Fleming Lecture Series 

When Prof. George Rable of the University of Alabama delivered the 2014 Fleming Lecture Series on March 12 and 13, the occasion was notable for a number of reasons. Prof. Rable’s series of lectures, under the overall heading “Damn Yankees! Hatred and Defiance in the Confederate South,” dealt colorfully and persuasively with the origins of North-South mistrust and the Southern resentment of the “Barbarous Enemy;” attitudes that he traced back to the early years of the Civil War and even earlier. The 2014 lectures marked the 75th occasion of the Fleming Lectures, in an almost unbroken string that goes back to the series’ inauguration in 1937. Just as noteworthy, Prof. Rable’s lectures marked the first time the Fleming Lectures were delivered by a graduate of LSU’s own doctoral program in History.

The Fleming Lecture series was established in 1936 and is named in memory of Walter Lynwood Fleming, a former professor of history at LSU who distinguished himself as a scholar of the Reconstruction period. In three quarters of a century since their founding, the Lectures have helped revise many of the interpretations held by historians in the 1930s, including those of Professor Fleming, on the evils of the Reconstruction era. Not without irony, then, the lectures named in his memory have come to testify to the changing nature of the southern past and southern history.

Fleming Lecturers have included some of the most noteworthy names in American and Southern history. Following is a list, in reverse chronological order, tracing this highly distinguished occasion back to its origins

 

     
 
 
 
 

81st Series, 2024:

Brenda Stevenson

Oxford University

and UCLA

80th Series, 2022:

Daniel Usner

Vanderbilt University

79th Series, 2021:

Glenda Gilmore

Yale University

78th Series, 2020:

Bill Link

University of Florida

77th Series, 2018:

Edward L. Ayers

University of Virginia

 

76th Series, 2016:

Peter Onuf

University of Virginia

75th Series, 2015:

Nancy MacLean

Duke University

74th Series, 2014:

George C. Rable

University of Alabama

 

 

73rd Series, 2013:

James Oakes

City University of New York

 

72nd Series, 2012:

Catherine Clinton,

Queen’s University, Belfast

 

71st Series, 2011:

John Shelton Reed,

University of North Carolina

 

 

70th Series, 2009:

Thomas C. Holt,

University of Chicago

 

69th Series, 2007:

Michael Perman,

University of Illinois at Chicago

 

68th Series, 2006:

William W. Freehling,

University of Kentucky

 

 

67th Series, 2005:

Stanley L. Engerman,

University of Rochester

66th Series, 2004:

Pete Daniel,

Smithsonian Institution

65th Series, 2003:

Karen Ordahl Kupperman,

New York University

 

 

64th Series, 2002:

David Levering Lewis,

Rutgers University

63d Series, 2001:

Robert William Fogel,

University of Chicago

62d Series, 2000:

Peter Kolchin,

University of Delaware

 

 

61st Series, 1999:

Michael F. Holt,

University of Virginia

60th Series, 1998:

Fred Colby Hobson, Jr.,

University of North Carolina

59th Series, 1997:

Gavin Wright,

Stanford University

 

 

58th Series, 1996:

James L. Axtell,

College of William and Mary

57th Series, 1995:

Bertram Wyatt-Brown,

University of Florida

56th Series, 1994:

Jacquelyn Dowd Hall,

University of North Carolina

 

 

55th Series, 1993:

James M. McPherson,

Princeton University

54th Series, 1992:

Dan Thomas Carter,

Emory University

53d Series, 1991:

William E. Leuchtenburg,

University of North Carolina

 

 

52d Series, 1990:

Harold D. Woodman,

Purdue University

51st Series, 1989:

Robert W. Johannsen,

University of Illinois

50th Series, 1988:

Lewis P. Simpson,

Louisiana State University

 

 

49th Series, 1987:

Drew Gilpin Faust,

University of Pennsylvania

48th Series, 1986:

Russell F. Weigley,

Temple University

47th Series, 1985:

C. Vann Woodward,

Yale University

 

 

46th Series, 1984:

Robert V. Remini,

University of Illinois, Chicago

45th Series, 1983:

Leon F. Litwack,

University of California, Berkeley

44th Series, 1982:

Eric Foner,

City University of New York

 

 

43d Series, 1981:

Jack P. Greene,

The Johns Hopkins University

42d Series, 1980:

Merrill D. Peterson,

University of Virginia

41st Series, 1979:

Robert Coles,

Harvard University

 

 

40th Series, 1978:

Don E. Fehrenbacher,

Stanford University

39th Series, 1977:

Louis R. Harlan,

University of Maryland

38th Series, 1976:

Carl N. Degler,

Stanford University

 

 

37th Series, 1975:

Louis D. Rubin, Jr.,

University of North Carolina

36th Series, 1974:

Eugene D. Genovese,

University of Rochester

35th Series, 1973:

George Brown Tindall,

University of North Carolina

 

 

34th Series, 1972:

John Hope Franklin,

University of Chicago

33d Series, 1971:

George E. Mowry,

University of North Carolina

32d Series, 1970:

Abraham P. Nasatir,

San Diego State College

 

 

31st Series, 1969:

David B. Davis,

Cornell University

30th Series, 1968:

David M. Potter,

Stanford University

29th Series, 1966:

Richard N. Current,

University of Wisconsin

 

 

28th Series, 1965:

David Herbert Donald,

The Johns Hopkins University

27th Series, 1964:

Frank Friedel,

Harvard University

26th Series, 1963:

Walter B. Posey,

Agnes Scott College

 

 

25th Series, 1962:

Norman A. Graebner,

University of Illinois

24th Series, 1961:

Clement Eaton,

University of Kentucky

23d Series, 1960:

John R. Alden,

Duke University

 

 

22d Series, 1959:

Rembert W. Patrick,

University of Florida

21st Series, 1958:

Avery O. Craven,

University of Oregon

20th Series, 1957:

Walter P. Webb,

University of Texas

 

 

19th Series, 1956:

Francis Butler Simkins,

Longwood College

18th Series, 1955:

Wendell Holmes Stephenson,

University of Oregon

17th Series, 1954:

Charles Snydor,

Duke University

 

 

16th Series, 1952:

E. Merton Coulter,

University of Georgia

15th Series, 1951:

Carl Bridenbaugh,

University of California

14th Series, 1951:

C. Vann Woodward,

The Johns Hopkins University

 

 

13th Series, 1950:

William C. Binkley,

Vanderbilt University

12th Series, 1949:

William B. Hesseltine,

University of Wisconsin

11th Series, 1949:

Fletcher M. Green,

University of North Carolina

 

 

11th Series, 1949:

Fletcher M. Green,

University of North Carolina

Tenth Series, 1948:

Frank L. Owsley,

University of Alabama

Ninth Series, 1947:

Thomas D. Clark,

University of Kentucky

 

 

Eighth Series, 1945:

James Garfield Randall,

University of Illinois

Seventh Series, 1944:

Arthur Charles Cole,

Brooklyn College

Sixth Series, 1943:

Bell Irvin Wiley,

Emory University

 

 

Fifth Series, 1941:

J. Fred Rippy,

University of Chicago

Fourth Series, 1940:

Thomas P. Abernathy,

University of Virginia

Third Series, 1938:

Herbert A. Kellar,

McCormick Historical Association

 

 

Second Series, 1937:

Avery O. Craven,

University of Chicago

First Series, 1936:

Charles W. Ramsdell,

University of Texas

 
 

 

LSU