2023-2024
Monday, September 11, 2023
Speaker: Dr. Courtney Tollison Hartness
Topic: “Our Country First, Then Greenville” A New South City During the Progressive Era and WWI
Monday, November 13, 2023
Speaker: Harold E. Shaw Jr., M.D.
Topic: A Review and Analysis of Ricardo Nulia’s The People’s Hospital: Hope and Peril in American Medicine
Monday, January 8, 2024
Speaker: Dr. Marian Strobel
Topic: A Critical Appraisal: Camera Girl: The Coming of Age of Jackie Bouvier Kennedy, by Carl Sferrazza Anthony
Monday, March 11, 2024
Speaker: Alexander (Alec) Taylor
Topic: A Review and Analysis of Thomas A. Desjardin’s Through a Howling Wilderness: Benedict Arnold’s March to Quebec
Monday, April 8, 2024
Speaker: Jonathan Darman
Topic: BECOMING FDR: The Personal Crisis That Made a President, presented by author Jonathan Darman
2022-2023
Monday, September 12, 2022
Speaker: Marian Strobel
Topic: Mercury Rising: John Glenn, John Kennedy and the New Battleground of the Cold War
Monday, December 12, 2022
Speaker: Warren Bingham
Topic: George Washington’s 1791 Southern Tour
Monday, January 9, 2023
Speaker: Cassandra King Conroy
Topic: Tell Me a Story: My Life with Pat Conroy
Monday, February 13, 2023
Speaker: Alec Taylor
Topic: Lifeline of the Confederacy: Blockade Running During the Civil War
Monday, March 13, 2023
Speaker: Francie Heller
Topic: Legacy of Max and Trude Heller
2021-2022
Thursday, October 28, 2021 – Virtual Program
Heirs of the Founders: How Clay, Calhoun and Webster Showed Us The Way to Compromise
at the Greenville Country Club
Thursday, November 4, 2021 – Virtual Program
Speaker: Dr. John McCardell
Topic: The Idea of a Southern Nation: Southern Nationalists and Southern Nationalism, 1830-1860
Thursday, January 6, 2022 – Virtual Program
Speaker: Dr. Marian Strobel
Topic: Edith and Woodrow Wilson: The Crisis of the Presidency, 1919-1921
Thursday, March 10, 2022 – Virtual Program
Speaker: Courtney Tollison Hartness
Topic: Greenville Women in the Fight for the Vote, 1890-1920
Monday, May 23, 2022
Speaker: Bob Howard
Topic: Growing Up With Vietnam
2020-2021
Monday, November 16, 2020 – Virtual Program
Speaker: Bob Dotson
Topic: Stories Hiding in History’s Shadow
Monday, January 18, 2021 – Virtual Program
Speaker: George Fletcher
Topic: Harry Truman: Ordinary Man, Extraordinary Leader
Monday, February 15, 2021 – Virtual Program
Speaker: Dr. Marian Strobel
Topic: The Daughters of Yalta The Churchills, Roosevelts, and Harrimans: A Story of Love and War
Monday, March 22, 2021 – Virtual Program
Speaker: Dick Riley
Topic: A Conversation with Dick Riley
Monday, April 19, 2021 – Virtual Program
Speaker: William S. Davies Jr.
Topic: South Carolina’s Lost Hundred Years
2019-2020
Thursday, October 17, 2019
An Evening with Presidential Historian, Michael Beschloss
at the Greenville Country Club
Monday, November 18, 2019
Speaker: Secretary Richard Riley
Topic: A Life in Politics
Monday, January 13, 2020
Speaker: William S. Davies
Topic: Lafayette and the Rights of Man
Monday, February 10, 2020
Speaker: A. Alexander Taylor
Topic: Wallace: The Classic Portrait of Alabama Governor, George Wallace
2018-2019
Thursday, October 25, 2018 – Evening at the Poinsett Club
Speaker: Douglas Brinkley, Ph.D., History Professor, Rice University, CNN Presidential Historian
Topic: Highs and Lows of the American Presidency: Past, Present and Future
Monday, November 12, 2018
Speaker: Janet Hudson, Ph.D., Historian
Topic: Reform in World War I Era South Carolina
Monday, February 11, 2019
Speaker: Marion “Sunshine” Norwood, AHBC Member
Topic: Seabrook’s Oak Island, A Personal History Edisto
Wednesday, March 6, 2019
Speaker: Judge Richard Gergel, United States District Judge
Topic: Unexampled Courage: The Blinding of Sgt. Isaac Woodard and the Awakening of President Harry S. Truman and Judge J. Waties Waring
Monday, March 11, 2019
Speaker: Alec Taylor, Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Furman University
Topic: Ike and McCarthy: Dwight Eisenhower’s Secret Campaign Against Joseph McCarthy by David A. Nichols
Monday, April 8, 2019
Speakers: Tom Lee, AHBC Member, and Brock Jackson, U.S. Air Force, Retired
Topic: Donaldson Air Force Base and the Cold War
2017-2018
Monday, September 18, 2017
Speaker: Tiby Weinstein, AHBC Member, Owner of Gage’s
Topic: History of the United States Post Office
Thursday, October 19, 2017 – Evening Program at the Poinsett Club
