Pflaum Lecture Series
Professor John C. Pflaum taught History at Dickinson College from 1946 to 1972. His interests were in the Civil War, the European origins of the First World War, and early Carlisle. Professor Pflaum held the Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching in recognition of his popularity with students. He received his masters degree from the University of Pennsylvania where he also taught for three years after spending six years on the faculty of Temple University. He remained for all of his life a most voracious reader, a devourer of history, memoirs, biography, and prose literature. But above all, he was a born teacher who inspired fanatical devotion in several generations of Dickinsonians. His teaching placed an emphasis upon precision and fact and evidenced love of conventional art and literature. His enthusiasm and dedication, his own words describe best: "The sheer pleasure of teaching, the fun I've had in the average class. This is what I remember more than anything else. My heart is in the lecture room. It's almost a shame to take the money."
The lecture series in his name was established upon his retirement and has been supported by income from the donations of his many colleagues, former students, and friends.
You may log on to the Pflaum Memories web site to read some wonderful recollections submitted by his former students.
Lecturers
1971-71
Bell Wiley (Emory University)
"Johnny Reb and Billy Yank"
1972-73
Warren Hassler (Pennsylvania State University)
"McClellan"
1973-74
Willie Lee Rose (Johns Hopkins University)
"The Domestication of Domestic Slavery"
1974-75
John Shy (University of Michigan)
"Hearts and Minds in the American Revolution"
1975-76
Steven Riess (Northeastern Illinois University)
"Professional Baseball and American Culture"
1976-77
Samuel F. Scott (Wayne State)
"Army and Revolution in France, 1789-92"
1977-78
Alfred Rieber (University of Pennsylvania)
"The Structure of Politics in Tsarist Russia"
1980-81
Michael Zuckerman (University of Pennsylvania)
"Fate, Flux, and Good Fellowship: An Early Virginia Design for the Dilemma of American Business"
1981-82
Harold Deutsch (U.S. Army War College)
"The Effect of the Ultra Secret on World War II
1982-83
(October)
C. Edward Skeen (Memphis State University)
"The Compensation Act of 1816 and the Problem of the Rise of the Second Party System"
(April)
Kenneth Short (Westminster College)
"How to Love the British in 126 Minutes"
1983-84
John Modell (Carnegie-Mellon University)
"Women Drivers"
1984-85
Edward Peters (University of Pennsylvania)
"The Fall of Hermogenes: Sorcery, Witchcraft, and the Visual Arts, 1400-1800"
1985-86
Immanuel Geiss (University of Bremen)
"The German Question and World War I
1986-87
Richard J. Sommers (U.S. Military Institute)
"Grant and Lee at Petersburg"
1987-88
Robert I. Weiner (Lafayette College)
"French Jewry Since World War II"
1988-89
Jay Luvaas (U.S. Army War College)
"Europeans and the American Civil War"
1989-90
Charles J. Herber (George Washington University)
"German Unification: Past and Present"
1990-91
Francis Jennings (Director Emeritus of the D'Arcy McNickle Center for the History of the American Indian at the Newberry Library, Chicago)
"Indians Discover the New World: The Susquehannocks and the European Encounter"
1991-92
James Muldoon (Rutgers University)
"Christopher Columbus: The Man and the Myth"
1992-93
Dr. Noble E. Cunningham, Jr. (University of Missouri-Columbia)
"Thomas Jefferson After 250 Years"
1993-94
Dr. Clifford McClain Foust (University of Maryland)
"The Drug of Choice in the 18th Century"
1994-95
Dr. Raymond W. Smock (Historian of the U.S. House of Representatives)
"History and How We Use It"
1995-96
Dr. John Voll (Georgetown University)
"Who Owns History?"
1996-97
Dr. Graydon Tunstall (Executive Secretary-Treasurer, Phi Alpha Theta)
"The Historian as Detective: How to Rewrite the History of the Origins of World War"
1997-98
Dr. Edward Acton (University of East Anglia)
"Nazism and Stalinism: A Suitable Comparison"
1998-99
Dr. Mercedes Vilanova (University of Barcelona)
"Grassroots Politics in Barcelona During the Spanish Civil War: Illiteracy, Workers' Movements, and Women"
1999-2000
Dr. Harold Saunders (Charles F. Kettering Foundation)
"The Birth of the Arab-Israeli Peace Process: Roots of a New Paradigm for International Relations in the Twenty-first Century"
2000-01
Dr. Bertram Wyatt-Brown (University of Florida)
"The Last Famous Duel in South Carolina, 1880"
2001-02
Dr. Samuel Baily (Rutgers University)
"Immigrants in the Lands of Promise"
2002-03
Dr. William J. Burns, Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs
"Undoing the Gordian Knot: Iraq, Terrorism, Arab-Israeli Violence, & Regional Reform in the Middle East"
2003-04
Dr. Jean Harvey Baker (Goucher College)
"Revisiting the Buchanan Presidency"
2004-05
Dr. Donna Gabaccia (University of Pittsburgh)
"Nations of Immigrants"
2005-06
Geoffrey R. Stone, J.D. (University of Chicago)
"Civil Liberties in Wartime"
2006-07
Dr. Lamin Sanneh (Yale University)
"In a Post 9/11 World, is Religion Safe?
2007-08
Dr. Conrad Crane (Director, U.S. Army Military History Institute)
"Wandering in the Desert: An Historian's Attempt to Influence the War in Iraq"