Description: The Lost Lectures of C. Vann Woodward focuses on lectures Woodward delivered in the mid-twentieth century that reflect his life-long interest in exploring the contours and limits of liberalism during key moments of great change in the South.
Review Quotes: "[J]ust as The Canterbury Tales, which is a somewhat fragmentary execution of what Chaucer actually intended, give great pleasure, and great provocation, so can these intriguing snippets of the musings of a truly great historian's mind." -- Stephen B. Presser, The Russell Kirk Center
"Ring and Gardner go behind the legend of C. Vann Woodward to bring the reader an extraordinary account of the perils of writing history. After his defining impact on his field, Woodward quietly struggled to bring another masterwork into print. With sympathy and expert archival sleuthing, the authors portray the historian's conundrum in a period of rapid historical change. The result is an acute and surprisingly personal look at Woodward's own burden as he wrote southern history." -- Glenda Elizabeth Gilmore, Author of Defying Dixie: The Radical Roots of Civil Rights, 1919-1950"With great insight and authority, Natalie Ring and Sarah Gardner have not only brought C. Vann Woodward's previously unpublished and important lectures to light. They have also made a significant contribution to our understanding of Woodward's own struggles, failures, and intellectual development. This is a major work for students of southern and United States history." -- Steven Hahn, Author of A Nation under Our Feet: Black Political Struggles in the Rural South from Slavery to the Great Migration"Ring and Gardner have accomplished something truly extraordinary. They have given readers a fascinating and inspiring look into the intellectual processes of one of American History's great practitioners." -- Carole Emberton, Beyond Redemption: Race, Violence, and the American South after the Civil War