Speakers: Maureen Dowd and Carl Hulse
Topic: Humor and History: Satire’s Role in a Democracy
Monday, November 13, 2017
Speaker: Marian Strobel, Ph.D., History Professor and Chair of the Faculty, Furman University
Topic: The Presidential Campaign of JFK
Monday, February 12, 2018
Speaker: Robin Salmon, Vice President of Art and Historical Collections, Brookgreen Gardens
Topic: Brookgreen Gardens
Monday, March 19, 2018
Speaker: Kathy McKinney, Attorney, Haynsworth Sinkler Boyd
Topic: The Allied Response to the Refugee Crisis in Europe, 1945-1951, A Personal Perspective
Monday, April 9, 2018
Speaker: Rod Andrew, Ph.D., History Professor, Clemson University
Topic: General Andrew Pickens
2016-2017
Monday, September 19, 2016
Speaker: Joseph Crespino, Ph.D., Jimmy Carter Professor & History Department Chair, Emory University
Topic: Former SC Governor and Longtime U.S. Senator – Strom Thurmond
Wednesday, October 5, 2016 – Evening Program at the Poinsett Club
Speaker: David Brooks, New York Times Best Selling Author
Topic: Power, Politics, & Character: The Election of the American President
Monday, February 13, 2017
Speaker: Diane Vecchio, Ph.D., Professor and History Department Chair, Furman University
Topic: The Pellagra Scourge
Monday, March 20, 2017
Speaker: Kathryn Smith
Topic: Marguerite “Missy” LeHand, FDR’s de facto chief of staff
Monday, May 1, 2017
Speaker: Harry Lee Poe, Ph.D., Charles Colson University Professor of Faith and Culture, Union University
Topic: The Real Edgar Allan Poe
2015-2016
Monday, September 14, 2015
Speaker: William S. Davies, Jr., South Carolina Historical Society Board of Managers
Topic: Robert Mills: America’s First Native-Born Architect
Thursday, October 1, 2015
Speaker: Mark M. Smith, Ph.D., Professor of History, University of South Carolina
Topic: The Smell of Battle, The Taste of Siege: A Sensory History of the Civil War
Wednesday, October 21, 2015
Speaker: Jon Meacham, Pulitzer Prize winning Author
Topic: The Art of Power: Lessons from the American Presidency
Thursday, February 11, 2016
Speakers: David Heidler, Ph.D., and Jeanne Heidler, Ph.D., Professor of History, United States Air Force Academy
Topic: Washington’s Circle: The Creation of the President
Thursday, March 10, 2016
Speakers: James Cobb, Ph.D., and Emory Thomas, Ph.D., Professors of History, University of Georgia
Topic: Revisiting the Confederate Legacy
Thursday, April 14, 2016
Speaker: Joseph Ellis, Pulitzer Prize winning Historian
Topic: Power, Politics & Character: The Election of the American President
Monday, May 9, 2016
Speaker: C. Danielle Vinson, Ph.D., Professor of History, Furman University
Topic: What Does Candidate Character Tell Us About Presidential Power
2014-2015
Monday, September 22, 2014
Speakers: Dr. Clarence Easley of Greenville, Dr. David Smith of Greenville, Dr. Don Mullen of Highlands, Dr. Rebecca Loomis of Gainesville, and Dr. Thomas Gailey of Elberton
Topic: To Have Lived: Dr. Clarence Easley’s Stories of Marines, Medicine and Missions by Dr. David Smith
Thursday, October 30, 2014
Speaker: Andrew Jackson O’Shaughnessy, Ph.D., Professor of History, University of Virginia
Topic: The Men Who Lost America: British Leadership, the American Revolution and the Fate of the Empire
Monday, January 26, 2015
Speaker: Andrea Feeser, Ph.D., Professor of Art History, Clemson University
Topic: Red, White and Black Make Blue: Indigo in the Fabric of Colonial South Carolina Life
Thursday, March 12, 2015
Speaker: H.W. Brands, Ph.D., Professor of History, University of Texas in Austin
Topic: The Heartbreak of Aaron Burr
Thursday, April 16, 2015
Speaker: David McCullough, Pulitzer Prize winning Author
Topic: Leadership and the History You Don’t Know
Monday, May 4, 2015
Speaker: Marian Strobel, Ph.D., Professor of History, Furman University
Topic: The Patriarch: The Remarkable Life and Turbulent Times of Joseph P. Kennedy by David Nasaw
2013-2014
Monday, September 9, 2013
Speaker: Mayor Knox H. White, Greenville, South Carolina
Topic: Restoring Our City’s Past to Build Its Future
Thursday, October 3, 2013 – Evening Program
Speaker: Dr. Cynthia A. Kierner, Professor of History, George Mason University
Topic: Martha Jefferson Randolph
Thursday, November 14, 2013 – Evening Program at the Poinsett Club
Speaker: Amity Shlaes, Political and Economic Author; Senior Fellow and Director of the Four Percent Project at the George W. Bush Institute
