Raymond O. Arsenault is John Hope Franklin Professor of Southern History and codirector of the Florida studies program at the University of South Florida, St. Petersburg. Author of two prizewinning books on Southern politics and society as well as the classic essay “The End of the Long Hot Summer,” Arsenault has written and lectured on a wide variety of topics related to regional culture. His most recent books are Freedom Riders: 1961 and the Struggle for Racial Justice (2006) and Paradise Lost? The Environmental History of Florida (2005), coedited Jack E. Davis.

Lecture topics:

• Freedom Riders
• The End of the Long Hot Summer: The Air Conditioner and Southern Culture
• The Public Storm: Hurricanes and the Environmental History of Modern America
• The Folklore of Southern Demagoguery
• Look Away, Disneyland: Walt Disney and Southern History
• The Sound of Freedom: Marian Anderson, the Lincoln Memorial, and the Concert that Awakened America

Viewed Friday, November 20, 2009