Episodes

  • Walter Edgar's Journal: 'This fierce people' - the untold story of America's Revolutionary War in the South

    Walter Edgar's Journal: 'This fierce people' - the untold story of America's Revolutionary War in the South
    Aug 2 2024
    This week on the Journal we will be talking with Alan Pell Crawford about his book, This Fierce People: The Untold Story of America's Revolutionary War in the South (2024, Alfred A. Knopf). In his book Alan tells the story of three-plus years in the Revolutionary war, and of the fierce battles fought in the South that made up the central theater of military operations in the latter years of the War. And it was in these bloody battles that the British were, in essence, vanquished.
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    42 mins
  • Lowcountry at High Tide

    Lowcountry at High Tide
    Jul 19 2024
    For centuries residents of Charleston, SC, have made many attempts, both public and private, to manipulate the landscape of the low-lying peninsula on which Charleston sits, surrounded by wetlands, to maximize drainage, and thus buildable land and to facilitate sanitation. In her book, Lowcountry at High Tide: A History of Flooding, Drainage, and Reclamation in Charleston, South Carolina (2020, USC Press), Christina Rae Butler uses three hundred years of archival records to show not only the alterations to the landscape past and present, but also the impact those efforts have had on the residents at various socio-economic levels throughout its history.In this encore of a broadcast conversation from 2020, Butler explores the ways in which Charleston has created land with Dr. Edgar, and they talk about challenges facing the city in the face of rising sea levels.
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    42 mins
  • Walter Edgar's Journal: How Jewish entrepreneurs built economy and community in Upcountry South Carolina

    Walter Edgar's Journal: How Jewish entrepreneurs built economy and community in Upcountry South Carolina
    Jul 5 2024
    This week we will be talking with Diane Vecchio about her book, Peddlers, Merchants, and Manufacturers: How Jewish Entrepreneurs Built Economy and Community in Upcountry South Carolina (2024, USC Press).In the book, Diane examines the diverse economic experiences of Jews who settled in Upcountry (now called Upstate) South Carolina. Like other parts of the so-called New South, the Upcountry was a center of textile manufacturing and new business opportunities that drew entrepreneurial energy to the region. Working with a rich set of oral histories, memoirs, and traditional historical documents, she explores Jewish community development and describes how Jewish business leaders also became civic leaders and affected social, political, and cultural life. The Jewish community's impact on all facets of life across the Upcountry is vital to understanding the growth of today's Spartanburg-Greenville corridor.
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    34 mins
  • Walter Edgar's Journal: Payne-ful Business - Charleston’s Journey to Truth

    Walter Edgar's Journal: Payne-ful Business - Charleston’s Journey to Truth
    Jun 21 2024
    Margaret Seidler thought she knew her family’s history. Then, a genealogical search on-line led her to connect with a cousin who, unlike Margaret, was Black. Determined to find as much as she could about her lineage, Margaret soon came face to face with more than just an expanded family tree. And what she found led her to devote years to historical research and many difficult conversations about the centrality of the institution of slavery in Charleston, and the part some of her ancestors played in helping it flourish. This week we talk with Margaret Seidler about how this journey into history challenged her and about her new book, Payne-ful Business: Charleston’s Journey to Truth (2024, Evening Post Books).In the book, Seidler has written about the realities of Charleston’s racial history while highlighting the historians, journalists, and community members who work to reconcile those truths. And the enslaved individuals whom she found advertised for sale in ante bellum newspapers are brought to vivid life by artist John W. Jones. He truly uncovers the humanity hidden beneath those detached advertisements.
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    40 mins
  • Walter Edgar's Journal: The story of the Mighty Moo, the USS Cowpens

    Walter Edgar's Journal: The story of the Mighty Moo, the USS Cowpens
    Jun 7 2024
    In 1976, the Cowpens, SC, Bicentennial Committee decided that the next town festival would be called the Mighty Moo Festival in honor of former crewmen of the USS Cowpens WWII aircraft carrier. Over the years since, many veterans who served on the ship during the war have attended the festival along with their families. Today, the town continues to celebrate the service of the carrier each father's day.In his book, The Mighty Moo: The USS Cowpens and Her Epic World War II Journey from Jinx Ship to the Navy’s First Carrier into Tokyo Bay, Nathan Canestaro tells the story of the ship and its untested crew who earned a distinguished combat record and beat incredible odds to earn 12 battle stars in the Pacific.Nathan joins us this week to talk about The Might Moo.
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    40 mins
  • Walter Edgar's Journal: Sleeping with the ancestors - The Slave Dwelling Project

    Walter Edgar's Journal: Sleeping with the ancestors - The Slave Dwelling Project
    May 17 2024
    This week we're talking with Joseph McGill and Herb Frazier, authors of Sleeping with the Ancestors: How I Followed the Footprints of Slavery (2023, Hachette).Since founding the Slave Dwelling Project in 2010, Joseph McGill has been spending the night in slave dwellings throughout the South, but also the in North and in the West, where people are often surprised to learn that such structures exist. Events and gatherings arranged around these overnight stays have provided a unique way to understand the complex history of slavery. McGill and Frazier talk with us about how the project got started and about the sometimes obscured or ignored aspects of the history in the United States.
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    34 mins
  • Walter Edgar's Journal: The story of Fort Sumter

    Walter Edgar's Journal: The story of Fort Sumter
    May 3 2024
    This week we'll be talking with Richard Hatcher, author of the book, Thunder in the Harbor: Fort Sumter and the Civil War. Construction of Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor began after British forces captured and occupied Washington during the War of 1812 via a naval attack. The fort was still incomplete in 1861 when the Battle of Fort Sumter occurred, sparking the American Civil War.In writing Thunder in the Harbor, Rick Hatcher conducted the first modern study to document the fort from its origins up to its transfer to the National Park Service in 1948.
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    43 mins
  • Walter Edgar's Journal: Finding the 1768 Charleston lighthouse in the fog of history

    Walter Edgar's Journal: Finding the 1768 Charleston lighthouse in the fog of history
    Apr 19 2024
    This week, we'll be talking with author Kevin Duffus about his book, The 1768 Charleston Lighthouse : Finding the Light in the Fog of History.Charleston’s first lighthouse was established on Middle Bay Island in 1768. The history of the lighthouse, however, has been lost in a fog of misinformation. Kevin Duffus conducted extensive research for his book and has been able to reconstruct the history of America’s seventh – and tallest at the time – lighthouse. Kevin will tell us about the structure's distinctive architecture inspired by Charleston's St. Michael's Church, the ingenious Irishman who designed and built it, its variety of lighting systems, its involvement in three wars, and is tragic end.
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    43 mins