Topic: Coolidge and the Decade of Unparalleled Economic Growth
Monday, February 17, 2014
Speaker: Dr. W. Eric Emerson, Director of the South Carolina Department of Archives and History
Topic: Treasures from the Archives
Thursday, March 13, 2014 – Evening Program
Speakers: Dr. Walter Edgar, American Historian & host of “Walter Edgar’s Journal” on ETV Radio, & Dr. James C. Cobb, Professor of History, University of Georgia
Topic: A Conversation About the South
Thursday, April 10, 2014 – Evening Program at the Poinsett Club (AHBC Scholarship Fund Raiser)
Speakers: Doris Kearns Goodwin, Pulitzer Prize winning Author and Historian
Topic: The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism
Monday, April 14, 2014
Speaker: Dr. Marian Strobel, Professor of History, Furman University
Topic: The Other Washington Monument: The Life and Legend of Alice Roosevelt Longworth
Monday, May 5, 2014
Speaker: Dr. Leonard Kupersmith, Headmaster, Christ Church Episcopal School
Topic: David Brooks’ Social Animal: Three Cheers for Emotional Intelligence
2012-2013
Wednesday, September 12, 2012 – Evening Program
Speaker: Dr. Tomiko Brown-Nagin
Topic: Courts and Equality: Yesterday and Today
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Speaker: Mary Johnston
Monday, November 5, 2012
Speaker: James Shoemaker
Topic: Review of “Citizens of London” by Lynne Olson
Monday, January, 2013
Speaker: Robert Hicks
Topic: Why the Civil War Matters
Monday, February 11, 2013
Speaker: Michael Pratt
Topic: Great Britain and the Confederacy
Monday, April 8, 2013
Speaker: Dr. Lloyd Benson
Topic: Disease and Democracy in Six Atlantic World Cities
2011-2012
October 12, 2011 – Evening Program
Speaker: Dr. Lester Hudson
Topic: Review of: The Intimate Lives of the Founding Fathers by Thomas Fleming
November 30, 2011
Speaker: James M. Shoemaker, Jr.
Topic: A Personal Remembrance of the attack on Pearl Harbor
January 12, 2012 – Evening Program
Speaker: Dr. James Cobb, Professor of History, UGA
Topic: The South and America Since WWII
March 7, 2012
Speaker: Ray Denny
Topic: Cathedrals of England
April 5, 2012 Evening Program
Speaker: Jon Meacham, Pulitzer Prize Winning Author and Presidential
Historian
Topic: Now and Then: What History Tells Us about the Future
2010–2011
September 29, 2010
Speaker: Robert Hicks, NY Times best-selling author
Topic: Widow of The South
October 27, 2010
Speaker: Frank Shaw
Topic: The Role of the Scots in American History
January 26, 2011 – Evening Program
Speaker: Dr. John Shelton Reed, author: Holy Smoke
Topic: Dixie Bohemia, a book in progress
February 23, 2011
Speaker: Michael Pratt
Topic: 1776 and all That!!
March 30, 2011
Speaker: Dr. Erskine Clarke, author: Dwelling Place
Topic: Dwelling Place
2009-2010
September 23, 2009
Speaker: Pat Prioleau
Topic: French Huguenots in South Carolina
November 11, 2009 – Veterans Day
Speaker: Dr. Courtney Tollison, Upcountry History Museum Historian and
Furman University Associate Professor of History
Topic: World War II and Upcountry South Carolina: “We just did everything we could.”
January 14, 2010 – Evening Program
Speaker: Dr. James Cobb, Professor of History, University of Georgia,
Topic: The Global South & Away Down South: A History of Southern Identity
February 10, 2010
Speaker: Tom Moore Craig, Retired Educator and Author of: Upcountry South Carolina Goes to War
Topic: Letters Written by Upcountry Families During the War Between the States
March 25, 2010
Speaker: William Seale, Author, The President’s House: A History, 2 vols.
Topic: The White House
April 14, 2010
Speaker: Terry Kay, Author, The Year the Lights Came On; Dancing with the White Dog
Topic: The Importance of History in Literature
2008-2009
September 24, 2008
Speaker: Dr. Anne Blythe, Upcountry History Museum
Topic: Women’s Place in the American South
November 5, 2009
Speaker: Dr. Clarence Easley, Retired Greenville Physician
Topic: The Origins of Religion in Early America
November 20, 2008 – Evening Program
Speaker: Dr. Lacy Ford, Professor of History, University of South Carolina
Topic: Ben Robertson and Red Hills and Cotton
February 25, 2008
Speaker: Arlene Marcley, Executive Assistant Mayor Knox White
Topic: Joel Poinsett, American Statesman
April 22, 2009
Speaker: Dr. Willard Pate, Faulkner Scholar, Furman University
Topic: William Faulkner’s South