Every year, the department hosts a distinguished historian who teaches one course not usually offered by the department that is offered exclusively to history majors. Previous Jones Professors include a Pulitzer Prize-winning author, a past president of the American Historical Association, a recipient of the Ordre des Palmes Académiques in 1977 for his contribution to French culture, recipients of Fulbright Professorships, a Guggenheim Fellow and a winner of a U.S. National Book Award for Nonfiction.
The visiting professorship is named for Dr. Lewis Pinckney Jones, who came from his native Laurens to Wofford as a student in the 1930s. After commanding three combat vessels during World War II he joined the Wofford faculty in 1946 and earned a Ph.D. in history from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1952. At the end of World War II, he returned to his alma mater to teach English and history. With wit, charm and a keen mind he mesmerized Wofford students for the next 40 odd years, first as a young assistant professor and then as chairman of the department. Not only did Jones inspire Wofford students through his teaching, but through his writing and his innumerable public speeches to various meetings of book clubs, civic organizations and historical associations all over South Carolina. He soon established himself as the premier historian of his native state, equally recognized by his professional colleagues as well as by an enthusiastic public. Wofford honored him in 1972 by naming him the first holder of the prestigious William R. Kenan Jr. Professorship; the state of South Carolina recognized him in 1987 by inducting him into the Order of the Palmetto, the state’s highest honor. Jones wrote several books and articles on South Carolina history.
George Dean Johnson Jr. '64, who majored in history at Wofford, and his wife, Susu, endowed the Lewis P. Jones Visiting Professorship in History in 1996 to honor Jones and his wife, Denny, for the academic and social stimulation they had provided Wofford students for more than 40 years.
Spring 2021
(none due to COVID pandemic)
Spring 2020
Joanne Ferraro, San Diego State University
“A Social and Cultural History of the Renaissance”
Spring 2019
Warren Kimball, Rutgers University, emeritus
“Making Peace While Fighting the War: Churchill, Roosevelt, Stalin and the Creation of Today’s International Playing Field”
Spring 2018
Ann C. Carmichael, Indiana University, emerita
“The Black Death”
Spring 2017
Ellen Ross, Ramapo College of New Jersey, Emerita
“The First World War: The Home Fronts"
Spring 2016
Brian Wills, Kennesaw State University
“Civil War Biographies”
Fall 2014
William and Carla Rahn Phillips, University of Minnesota, Emeriti
“The History of Spain”
Spring 2014
Judith P. Zinsser, Miami University of Ohio, Emerita
“Biography: Fact or Fiction”
Fall 2012
Lloyd C. Gardner, Professor Emeritus, Rutgers University
“The Imperial Presidency”
2012
Irina Podgorny, Universidad Nacional de La Plata, Argentina
“Nature and Antiquities in the Americas: Museums and Collections in Nineteenth-Century Scientific Culture”
2011
Daniel Howe, Professor Emeritus, University of California at Los Angeles and Oxford University
2010
Alessandra Lorini, University of Florence, Italy
“The United States and Cuba from the Nineteenth Century to the Present.”
2009
Mannfred Berg, University of Heidelberg, Germany
“Comparative US and German History”
2008
David Streckfuss, IES Coordinator for Thailand
“Environmental History”
Spring 2007
Kenneth W. Harl, Professor of Ancient History, Tulane University
"War, Society, Great Captains"
Spring 2006
Steven Ozment, McLean Professor of Ancient and Modern Europe, Harvard University
"Germans and Their History"
2004-2005
William E. Leuchtenburg, Kenan Professor, UNC-Chapel Hill
"The American Presidency Since FDR"
Fall 2003
Janice Susan Gothard - Murdoch University, Western Australia
Exploring Australian History
Spring 2003
Susanna Delfino - University of Genoa, Italy
Economic History
Spring 2002
Lucy Riall - Birkbeck College, University of London
Italian Nationalism
Spring 2001
Carol Bleser - Clemson University
Reconstruction History
Fall 2000
Eugen Weber - University of California, Los Angeles
19th Century European Intellectual History
Spring 1999
Catherine Clinton - Harvard University
History of the Antebellum South
Spring 1998
Robert V. Remini - University of Illinois, Chicago
Jacksonian American
Fall 1996
Dewey Grantham - Vanderbilt University
Modern America Since 1945