Walter Edgar's Journal

(Library of Congress/Hine, Lewis Wickes) South Carolina in 1918 was still struggling with the changes to its economic and social systems brought about by the Civil War and Reconstruction. The United States’ entry into World War I affected the daily work life of South Carolinians and the state’s economy in a way that was unique to our state. This week, guest host, Dr. Mark Smith of the University o...

(Library of Congress/Goldsberry Collection of open-air school photographs.) There were progressives in South Carolina in 1918. And the progressive movement in this state was different from the movement in the Northeast. However, the United States’ entrance into World War I provided an extra momentum to the movement that led to some fundamental changes the interaction between state and federal auth...

(Library of Congress) Upon the United States' entrance into World War I, President Woodrow Wilson told the nation that the war was being fought to "make the world safe for democracy." For many African-American South Carolinians, the chance to fight in this war was a way to prove their citizenship, in hopes of changing things for the better at home. Dr. Janet Hudson from the University of South Car...

(Fire Light Media) Film maker Stanley Nelson and Dr. Bobby Donaldson of the University of South Carolina talk with Walter Edgar about the story of historically black colleges and universities in the U. S., and about Mr. Nelson’s film Tell Them We Are Rising: The Story of Black Colleges and Universities which airs on SCETV Monday, February 19, at 9:00 pm, as part of the PBS series Independent Lens...

Dr. Andrew Myers from the University of South Carolina Upstate joins Dr. Edgar for a public Conversation on South Carolina History, World War I: S.C. and the Military , on January 23, 2018. It was part of a series presented in January and February, 2018, and sponsored by the  USC College of Arts and Sciences . All Stations: Fri, Feb 09, 12 pm | News & Talk Stations: Sun, Feb 11, 4 pm

(Norman B. Leventhal Map Center (NBL Map Center) at the Boston Public Library (BPL) [CC BY 2.0]) A two-decade, joint effort between South Carolina and North Carolina has sought to correct errors made surveying the boundary line between the two states. The errors began with the first survey, made in 1735, and were compounded over the years. Alan-Jon Zupan, a former project manager for the South Car...

(SC Hall of Fame) Justice Ernest A. Finney, Jr. , South Carolina's first Africa-American chief justice, has died Sunday, December 3, 2017. He was 86. Finney was one of just a handful of black lawyers in the state when he graduated from the South Carolina State College School of Law in 1954. Finney was elected chief justice of South Carolina in 1994 and retired from the court in 2000. This podcast...

(National Library of Scotland) Furman University's Dr. Courtney Tollison co-curated “Over Here, Over There: Greenville in the Great War,” an exhibition on display in the spring of 2017 at Furman University’s James B. Duke Library. The exhibit examined World War I’s (1914-1918) impact on the Greenville community as well as the contributions of the area to the war effort, domestically and overseas;...

(blahedo [CC BY-SA 2.5] via Wikimedia Commons) In his new book, T he Life and Times of General Andrew Pickens: Revolutionary War Hero, American Founder  (2017, UNC Press), Dr. Rod Andrew, Jr., of Clemson University, explores the life of the hard-fighting South Carolina militia commander of the American Revolution, was the hero of many victories against British and Loyalist forces. In this book, An...

(SCETV/Original SC) The Southern Campaign was critical in determining the outcome of the American Revolutionary War, yet the South’s importance has been downplayed in most historical accounts to date. The National Park Service has recognized the importance of the Southern Campaign with the creation of its Southern Campaign of the American Revolution Parks group. The group includes Cowpens National...

(Courtesy of Preservation SC) The Palmetto Trust for Historic Preservation is now Preservation South Carolina . The non-profit, statewide organization is a partner of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and has been operating in South Carolina since 1990. Executive Director Michael Bedenbaugh talks about Preservation South Carolina’s latest efforts to "protect and preserve the irreplacea...

(Marine Corp HMM-263 (Vietnam) Helicopter Squadron, know as The Peach Bush Book Club) Note: Coinciding with  broadcast on SCETV  of The Vietnam War, a film by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick,  Walter Edgar's Journal is re-publishing podcasts of some of our earlier programs. (Originally broadcast 05/27/11) - Walter Edgar talks with Col. Walt Ledbetter and Duncan McCrae, veterans of the 263rd Marine Helic...

(Tibby Steedly)  Note: Coinciding with broadcast on SCETV of The Vietnam War, a film by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick,  Walter Edgar's Journal is re-publishing podcasts of some of our earlier programs. (Broadcast 11-14-08) - When we talked to Vietnam War veteran Homer Steedly in 2007 the South Carolina native told us of his plans to return to Vietnam. One of his goals has been to, at last, meet face-t...

