S.C. Historian to Speak at Centennial Convocation

Hartsville, S.C. — Dr. Walter Edgar, acclaimed historian and author of “South Carolina: A History,” will be the keynote speaker at a special convocation launching Coker College’s centennial year on Thursday, January 10 at 7:30 p.m. in the college’s Watson Theater. Admission is free and the public is invited to attend.

Edgar is the Claude Henry Neuffer Professor of Southern Studies, the George Washington Distinguished Professor of History, and the director of the Institute for Southern Studies at the University of South Carolina. He has two weekly radio shows heard statewide on S.C. Educational Radio, “Walter Edgar’s Journal,” a look at contemporary issues in historical context, and “South Carolina from A to Z.”

Edgar has written or edited numerous books about South Carolina and the American South. Published in 1998, “South Carolina: A History” was the first new history of the state in more than 60 years. His 2003 “Partisans & Redcoats: The Southern Conflict that Turned the Tide of the American Revolution” is in its fourth printing. Edgar was also editor-in-chief for the well-received 1200-page “The South Carolina Encyclopedia,” printed in 2006.

Coker College is marking its centennial with a series of events throughout 2008 that are open to the public.

Initially founded as a college for women in 1908 by Major James Lide Coker, Coker College is one of the most distinguished small liberal arts colleges in the South. U.S. News & World Report consistently ranks Coker one of America’s Best Colleges,  The Princeton Review repeatedly selects Coker a Best Southeastern College, and Coker’s hallmark round table teaching style is nationally recognized as a model learning experience.

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December 19, 2007