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Florida History Lecture Series

2007-2008 Florida Lecture Series Schedule

Martin Dyckman September 27
Martin Dyckman

St. Petersburg Times, Retired
“Leroy Collins: Floridian of His Century”
 
Long considered the dean of Florida political journalists, Martin Dyckman reported on Florida government and politics for the St. Petersburg Times for more than forty years. Joining the Times staff soon after graduating from Florida State University, he served as the newspaper’s Tallahassee news bureau chief from 1969-76. Admired for his investigative journalism and hard-hitting commentaries, Dyckman’s reporting uncovered numerous scandals and ethical lapses in state government. In the early 1970s Dyckman’s investigative journalism exposed a corruption and ethics scandal on the Florida Supreme Court. After a brief stint in the Times’s Washington bureau, he returned to Florida in 1979 to join the paper’s editorial board. Dyckman has won numerous awards for his work, including the distinguished service award of the Florida Society of Newspaper Editors, the Silver Gavel of the American Bar Association, the Associated Press Managing Editors Association public service award, and the Medal of Honor Award of the Florida Bar Foundation. Since retirement Dyckman has put his journalism skills to work in writing history and biography. His first effort is the award-winning “Floridian of His Century: Courage of Governor LeRoy Collins.” Currently he is at work on a biography of former Florida governor Reubin Askew. His forthcoming work, “A Most Disorderly Court: Scandal and Reform in the Florida Judiciary,” will be released in 2008. Dykeman and his wife, Ivy, reside in Waynesville North Carolina.
  
Michael Grunwald October 11
Michael Grunwald

TIME Magazine
"The Swamp: The Everglades"
A native of Greenvale, N.Y. and graduate of Harvard College in 1992, Michael Grunwald is an award-winning reporter and writer. Grunwald worked for the Boston Globe and the Washington Post, and is now a senior correspondent for Time magazine. He has won the George Polk Award for national reporting, the Worth Bingham Prize for investigative reporting, and the Society of Environmental Journalists award for in-depth reporting. In 2006, Simon & Schuster published his first book, “The Swamp: The Everglades, Florida and the Politics of Paradise,” which won the Florida Book Award’s Gold Medal for Non-Fiction. Mike lives in Miami Beach with his wife, Cristina Dominguez, a former attorney who now runs a Marimekko boutique, and their Boston terriers, Shamu and Candy.
   
Stuart McIver

November 15*
Stuart McIver
Author, Lighthouse Point, Florida
“Death in the Everglades—the Slaying of Guy Bradley”

*The Robert and Rose Stahl Criminal Justice Lecture

A graduate of the University of North Carolina and native of the Tar Heel state, Stuart McIver is the author of 14 books and nearly 500 magazine articles. Before moving to Florida in 1962, McIver worked at the Greensboro Daily News, the Charlotte News, and the Baltimore Sun. Mclver’s latest book is “Death in the Everglades,” the story of the murder of Audubon warden Guy Bradley in1905. His fascination with the Everglades dates back to the 1960s when he was active in writing and producing documentary films, one of which, “Alligator,” won a Silver Medal at the Venice (Italy) Film Festival. His other books include “Hemingway’s Key West” and the “Florida Chronicles Series: Dreamers, Schemers, and Scalawags;” “Murder in the Tropics;” and “Touched by the Sun.” McIver edited the South Florida Historical Magazine for 22 years and is a former president of the Florida Chapter of the Mystery Writers of America and the Writers Network of South Florida. McIver and his wife, Joan, are the parents of five children and live in Lighthouse Point, just north of Fort Lauderdale.
   
Les Standiford January 31
Les Standiford
Professor of English
Florida International University
"Henry Flagler: Last Train to Paradise"
Les Standiford is the best-selling author of 14 books, including the novels “Bone Key” and “Havana Run.” He has also authored critically acclaimed works of non-fiction, “Last Train to Paradise: Henry Flagler and the Spectacular Rise and Fall of the Railroad that Crossed an Ocean” and “Meet You in Hell: Andrew Carnegie, Henry Clay Frick and the Bitter Partnership that Transformed America.” He has received the Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Award, and the Frank O’Conner Award for Short Fiction, and Fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities. “Last Train to Paradise” was read coast to coast on NPR by Dick Estell, the Radio Reader, and was one of the History Channel’s “top ten” picks. “Meet you in Hell” was Crown publisher’s 2005 nominee for the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize. A native Ohioan, he is a graduate of Muskingum College and earned M. A. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Utah. He is Professor of English and Director of the Creative Writing Program at Florida International University in Miami, where he lives with his wife, Kimberly, a psychotherapist, and their three children, Jeremy, Hannah, and Alexander.
   
David Jackson February 28
David Jackson

Florida A$M University
"Booker T. Washington Comes to Florida"
A highly sought-after public speaker, Atlanta native David Jackson holds degrees from Florida A & M (B.S. and M.S.) and from the University of Memphis (Ph.D.). Before joining the FAMU faculty Jackson worked in private industry and as a high school teacher, earning accolades as Memphis City School system’s “Most Influential Teacher” for two years. Jackson won the Rattler Pride award for Community Leadership, the FAMU Teacher of the Year Award, and was named Advanced Teacher of the Year in 2006. He has published over a dozen scholarly articles and presented papers at numerous professional conferences. He is the author or co-author of “A Chief Lieutenant of the Tuskegee Machine: Charles Banks of Mississippi” (Gainesville, 2002), “Retrieving the American Past” (2003), and “Go Sound the Trumpet! Selections in Florida’s African American History” (Tampa, 2005). He is currently at work on a book-length study of Booker T. Washington’s southern travels from 1908 to 1912. Dr. Jackson has served as an historical consultant to many organizations and agencies, including the Florida National Register Review Board and the Florida Historical Commission. He is currently Chairman of the Board of Directors for the John G. Riley House Museum and Cultural Center in Tallahassee. Jackson and his wife, Sheila, live in Tallahassee with their two children, David III and Daja.
  
John F. Marszalek March 13
John F. Marszalek

Giles Distinguished Professor of History,
Mississippi State University, Retired
“The Petticoat Affair: Manners and Sex in Andrew Jackson’s White House”
A graduate of Canisius College and the University of Notre Dame, John F. Marszalek taught at Gannon University, before coming to Mississippi State University in 1973. A specialist in the U. S. Civil War, the Jacksonian Period, and race relations, he is the author or editor of thirteen books and over 250 articles and book reviews. His most well-known books are “Sherman, A Soldier’s Passion for Order” (1993), “The Petticoat Affair: Manners, Mutiny, and Sex in Andrew Jackson’s White House” (1998), and "Commander of All Lincoln’s Armies, A Life of General Henry W. Halleck” (2004), all History Book Club selections. His publications have been the subject of major news stories in national newspapers including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and USA Today. He is a popular lecturer and has appeared on ABC, CBS, CNN, and NBC Television, the Arts and Entertainment Television Network, C-SPAN, C-SPAN 2, Showtime Television, the History Channel, the Voice of America and Mississippi Public Radio. He is the recipient of numerous teaching and literary awards, including the Richard Wright Literary Award and the B.L.C. Wailes Award for national distinction in history. Marzalek is married to the former Jeanne Kozmer, and they have three sons and three grandchildren.