(Originally broadcast 9/29/17) - New Politics in the Old South: Ernest F. Hollings in the Civil Rights Era (2016, USC Press) is the first scholarly biography of Ernest F. "Fritz" Hollings, a key figure in South Carolina and national political developments in the second half of the twentieth century. Throughout his career Hollings was renowned for his willingness to voice unpleasant truths, as when he called for the peaceful acceptance of racial desegregation at Clemson University in 1963 and

The Buenos Aires Herald ceased publication in July of 2017, almost 141 years after its founding. The paper became famous, however, only in the latter part of the 20th century, for exposing the forced disappearances of Argentinians during the 1976-83 military dictatorship. Other newspapers in the country whitewashed this chapter of Argentina’s history. The English-language paper’s editor during this dangerous, violent period was British journalist Robert Cox. The Charleston resident joins Walter

Ed Madden, editor of Theologies of Terrain (Muddy Ford Press, 2017), writes that poet Tim Conroy “is a theologian of the best kind, a theologian of the ordinary.” “He knows… [we] face crushing loss and daily difficulties. We have to learn to live the best we can here, now. … [Conroy] points us to a ‘cathedral’ of trees where we are encouraged to find not truth or healing but perspective—to measure ourselves ‘by how a towering / moment passes.’" Tim Conroy and Ed Madden join Walter Edgar to talk

(Originally broadcast 09/15/17) - During the winter of 1864, more than 3,000 Federal prisoners of war escaped from Confederate prison camps into South Carolina and North Carolina, often with the aid of local slaves. Their flight created, in the words of contemporary observers, a "Yankee plague," heralding a grim end to the Confederate cause. In The Yankee Plague: Escaped Union Prisoners and the Collapse of the Confederacy (2016, UNC Press) Dr. Lorien Foote, of Texas A&M University, looks at

(Originally broadcast 09/08/17) - Columbian Gerald Davis is co-producer of the 2012 Emmy-winning documentary Frank Kearns: American Correspondent first aired on West Virginia Public Television. Recently, Davis has published Algerian Diary: Frank Kearns and the "Impossible Assignment" for CBS News (2016, WVU Press). He talks with Walter Edgar about his deep dive into Kearns’ life and the assignment that changed the way the U.S. viewed Algeria’s fight for independence from France. Davis used

As a priest, archbishop, and president of the US bishops' conference, Cardinal Joseph Bernardin, a native of Columbia, S.C., lived a ministry marked by thoughtfulness, compassion, and conviction. In his book, Joseph Bernardin: Seeking Common Ground (2016, Liturgical Press) , Steven P. Millies relies on interviews with the cardinal's assistants, friends, and family members, as well as on some previously unavailable archival material, to explore Bernardin's controversial "seamless garment"

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 Carolina Geological Survey, and David Ballard, currently with SCGS, join Walter Edgar to talk about the history of South Carolina’s northern line, and the modern-day efforts to get it right. All

In spite of a growing movement for journalistic neutrality in reporting the news of the 20 th century, journalists enlisted on both sides of the mid-century struggle for civil rights. Indeed, against all odds, the seeds of social change found purchase in South Carolina with newspaperman John McCray and his allies at the Lighthouse and Informer, who challenged readers to "rebel and fight"--to reject the "slavery of thought and action" and become "progressive fighters" for equality. In Newspaper

In spite of a growing movement for journalistic neutrality in reporting the news of the 20 th century, journalists enlisted on both sides of the mid-century struggle for civil rights. Indeed, against all odds, the seeds of social change found purchase in South Carolina with newspaperman John McCray and his allies at the Lighthouse and Informer, who challenged readers to "rebel and fight"--to reject the "slavery of thought and action" and become "progressive fighters" for equality. In Newspaper

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 is the February 3, 2006, episode of Walter Edgar's Journal , in which Finney talks about the changes in civil rights