SPARTANBURG, S.C. – Pulitzer Prize-winning presidential biographer Edmund Morris highlights a series of guest speakers at Wofford College who focus on various aspects of U.S. presidential history.
Morris, considered one of the world’s foremost authorities on President Theodore Roosevelt, will speak on “Theodore Roosevelt, the Conservationist” at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 26, in the Chapman Lecture in the Humanities. The event will be held in Leonard Auditorium in Main Building on Wofford’s campus.
Morris has written three books on different eras of Roosevelt’s life. The first, “The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt (1979),” went on to win a Pulitzer Prize, while the second, “Theodore Rex” (2001), was awarded the Los Angeles Times Award for biography.
In addition to Morris, Wofford will host Dr. David Reynolds, professor of international history and a fellow of Christ’s College at Cambridge University in England, speaking on Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin and his correspondence with President Franklin Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill; Dr. Warren Kimball, the spring semester Lewis P. Jones Visiting Professor of History, also speaking about postwar FDR, Churchill and Stalin; and Jon Meacham, Pulitzer Prize-winning presidential biographer, presenting on President Donald Trump.
“It is an honor to have so many prestigious, well-respected presidential scholars coming to Wofford’s campus. Our Department of History has put together an impressive list of guest speakers that we know our students will benefit from hearing,” President Nayef Samhat says. “We also hope members of the Spartanburg and surrounding community will avail themselves of the unique opportunity this series of speakers provides.”
Reynolds will speak at 4 p.m. Thursday, March 14, on “The Kremlin Letters: Stalin’s Wartime Correspondence with Roosevelt and Churchill.” The talk is based on Reynolds’ book with a Russian historian editing and annotating the recently released letters of Joseph Stalin during World War II, which give fresh insight into the Soviet dictator’s motives, methods and plans. The lecture will be held in the Olin Teaching Theater in the Franklin W. Olin Building.
Kimball, will speak at 4 p.m. Wednesday, April 10, on “Sheriffs, Constables and Politsiya: The Postwar World of Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin.” Kimball, one of the leading historians of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill, is the Robert Treat Professor of History, emeritus, at Rutgers University, the editor of “Churchill & Roosevelt: The Complete Correspondence” and the author of several books and more than 50 articles on FDR and Churchill.
Pulitzer Prize-winning presidential biographer Jon Meacham will speak at 7 p.m. Tuesday, April 23, on “Understanding Trump: The Meaning of an American Milestone,” presented by the Lewis P. Jones Visiting Professor. Meacham gave one of the eulogies at the funeral of President George H.W. Bush. The April event will be moderated by Craig Melvin, a 2001 Wofford graduate and a weekday news anchor for NBC’s TODAY Show.
All events are free and open to the public.