George Will, a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist, author and commentator, will be the featured speaker at USC Upstate’s 2024 Dr. John B. Edmunds, Jr. Distinguished Lecture Series at 7 p.m. Thursday, April 18, at the Chapman Cultural Center in downtown Spartanburg. Tickets are $25 per person and may be obtained online.
Will is a longtime syndicated opinion writer whose column appears twice weekly in more than 300 newspapers across 47 states and four countries. In 1976 he became a regular contributing editor of Newsweek magazine, for which he provided a bimonthly essay until 2011. In 1977 he won a Pulitzer Prize for commentary. Nine collections of his Newsweek and Washington Post columns have been published, the most recent of which is “American Happiness and Discontents: The Unruly Torrent, 2008-2020,” released in September 2021.
“We are pleased to host George Will, whose erudite political commentary and books are well-known to many,” said USC Upstate Chancellor Bennie L. Harris, Ph.D. “We know our students and the wider community will enjoy the opportunity to engage with such a distinguished thinker.”
“George Will is the foremost political commentator of our times,” said Rob McCormick, a professor history at USC Upstate. “For decades, he has offered us the keenest insights on American politics and history. Will’s visit to the Upstate reaffirms the Edmunds Lecture’s commitment to bringing significant political and historical thinkers to Upstate South Carolina.”
Will has also published several works on baseball, including “A Nice Little Place on the North Side: Wrigley Field at 100” (2014). He was a member of Major League Baseball’s Blue Ribbon Panel from 1999-2000.
Will was a founding panel member on ABC’s “This Week,” and has also been a contributor to Fox News and MSNBC.
He was born in Champaign, Illinois, educated at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, Oxford University and Princeton University, where he earned his Ph.D. and served as a trustee. Today, Will lives and works in the Washington, D.C., area.
About The Edmunds Lecture Series
Named for the late professor of American history at USC Upstate John B. Edmunds, Jr., the series is dedicated to bringing significant scholars and leaders in history, political science, philosophy, and religion to the Upstate. Sponsored by the university’s Department of History, Political Science, Philosophy, and American Studies, the series has hosted Peggy Noonan, Rick Atkinson, David McCullough, Bob Woodward, Jon Meacham, Retired Four-Star Admiral and 16th Supreme Allied Commander of NATO Jim Stavridis, and N.Y. Times Columnist David Brooks. For more information, please visit www.uscupstate.edu/els.