Scott E. Casper

Scott E. Casper is professor of history at the University of Nevada, Reno, and teaches nineteenth-century U.S. history, the history of the book, and American cultural history. In Sarah Johnson's Mount Vernon: The Forgotten History of an American Shrine (2008), he retells the origins of American historic preservation through the story of the African American community that lived and worked at George Washington's home in the century after his death. Casper's first book, Constructing American Lives (1999), explores the relationships between biography and culture in nineteenth-century America from the perspectives of authors, publishers, and readers. He has received several teaching awards, including the CASE/Carnegie Foundation Nevada Professor of the Year (2008), and has worked extensively with K-12 teachers across the United States.

Lecture topics:

• Sarah Johnson's Mount Vernon: Reconstructing the Forgotten Nineteenth-Century History of an Eighteenth-Century Place
• The Selling of the President, Nineteenth-Century Style
• Books, Publishing, and Reading in Nineteenth-Century America

Viewed Saturday, November 21, 2009