Alice Kessler-Harris of Columbia University, speaking at the Organization of American Historians 2009 meeting, details her response, as a historian of women's issues, at the 2008 presidential candidacy of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, and her shift towards believing that Obama most clearly supported feminist-related issues.
Alice Kessler-Harris reads a paper by John Hopkins University's Blanche Wiesen Cook at the Organization of American Historians 2009 meeting. The paper relates Cook's experiences as a John Hopkins student during the civil rights movement, fighting for desegregation.
Fred Israel of City College of New York, speaking at the Organization of American Historians 2009 meeting, discusses his work with Gallup public opinion data and the history of the Gallup Opinion Poll. He looks at changes in public opinion on the acceptability of diverse candidates for the presidency, as indicated by the polls.
Professor and director of the Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute, Clayborne Carson, speaking at the Organization of American Historians 2009 meeting, talks about his perceptions of the 2008 presidential campaign and the election of Barack Obama, as a participant in the civil rights movement. He examines the place of race and ethnicity in the campaign and the civil rights views, events, and figures that led up to the present day and Obama's election.
Historian, blogger, and author Gil Troy, speaking at the Organization of American Historians 2009 meeting, talks about his experiences as a historian blogging during the 2008 presidential election. He discusses his views on the role historians should play when contributing or responding to the media, providing studied, nonpredictive information and analysis, even in the face of demands for sound bites and snap judgments.
Historian and chair of the Division of Politics and Reform at the National Museum of American History, Harry Rubenstein, beginning a talk at the Organization of American Historians 2009 meeting, mentions the challenges of being a historian during the 2008 presidential election.
Wendy Wick Reaves looks at two self-portraits by the artist Isabel Bishop (1902-1988), who focused on portraying women in the New York urban environment she worked in.
Donald L. Miller, along with a range of other historians and presenters, overviews contemporary U.S. history, from 1972 to 2000, briefly touching on the Cold War and its end, economic ups and downs, and the rise of AIDS and of personal computers. The presentation ends with a discussion on interpreting events as they happen, and on the difficulties of remembering history and engaging with the present in a media age.
From the Maine Humanities Council website:
"Thomas J. Brown is Associate Professor of History at the University of South Carolina, where he also serves as Associate Director of the Institute for Southern Studies. He is a Distinguished Lecturer with the Organization of American Historians. In this lecture, Brown examined the ways in which debates over regionalism, race relations and governmental power have influenced how America has remembered Abraham Lincoln, particularly in public monuments."
The National Portrait Gallery's Warren Perry tells the story of a portrait of author and photographer Eudora Welty (1909-2001).