Professor Andrew Roberts greeting fans during the 2023 Dr. John B. Edmunds, Jr. Distinguished Lecture Series event on Thursday, March 30, at the Chapman Cultural Center.
The University of South Carolina Upstate welcomed Andrew Roberts, a historian and best-selling author, as the featured speaker for the 2023 Dr. John B. Edmunds, Jr. Distinguished Lecture Series event on Thursday, March 30, at the Chapman Cultural Center in downtown Spartanburg.
Roberts’ New York Times bestseller “Churchill: Walking with Destiny,” released in 2018, was widely hailed as a tour de force and an insightful and fresh interpretation of the famed British prime minister. He entertained his audience Thursday night with details about his research, witticisms, and insights about Winston Churchill and other historical figures of the period.
Originally from London, Roberts has authored and edited more than 20 books. He has lectured broadly at institutions that include Oxford, Cambridge, Yale, Princeton, and the U.S. Army War College. His books have garnered awards and been translated into 28 languages. In November, he was awarded a life Peerage as Baron Roberts of Belgravia.
“There were 1,009 books written about Winston Churchill,” Roberts said. “Mine was 1,010, and that was in 2018.”
Roberts spoke for nearly an hour. He painted a picture of Churchill as being a man with an extraordinary sense of destiny, a brilliant statesman and leader, and full of character and humor. The moment that elicited the most laughter from the audience, was when Roberts intimated that “surrender” is a word that was invented by the French.
Roberts explained that when writing the biography, he was provided access to materials related to Churchill that researchers before him had not seen, including manuscripts from people who worked with the prime minister and pages from the diary of King George VI.
Roberts is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and the Royal Historical Society, the Roger and Martha Mertz Visiting Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford, the Lehrman Institute Distinguished Lecturer at the New-York Historical Society, and a visiting professor at the Department of War Studies at King’s College, London.
Previously, Roberts wrote the award-winning “Napoleon: A Life”, which is widely regarded as the finest biography of the French emperor and general. Through careful research, the author portrays Napoleon as a keen, astute political and military leader, as well as a tireless self-promoter.
In one of his most recent books “The Last King of America: The Misunderstood Reign of George III,” Roberts re-examines the much-maligned king, discovering that George III was not the incompetent figure that many propagandists painted. Instead, Roberts concludes that the British king was an intelligent monarch, not deserving of the reputation many allotted to him.
Prior to Roberts’ lecture, Rob McCormick, a professor of history at USC Upstate, paid tribute to the late Spartanburg business leader John Michael “Mike” Kohler, Jr., who died in June 2022. Kohler served on the Edmunds Lecture series planning committee and was a strong supporter of USC Upstate.
“His smile, his humor, his hard work… (Kohler) was always meticulous,” McCormick said. “He will continue to be an inspiration to all of us affiliated with this lecture series. We know that he would have been thrilled with our guest speaker (Roberts) this evening.”
“Few figures in history have been studied and written about more than Winston Churchill,” McCormick added. “The question must be asked: what can anyone say about Churchill that hasn’t been said? Turns out that Andrew Roberts, assessing previously un-used documents in his magisterial biography, shows us that much more can be said.”
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.
Additional Photos of Thursday’s event can be found here: https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjAxVGm.