LAKELAND, Fla. (September 15, 2011) — Florida Southern College’s Lawton M. Chiles Jr. Center for Florida History is proud to welcome Vernon Burton, Professor of Humanities at Clemson University, to kick off the 2011-2012 Florida Lecture Series on September 22, 2011.  Dr. Burton’s lecture, “The Age of Lincoln: Then and Now,” will be held in Branscomb Auditorium at 7:00 p.m. on the Florida Southern campus in Lakeland.  The event is free and open to the public. 

Abraham Lincoln’s presidency and the decades surrounding it comprised one of the nation’s most bloody and turbulent periods. Still, the conflict ultimately produced a unified nation that rests proudly on the foundation of personal liberty for all of its citizens. Through his efforts to expand the Founding Fathers’ incomplete view of freedom, Lincoln helped create a country that more closely resembles the ideal of “liberty and justice for all.”  Vernon Burton will bring this era to life through a dynamic discussion of the impact of Lincoln’s life and legacy.  Burton’s lecture will be derived from his latest book, The Age of Lincoln, (2007), which won the Chicago Tribune Heartland Literary Award for Nonfiction.

“Vernon Burton will share his masterful insights with the community about Lincoln’s continuing relevance to our time on the 150th   anniversary of the beginning of the Civil War.  His presentation will be timely, informative, and provocative,” noted James M. Denham, Director of the Lawton M. Chiles Jr. Center for Florida History and FSC history professor.

A native of Ninety-Six, South Carolina, Burton is one of America’s leading scholars of Southern History, the Civil War, and the Civil Rights movement.  He earned his doctorate in 1976 from Princeton University, and soon thereafter joined the faculty at the University of Illinois where he taught for over 33 years.  He has authored or edited 16 books and over 180 articles, including his classic work, In My Father’s House Are Many Mansions: Family and Community in Edgefield, South Carolina, (1985).   vburton-l.jpg

About the Florida Lecture Series
In its 16th year, the Florida Lecture Series at Florida Southern College is a forum that brings speakers to the FSC campus who explore Florida life and culture from a wide range of disciplines, including history, public affairs, law, sociology, criminology, anthropology, literature, and art. The overall objective of the series is to bring members of the community, the faculty, and the student body together to interact with and learn from leading scholars in their fields.