Since 1995, the ENC Department of History, with the financial support of foundations and alumni, has proudly sponsored a distinguished lecture series. The lectures have assisted us in building a strong academic community and have helped us to nurture promising young scholars. Past lecturers include leading historians, theologians, social critics, and philosophers.  Among these prominent speakers, we have hosted Pulitzer Prize and Bancroft Prize winners, a Gifford lecturer, and a recipient of the Toynbee Prize.

*2010*

Jill Lepore (Harvard University), "Poor Richard's Poor Jane" (November).

Gordon Wood (Brown University), "Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789-1815." The Donald A. Yerxa Lecture in History (November).

Thomas S. Kidd (Baylor University), “God of Liberty: A Religious History of the American Revolution.” The Donald S. Metz Lecture in American Christian History (October).

Larry Friedman (Harvard University), "Love’s Prophet: The Lives of Erich Fromm" (April).

*2009*

Bruce Schulman (Boston University), “Thunder on the Right: The Rise of Conservatism in Postwar America” (October).

Hank Klibanoff, “The Race Beat: Then & Now” (October).

Heather Cox Richardson (University of Massachusetts, Amherst), “Wounded Knee: Gilded Age Economics and the Road to an American Massacre” (September).

Bertram Wyatt-Brown (Johns Hopkins, University of Florida), "Murder by Duel: The Historian as Expert Witness" (April).

Lauren Winner (Duke Divinity School), “Everyday Religion: A Virginia Anglican Case Study” (Febraury).

George Marsden (Visiting Professor, Harvard Divinity School) "What Would Jonathan Edwards Have to Say to Twenty-First-Century America?" Sponsored by the DeFreitas Foundation and the History Department (February).

*2008*

David Hackett Fischer (Brandeis University) "Champlain's Dream." Sponsored by the ENC History Department and the Historical Society.

Brendan McConville (Boston University) "States of Minds: Constitutional Change and the Struggles to Create New States in the Era of the American Revolution"

Wilfred M. McClay (SunTrust Bank Chair of Excellence in Humanities at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga) "Is There Moral Progress in History? Three Christian Views." Sponsored by the History Department and The Historical Society.

Charles Marsh (Professor of Religious Studies, University of Virginia), "Building Beloved Community: The Christian Call to Humanity." Sponsored by the DeFreitas Foundation and the History Department.

Randall Balmer (Professor of American Religious History at Barnard College, Columbia University) "God in the White House: Faith and the Modern Presidency." Sponsored by the DeFreitas Foundation and the History Department.

Grant Wacker (Professor of Church History, Duke Divinity School) "Billy Graham's America." Sponsored by the DeFreitas Foundation and the History Department.

*2007*

Stephen Prothero  (Chair of the Department of Religion at Boston University) "Religious Literacy in the United States." Sponosored by the DeFreitas Foundation and the History Department.

Robert Orsi (Charles Warren Professor of the History of Religion in America, Harvard Divinity School) “The Dangerous Imaginations of Catholic Children in Mid-20th Century U.S.”  With additional support from the DeFreitas Foundation.

Owen Gingerich (Professor Emeritus of Astronomy and History of Science at Harvard University) “Proof and Persuasion: How Galileo Changed the Rules of Science”

Bertram Wyatt-Brown (Richard J. Milbauer Emeritus Professor of History, University of Florida, and Visiting Scholar, Johns Hopkins University) “Honor in the American South and the Middle East”

Felipe Fernandez-Armesto (Prince of Asturias Professor in the Department of History, Tufts University) “Amerigo Vespucci and the Naming of America, 500 Years After”

“Origins Roundtable.” Participants include: Ronald Numbers (Hilldale Professor of the History of Science and Medicine, University of Wisconsin-Madison); Jon Roberts (Professor of History, Boston University); Karl Giberson (Eastern Nazarene College); Donald Yerxa (Eastern Nazarene College)

*2006*

Jeremy Black (University of Exeter) "The Politics of James Bond."

Brian Ward (University of Florida Professor of History) "Bigger Than Elvis, More Popular Than Jesus: The Beatles, Race, Religion and the American South"

*2005*

Jon H. Roberts (Boston University Professor of History) "The Inward Turn in American Protestant Thought, 1870-1940" 

David Hackett Fischer (University Professor and Warren Professor of History at Brandeis University) "Deep Change: Rhythms of American History"

*2004*

Andrew Walls (Emeritus, University of Edinburgh) "Christians as Historians"

Alister McGrath (University of Oxford) "The King James Bible"

Darryl Hart (Intercollegiate Studies Institute) "The Protestant Reformation and the History of the West"

*2003*

Bruce Mazlish (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) "The Relationship of History to the Natural and Social Sciences"

Jeremy Black (University of Exeter) "War, Technology, and the Rise of the West, 1450-2003: Reconsidered"

Wilfred McClay (University of Tennessee at Chattanooga) "The Persistent Irony of American History"

Joseph Amato (Southwestern State University) "Rethinking Home: A Case for Writing Local History"

*2002*

Richard W. Etulain (University of New Mexico) "Beyond Conflict; Toward Complexity"

*2001*

Harvey C. Mansfield (Harvard University) "What Tocqueville Says to Liberals and Conservatives"

Andrew Bacevich (Boston University) "America's Grand Strategy"

Alberto R. Coll (U.S. Naval War College) "The U.S. in a Changing International Order"

Andrew Walls (University of Edinburgh) "Two Millennia of Christian Expansion and the Problem of the Third"

*2000*

David Hackett Fischer (Brandeis University) "The Revival of History"

John Lukacs (Chestnut Hill College) "The History of History"

Stanley L. Jaki (Seton Hall University; Gifford lecturer; Templeton Prize winner) "Six Days or One Big Bang?"

Frederick A. N. Hale (University of Stellenbosch) "The Truth and Reconciliation Commission"

*1999*

Edward Larson (University of Georgia; Pulitzer Prize winner) "The Scopes Trial and the Evolving Concept of Freedom"

Margaret Jacob (UCLA) "The Truth of Newton's Science and the Truth of Science's History"

Wilfred McClay (Tulane University) "Is America an Experiment?"

David Gress (Foreign Policy Research Institute) "From Plato to Nato"

*1998*

Theodore Von Laue (Clark University) "History for the New Millennium"

Radu Florescu (Boston College) "Who is the Real Dracula?"

H. David Stewart (Hillsdale College) "Rebellion, Conspiracy, and Espionage: Alterations of French Cultural Identity in the Reign of Louis XIV"

*1997*

William M. Fowler, Jr. (Northeastern University; director, Massachusetts Historical Society) "Reflections on History"

Margaret Lamberts Bendroth (co-director, Pew Foundation's Women and the 20th-Century Protestantism Project) "Gender, Feminism, and the Task of the Christian Historian"

*1996*

Glenn Tinder (University of Massachusetts, Boston) "Can We Be Good Without God?

Lawrence Yerdon (director, Hancock Shaker Village) "Opportunities in Public History"

Lee Stetson (professor actor) "Look What I Did with a History Degree!"

*1995*

Jeremy Bangs (former chief curator, Plimoth Plantation; director, Leiden American Pilgrim Museum) "Archival Research Opportunities in Europe and America"

Karen J. Freeze (Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary) "History and Reconciliation"

Russell K. Bishop (Gordon College) "Ancient, Medieval, and Modern: Toward a Reconceptualization of the Past"