October 6, 2025 - Caroline Janney
Speaker: Dr. Caroline Janney, John L. Nau III Professor of the American Civil War, University of Virginia
Caroline Janney serves as director of the John L. Nau III Center for Civil War History at the University of Virginia. She is the author or co-author of eight books on the American Civil War, including "The Second Manassas Campaign" and "Remembering the Civil War: Reunion and the Limits of Reconciliation." Her 2022 book, "Ends of War: The Unfinished Fight of Lee's Army after Appomattox," won the Gilder-Lehrman Lincoln Prize, awarded annually for the finest scholarly work in English on Abraham Lincoln, the American Civil War soldier or the American Civil War era. She is a frequent contributor to public history programs on the History Channel, AppleTV+, PBS and CSPAN. A graduate of the University of Virginia, she worked as a historian for the National Park Service and taught at Purdue University before returning to Virginia in 2018.
Dr. Janney will speak on Monday, October 6 during the following times on the following subjects :
- 2:00 p.m. - "When the Monuments Went Up: The Long Fight over Civil War Memory" - Carl Grant Events Center
- 7:15 p.m. - "After Appomattox: Ending the Civil War" - G. M. Savage Memorial Chapel
Contact: Keith Bates, Chair, Department of History, 731-661-5593 or dkbates@uu.edu
These lectures are free and open to the public.
2024 - Odd Arne Westad
Speaker: Dr. Odd Arne Westad, Elihu Professor of History and Global Affairs, Yale University
Odd Arne Westad is a scholar of modern international and global history, with a specialization in the history of eastern Asia since the 18th century. He studied history, philosophy, and modern languages at the University of Oslo before doing a graduate degree in US/international history at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he primarily worked with Michael H. Hunt. Westad has published sixteen books, most of which deal with twentieth century Asian and global history.
Dr. Westad will spoke on Monday, October 14 in the G. M. Savage Memorial Chapel during the following times on the following subjects :
- 2:00 p.m. - "On Major War: The United States, China, and Lessons From the Past"
- 7:15 p.m. - "The Hinge: British Imperial Administrator James Bruce and the Re-ordering of Empire, 1840-1860"
Learn More Printable Flyer (.pdf)
2023 - Alan Taylor
Dr. Alan Taylor is the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation Professor of History at the University of Virginia.
Dr. Taylor spoke on Monday, October 16, at the following times and places on the following subjects:
- 2:00 p.m., Carl Grant Events Center: "Thomas Jefferson's Education: Creating a Southern University"
- 7:15 p.m., G. M. Savage Memorial Chapel: "American Republics: Union, Disunion, and Expansion, 1783-1850"
2022 - Michael S. Neiberg
Dr. Michael S. Neiberg is Professor of History and Chair of War Studies in the Department of National Security and Strategy at the United States Army War College.
Dr. Neiberg spoke on Monday, October 24, at the following times and places on the following subjects:
- 2:00 p.m., Carl Grant Events Center: "Reconstructing Europe after World War I: The Paris Peace Conference of 1919"
- 7:15 p.m., G. M. Savage Memorial Chapel: "Perilous Times: America's Search for Security after the Fall of France in World War II"
2021 - David A. Bell
Dr. David A. Bell is the Sidney and Ruth Lapidus Professor in the Era of North Atlantic Revolutions at Princeton University. He is an internationally recognized authority on the history of early modern France and Napoleon Bonaparte.
Dr. Bell spoke on Monday, October 25, at the following times and places on the following subjects:
- 2:00 p.m., Carl Grant Events Center: "Napoleon Bonaparte and the Origins of Modern Total War"
- 7:15 p.m., G. M. Savage Memorial Chapel: "George Washington, Napoleon Bonaparte, and the Power of Charisma in the Age of Revolution"
2019 - Joan Waugh
Professor Waugh is Professor of History at UCLA and the author or editor of several books dealing with the American Civil War. She is an expert on Ulysses Grant, the president-elect of the Society of Civil War Historians, and the winner of book and teaching awards.
Professor Joan Waugh spoke on Monday, October 21, at the following times and places on the following subjects:
- 2:00 p.m., Carl Grant Events Center, Salon II: "U.S. Grant and the Nature of Surrender during the Civil War"
- 7:15 p.m., G. M. Savage Memorial Chapel: "U.S. Grant: Soldier-Statesman"
2018 - Melvyn Leffler
Dr. Leffler is Edward Stettinius Professor of American History at the University of Virginia and the author or editor of many books about the Cold War and about America's relations with Europe. He won the American Historical Association's George Louis Beer Prize for his book For the Soul of Mankind: The United States, the Soviet Union, and the Cold War (2007) and the Bancroft, Hoover, and Ferrell Prizes for his work A Preponderance of Power: National Security, the Truman Administration, and the Cold War (1993). His most recent book is Safeguarding Democratic Capitalism: U.S. Foreign Policy and National Security, 1920-2015, published in 2017 by Princeton University Press. He has previously served as the Harold Vyvyan Harmsworth Visiting Professor of American History at Oxford University and Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Virginia. In 1994, he was president of the Society for the History of American Foreign Relations.
Learn More About Melvyn Leffler
Dr. Melvyn Leffler spoke on Monday, October 22, at the following times and places on the following subjects:
- 2:00 p.m., Carl Grant Events Center, Salon II: "Harry Truman and the Origins of the Cold War"
- 7:15 p.m., G. M. Savage Memorial Chapel: "Ronald Reagan and the End of the Cold War"