On July 23, 2009, Ray McAllister delivered a Banner Lecture entitled “Hatteras Island: Keeper of the Outer Banks.”
The Outer Banks have enticed Virginians with the lure of sun, sky, and sea for generations. Despite this idyllic appeal, these once-isolated barrier islands have also witnessed a turbulent past. Pirates, hurricanes, shipwrecks, and U-boats all make their appearance in the varied story of the Outer Banks.
On September 4, 2008, Robert E. Wright delivered a Banner Lecture on his book, Virginia: Catalyst of Commerce for Four Centuries. The United States was born in debt. Was this obligation a vital tool for forging national unity, or a monstrous burden? In “One Nation Under Debt: Hamilton, Jefferson, and the History of What We Owe,” Robert E. Wright follows our nation’s debt from the founding to the credit crisis of today. A compelling and witty storyteller, Wright shows how the past can illuminate current financial woes.
In his compelling new biography, the first full-length life of Booker T. Washington in a generation, Robert J. Norrell recreates the broad context in which the African American leader worked to overcome past exploitation and present discrimination. Although Washington has often been disparaged since the 1960s, “Up from History” details the positive power of his vision to invoke hope and optimism. On February 5, 2009, Dr. Norrell reinstated this extraordinary historical figure to the pantheon of black leaders.
At the dawn of the twentieth century, the South was by all measurements the poorest, most segregated region in the United States. One hundred years later, it was one of the fastest-growing parts of the nation, attracting population and industry at a dizzying rate. How did this transformation take place? How much of the traditional South remains? Looking at such key events as World War II and the South’s longstanding effort to attract business investment, Paul A.
On March 25, 2010, Melvin Urofsky delivered a lecture on his book Louis Brandeis: An American Legal Giant.
On May 24, 2007, Ms. Pryor delivered this lecture on her book, Reading the Man: A Portrait of Robert E. Lee Through his Private Letters.
On November 1, 2007, William M. S. Rasmussen delivered a lecture in conjunction with the exhibition, Lee and Grant.
The two great opposing military commanders of the Civil War, Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant, towered over their contemporaries. In a major exhibition and book created in the 200th anniversary year of Lee’s birth, the museum explored the parallel lives of these two American heroes. In an illustrated lecture, co-curator and co-author William M. S. Rasmussen examined Lee and Grant and their influence on our history.
In his 1866 poem, “Lee in the Capitol,” Herman Melville portrays a dignified Robert E. Lee advocating reconciliation before the Congressional committee on Reconstruction. One of the poet’s most powerful references is his association of Lee with George Washington.
On February 28, 2008, Robert Tilton’s lecture examined Melville’s interpretation of Lee and his role in American history.
In this lecture, based on his new book General Lee’s Army, Dr. Glatthaar used the story of Robert E. Lee’s army as a powerful lens for viewing the entire Civil War, from the early springtime of southern hopes to final crushing defeat, from the homefront to the heart of the most famous battles of the war.
Dr. Glatthaar has taught history at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. (Introduction by Charles F. Bryan, Jr.)
According to some recent historians, Gen. Robert E. Lee was not a hero to southerners during the Civil War but only afterward. Robert K. Krick argues to the contrary that he was idolized as a great leader in the midst of the conflict, not just later when the defeated South groped to interpret what had happened.
For thirty years, Mr. Krick was chief historian of the Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park. He is the author of many books including, most recently, Civil War Weather in Virginia.
