Charles Edmondson Historical Lectures

Series · 14

books · 1987-2006

By Martin E. Marty, Alan Brinkley, Philip D. Curtin, and more

Books in series

Britain in "Decline"?

1998

In this elegantly written work, Cannadine neatly captures the essence of and makes his own provocative contributions to a major historiographical controversy over the decline of Britain, and personalizes it through penetrating portraits of three seemingly unrelated political leaders: Joseph Chamberlain, Winston Churchill, and Margaret Thatcher. The argument that British decline was and is inevitable—but also that the decline is geopolitical and not personal in terms of individual standards of living—is a convincing one, and Cannadine's ability to juxtapose this decline against the aggressive policies of these three twentieth-century leaden adds an element of irony to his tale. Included in this work is a thoughtful discussion of how historical writing is shaped by and perhaps also shapes its environment. Cannadine offers suggestions on how we might go about rewriting the history of Britain as we enter a new century and a new millennium. These insights and comments are particularly important as they come from the General Editor of the new Penguin History of Britain series, through which Cannadine's theories about and approaches to the writing of history are being put into practice. While the work is limited to a discussion of British history, the observations Cannadine offers might equally well be applied students of American or other national histories.

Culture & Politics in the Great Depression

1999

Professor Brinkley looks at the time in American history when the idea of the American dream first emerged—the Great Depression. To illustrate the variety of ways in which the American people have defined the dream, Brinkley discusses four interpretations of the Great Depression, described as persistence, empathy, rebellion, and community.

Empire and Nation in Russian History

1993

Hosking presents the historical conception of Russia as two nations―imperial and ethnic―and relates this to the challenge facing present-day Russia, that of creating a democratic nation without an empire.

George Wallace, Richard Nixon, and the Transformation of American Politics

1992

Carter addresses the impact of George Wallace on the national political scene, showing how he succeeded in tapping the pulse of American society in the 1960s and 1970s.

Growing Up

The History of Childhood in Global Context

2005

In these lectures, Peter N. Stearns combines two flourishing historical fields-the history of childhood and world history-to address the question of how much of childhood is natural and how much is historically determined. The first lecture gauges the impact of impact of the development of agriculture, civilization, and religion upon the pre-modern experience of childhood. The second lecture turns to how modern perspectives on childhood contrasted with traditional ones, and how and why a modern perspective developed and spread. These lectures clearly outline the basic changes in childhood that are surprisingly recent and surprisingly sweeping.

Not Quite American?

The Shaping of Arab and Muslim Identity in the United States

2004

In this essay Yvonne Haddad explores the history of immigration and integration of Arab Muslims in the United States and their struggle to legitimate their presence in the face of continuing exclusion based on race, nationalist identity, and religion.

Race, Ethnicity and Class

Forging the Plural Society in Latin America and the Caribbean

1996

Professor Knight addresses race, ethnicity, and class in Latin America and the Caribbean, and his conclusions are important for revaluing the history and place of these regions in the evolution of political systems.

Religious Crises in Modern America

1989

Marty focuses on two religious phenomena in American history in the last hundred years, modernism and fundamentalism.

#10

Soul Murder and Slavery

1995

Drawing upon psychological paradigms, Professor Painter examines the history of child and sexual abuse within American slave society by employing the concept of "soul murder."

#11

Southern Missions

The Religion of the American South in Global Perspective

2006

Southern Missions places the religious history of the American South in a global context. The global connections of southern religion reflect a tradition within the American South that historians have failed to examine. This study sweeps from the diversity of Christian and Jewish groups in the colonial South to the contemporary migration of ethnic groups and their religious traditions previously little known in the South. Perhaps most notably, gender emerges as a key analytical category for understanding the global reach of religion in the American South.

#12

The Making of the Constitution

1987

Wood presents important information about the founding period in our nation's history, conveying not only the content but also the spirit of the debates surrounding the Philadelphia convention and its aftermath.

#12

Spanish Bourbons and Wild Indians

2004

These lectures chronicle the Spanish Empire's policies toward the Indians of the Americas in the late eighteenth century. Since Indians independently controlled most of the area that Spain claimed to own, the Spaniards began to make significant political accommodations with some of these "savages" or "wild Indians," whom they could neither defeat nor convert. Weber demonstrates that Spain's ideal mission changed between the Habsburg and Bourbon eras and, more importantly, local circumstances and local people, including Indians, determined how a mission would measure up to the Crown's objectives.

#13

The Taiping Vision of a Christian China

1998

Encapsulating the themes of his 1996 book, God's Chinese Son, Jonathan Spence, in this Edmondson Historical Lecture, interprets the social and political milieu of mid-nineteenth-century China that gave rise to the apocalyptic Taiping Rebellion. Here, Spence traces the events surrounding the life of Hong Xiuquan, the self-styled heavenly king who had learned through his encounter with Christian religious texts that he was not only a religious leader, but also "the younger brother of Jesus." Hong's rise to power in southern China eventually led to his military seizure of one of China's largest cities, Nanjing, where he established his heavenly capital on earth for eleven years. Included in this study is the author's analysis of Hong's intellectual development. Spence gives special attention to Hong's introduction to Christian texts and his eventual use of Christian scripture to interpret his role as "God's Chinese Son." Spence poignantly articulates how Hong interpreted Scripture not only to maintain his spiritual and political leadership over his followers but also to anticipate the apocalyptic conclusion to his earthly kingdom.

