Southern History, Turned Upside Down | National Humanities Center

Humanities Moments

Southern History, Turned Upside Down

July 17, 2020

Durham, J. Porter Jr. (Center Trustee; General Counsel and Chief Operating Officer, Global Endowment Management, LP)

Teachers; Students; American History; American South

J. Porter Durham, Jr. grew up in the segregated South during a time when public Ku Klux Klan sightings were not uncommon. In this video, Durham describes how a history class at Duke University taught by Lawrence Goodwyn upended his worldview. Professor Goodwyn’s book, The Populist Moment: A Short History of the Agrarian Revolt in America, transfigured Durham’s understanding of his local and familial history. For the first time, he was “forced to think anew.”


Subjects

History / Teachers / Students / American History / American South /

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