(Originally broadcast 02/17/17) - For the second lecture in this four-part series of Conversations on South Carolina: The State and the New Nation, 1783-1828 . Dr. Larry Watson discusses slavery in South Carolina. Professor Watson is Associate Professor of History & Adjunct Professor of History South Carolina State University and the University of South Carolina. He is author of numerous artic...

(David Mark, via Pixabay [CC0 1.0]) York, SC, Mayor Ed Lee, and Reba Hull Campbell, Deputy Executive Director of the Municipal Association of South Carolina, join  Walter Edgar to talk about the challenges to economic growth faced by small towns in South Carolina, the history of those challenges, and the strategies many are using to promote such growth in the 21st century. All Stations: Fri, June...

(Kai Stachowiak/Pixabay [CC0 1.0]) Heirs' property is often land that has been passed down through generations without the benefit of a will so that the land is owned "in common" by all of the heirs, whether or not they live on the land, pay the taxes, or have set foot on the land.  This unstable form of ownership puts heirs' property at high risk for loss because any heir can sell his/her percent...

Best-selling author Mary Alice Monroe and Rudy Mancke, naturalist, teacher, host of NatureNotes and SCETV's NatureScene , share a deep love of the Lowcountry of South Carolina. They join Walter Edgar to talk about the unique, priceless treasure that is South Carolina's Coastal Plain.  Monroe will also talk about her new novel, to be released on June 20, 2017,  Beach House For Rent   (2017, Gallery...

(Greenville Chautauqua) Before radio and television, traveling cultural tent shows toured across America. The original Chautauqua was a road show of music, entertainment, and always a great speaker of the day. At their peak, Tent Chautauquas appeared in over 10,000 communities and preformed for more than 45 million people. Greenville Chautauqua has been in production since 1999. This year’s Summer...

(Penn State, via Flickr [CC BY-NC-ND 2.0]) Internationally renowned author and poet Ron Rash recently donated his personal archive to the Ernest F. Hollings Special Collections Library and the University of South Carolina. Born in Chester, SC, Rash is the author of the 2009 PEN/Faulkner finalist and New York Times bestseller Serena and Above the Waterfall . Rash is joined by his brother Tom Rash a...

(Courtesy of the artist) (Courtesy of the Artist) Renowned South Carolina artist, Leo Twiggs, now 82, has long been fascinated by the contradictions of the South, and he has defined a unique iconography in his work by seizing on certain symbols, especially the Confederate battle flag, its stars and bars, the shape of an “X” and the image of a target, with its sequential rings and bull’s-eye. For a...

(DCA&HC McMahan Photo Collection via SC Humanities) The Way We Worked is a traveling Smithsonian exhibit that explores how work became such a central element in American culture by tracing the many changes that affected the workforce and work environment in the past 150 years. Adapted from an original exhibition designed by the National Archives, The Way We Worked shows how we identify with wo...

(HeritageDaily [CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons) Archaeology in South Carolina: Exploring the Hidden Heritage of the Palmetto State (USC Press, 2016), edited by Adam King, contains an overview of the fascinating archaeological research currently ongoing in the Palmetto State and features essays by twenty scholars studying South Carolina's past through archaeological research. The scholarly co...

(Library of Congress; photographer unknown) South Carolina in the Civil War and Reconstruction Eras   (USC Press, 2016) is an anthology of the most enduring and important scholarly articles about the Civil War and Reconstruction era published in the peer-reviewed journal  Proceedings of the South Carolina Historical Association . Past officers of the South Carolina Historical Association (SCHA) Mi...

(USC Beaufort) In this final installment of public Conversations on South Carolina: The State and the New Nation, 1783-1828 , Dr. Brent Morris, associate professor of history and chair of the humanities at the University of South Carolina-Beaufort, talks with Dr. Walter Edgar about the unification of the slave state in South Carolina from 1783 to 1828. All Stations: Fri, Mar 10, 12 pm | News Stati...

(University of South Carolina) Join us for the third public conversation in a four-part series of Conversations on South Carolina: The State and the New Nation, 1783-1828. Dr. Lacy Ford, Dean, College of Arts & Sciences University of South Carolina and author of Origins of Southern Radicalism: The South Carolina Upcountry, 1800-1860 and Deliver Us from Evil: The Slavery Question in the Old Sou...