#15

Why People Move

Migration in African History

1995

Professor Curtin presents a well-defined interpretation of why migration has occurred in Africa, highlighting numerous sociopolitical and socioeconomic factors. According to Curtin, the most consistent reason for migration within Africa and into and out of Africa was the possession of technological advantage.

Authors

Martin E. Marty

Author · 19 books

Martin Emil Marty is an American Lutheran religious scholar who has written extensively on 19th century and 20th century American religion. He received a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1956, and served as a Lutheran pastor from 1952 to 1962 in the suburbs of Chicago. From 1963 to 1998 he taught at the University of Chicago Divinity School, held an endowed chair, and now holds emeritus status. He has served Saint Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota since 1988 as Regent, Board Chair, Interim President in late 2000, and now as Senior Regent. He has been a columnist for The Christian Century magazine since 1956. He has authored over 5,000 articles and been conferred with 75 honorary doctorates.

Philip DeArmond Curtin, 22 May 1922 - 4 June 2009, was a wide-ranging and influential historian whose pioneering use of modern statistical methods to determine the extent of the Atlantic slave trade suggested that far fewer slaves were transported from Africa than had previously been thought.

Peter N. Stearns

Author · 22 books

Peter N. Stearns is a professor at George Mason University, where he was provost, from January 1, 2000 to July 2014. Stearns was Chair of the Department of History at Carnegie Mellon University and also served as the Dean of the Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences. In addition, he founded and edited the Journal of Social History. While at Carnegie Mellon he developed a pioneering approach to teaching World History.

Geoffrey Alan Hosking is a historian of Russia and the Soviet Union and formerly Leverhulme Research Professor of Russian History at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies (SSEES) at University College, London.

Yvonne Yazbeck Haddad

Author · 6 books

Yvonne Yazbeck Haddad (born in Syria in 1935) is Professor of the History of Islam and Christian–Muslim Relations at the Prince Alwaleed Center for Muslim–Christian Understanding at Georgetown University. Her interests and focus include contemporary Islam; intellectual, social and political history in the Arab world; Islam in the West; Quranic Exegesis; and gender and Islam. Haddad's current research focuses on Muslims in the West and on Islamic Revolutionary Movements. She has published extensively in the field of Islamic studies. Haddad has been described as "at the top of her field in the study of Muslims in America" and "the foremost interpreter of the Islamic experience in the United States." She is the leading figure in a school of thought that sees the key issue for Muslims in the USA as being the conflict between traditional Islamic values and integration into mainstream US society. Haddad received her Ph.D. in the Economic, Political Development, and Islamic Heritage in 1979 from Hartford Seminary in Hartford, Connecticut, and her Master's degree in Comparative History 1971 from the University of Wisconsin in Madison. Additionally, she attended Boston University, where she received an M.R.E. in Religious Education and Leadership Development in 1966, and the Beirut College for Women in Lebanon. She was also Professor of History at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Yvonne Haddad describes herself as a Presbyterian. She emigrated to the United States in 1963.

David Cannadine

Author · 20 books

Sir David Cannadine FBA FRSL FSA FRHistS is a British author and historian, who specialises in modern history and the history of business and philanthropy.

Gordon S. Wood

Author · 13 books

Gordon S. Wood is the Alva O. Way University Professor and Professor of History Emeritus at Brown University. He is the author of many books, including The Creation of the American Republic, 1776-1787, which won the Bancroft Prize and the John H. Dunning Prize of the American Historical Association; The Radicalism of the American Revolution, which won the Pulitzer Prize for History and the Ralph Waldo Emerson Prize; The American Revolution: A History; The Americanization of Benjamin Franklin; Revolutionary Characters: What Made the Founders Different, which was a New York Times bestseller; Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789-1815 (OUP, 2009), which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and winner of the American History Book Prize from the New-York Historical Society; and Friends Divided: John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. He is a regular reviewer for the New York Review of Books.

David J. Weber

Author · 2 books

David J. Weber was founding director of the Clements Center for Southwest Studies at Southern Methodist University. His research focused on the history of the Southwestern U.S. and its transition from Spanish and Mexican control to becoming part of the United States.

Charles Reagan Wilson

Before his retirement in 2007, Dan Carter taught at the University of South Carolina, where he specialized in 20th century U.S. politics and the post-Civil War American South. He graduated from University of South Carolina in 1962 and completed his graduate work in history at the University of Wisconsin and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1967. Prior to accepting his appointment to the University of South Carolina, Carter taught at Emory University from 1970 until 2000.