood Goes to War
This program is sponsored by The Fred A. Moss Charitable Fund/ Freddie Flynt
The United States entered World War II with the bombing of Pearl Harbor in December 1941, and Hollywood came to play a critical role in the war effort. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, General Dwight D. Eisenhower, studio executives, filmmakers, actors, and directors understood the power of movies to boost morale at home and abroad and invested time and resources to bring new stories to the silver screen. Join Dr. Catherine Lewis as she examines how Hollywood marshalled its time, talents, and treasure to promote wartime service and patriotism on the home front through newsreels, military combat footage, informative short films, cartoons, and full-length features like Foreign Correspondent (1940), Casablanca (1942), Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942), and Since You Went Away (1944).
Location: CLE Lecture Hall
Dr. Catherine Lewis is Assistant Vice President of Museums, Archives & Rare Books and KSU Libraries and Professor of History at Kennesaw State University. She is the author, co-editor, or co-author of fifteen books, including Don’t Ask What I Shot: How Eisenhower’s Love of Golf Shaped 1950s America (McGraw Hill) and Kick Up Some Dust: Lessons on Thinking Big, Giving Back, and Doing It Yourself with Bernie Marcus (William Morrow). She has curated more than 40 exhibits for organizations around the nation including the Atlanta History Center, the Breman Museum, Delta Air Lines, Augusta National Golf Club, and the United Way. Dr. Lewis’s research interests are varied and include World War II and the Holocaust, Jewish history, public history, sport history, African-American history, women’s history, and museum studies. Dr. Lewis completed her second term as president of the Georgia Association of Museums and Galleries in 2016. She serves on several boards, including the Women’s Leadership Committee at Kennesaw State University, the Yates Scholarship Board for the Georgia State Golf Association, and the Museum Committee for the United States Golf Association. She is the chair of the Bobby Jones Scholarship Advisory Committee, a partnership between Emory University and the University of St. Andrews.