The Future of the American Republic: A 250 Perspective

by

Video and Audio

The Future of the American Republic: A 250 Perspective

On October 20, 2026, the Georgia Historical Society presented "The Future of the American Republic: A US250 Perspective." Georgia Historical Society President and CEO Dr. W. Todd Groce and Dr. Stan Deaton, who holds the Dr. Elaine B. Andrews Distinguished Historian position at GHS, held an engaging and timely discussion about this important anniversary in American history. This program was presented with support from Georgia Ports Authority and additional support from Dr. and Mrs. Ted Moore.

With support from:

 

Careers Behind the Archive: Kay Coates, Information Services Librarian

by

Video and Audio

Careers Behind the Archive:
Kay Coates, Information Services Librarian

kcoates
henderson-library
henderson-library-2

In this episode of Careers Behind the Archive, Kay Coates, Associate Professor and Information Services Librarian at Georgia Southern University’s Zach S. Henderson Library, shares her inspiring journey into librarianship and the skills that have shaped her career. From research to connecting people with reliable information, Kay highlights how curiosity, open-mindedness, and a willingness to take risks can open doors to unexpected opportunities.

Civil Conversations with Stan Deaton

by

Video and Audio

Civil Conversations with Stan Deaton

As part of the 2026-2027 Georgia History Festival, Dr. Stan Deaton, who holds the Dr. Elaine B. Andrews Distinguished Historian position at the Georgia Historical Society, recently spoke with several public officials in Georgia to ask about the meaning of civic engagement and its importance in our history in a series of interviews we are calling Civil Conversations. 

The following are interviews with: Roger Moss, President of the Savannah-Chatham County Board of Public Education; Tim Walmsley, retired Chatham County Superior Court Judge; Anne Allen Westbrook, State Representative for Georgia House District 163; Nick Palumbo, 4th District Alderman for the City of Savannah; and Michael Thurmond, former Chief Executive Officer of Dekalb County and former Georgia Labor Commissioner.

With support from

HJ-Russell-Logo_GREEN
mthurmond

Michael Thurmond

Former Chief Executive Officer of Dekalb County, former Georgia Labor Commissioner

twalmsley

Tim Walmsley

Retired Chatham County Superior Court Judge

awestbrook

Anne Allen Westbrook

State Representative for Georgia House District 163

npalumbo

Nick Palumbo

4th District Alderman for the City of Savannah

rmoss

Roger Moss

President, Savannah-Chatham County Board of Public Education

Show Up. Speak Up. Serve: Georgia Public Servants on Civic Engagement

The following lesson was developed to supplement the above conversations.

"Show Up. Speak Up. Serve" Lesson

Teaching with Community Archives: Immigrant and Migrant Oral Histories

by

Video and Audio

Teaching with Community Archives: Immigrant and Migrant Oral Histories

Through Teaching with Community Archives, an educational program of the Community Archives Initiative, GHS partnered with Dr. Alex Reyes, coordinator of Georgia Southern University’s ESOL endorsement program, to bring the GHS online course into university classrooms.

Pre-service teachers learned how archives, oral histories, and storytelling can foster a sense of belonging and strengthen connections within communities. They gained hands-on experience collecting and transcribing oral histories with immigrant and migrant community members and created posters sharing their interviewees’ stories.

On September 29,2026, students and interviewees commemorated their work together through a Community Showcase at Georgia Southern University. The oral histories will become part of the GHS collection, preserving community voices and experiences for future generations.

Listen to these oral histories and view the student projects below.

Dr. Yasar Bodur

Turkey (Republic of Türkiye)

ybodur

Interviewed by Ella Smith, Lauren Wildes, and Ashlie Aldridge

Dr. J. Checo Colón-Gaud

Puerto Rico

jcheco-colon-gaud

Interviewed by Kaleigh Jackson, Darrien Doster, and Keara Buckley

Kay Coates

Guyana

kcoates

Interviewed by Emory Bryant and Katie Bullard

Lumana Shakya

Nepal (Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal)

lshakya

Interviewed by Avery Sleigh and Brianna Smith

Margarita Muñoz

Mexico

mmunoz

Interviewed by Brooke Hinely and Drew Herring

Dr. Marisa Lally

Thailand

mlally

Interviewed by Bailey Fordham and Olivia McAllister

Ming Fang He

China

mfanghe

Interviewed by Afeya M., Nadia C., and Zoe W.

Oghenekobiruo Unutrojacob

Nigeria

ounutrojacob

Interviewed by Josey Scott, Jakobe Wright, and Ansley Rice

Shainaz Landge

India

slandge

Interviewed by Carmen Guittere, Gracie Fulmer, Sydney Pressley

Larissa Pires

Brazil

lpires

Interviewed by Kristen Swint and Paris Sharp

How Civic Engagement Changed America in the 20th Century: A Conversation with Kevin Gaines

by

Video and Audio

How Civic Engagement Changed America in the 20th Century: A Conversation with Kevin Gaines

kevin-gaines

On October 14, 2026, the Georgia Historical Society hosted a special conversation with Dr. Kevin Gaines, the Julian Bond Professor of Civil Rights and Social Justice at the University of Virginia, with Dr. Stan Deaton, who holds the Dr. Elaine B. Andrews Distinguished Historian position at the Georgia Historical Society.

Gaines and Deaton discussed how civic engagement changed America in the years following World War II, how the right to vote and the meaning of citizenship expanded and evolved during those years, and how the right to vote has been challenged over time.

The conversation took place at the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library in Atlanta.

Careers Behind the Archive: Senior Historian

by

Video and Audio

Careers Behind the Archive:
Stan Deaton, Senior Historian

senior-historian

What can you do with a passion for history? Careers Behind the Archive, a new GHS online audio series, explores how skills developed through historical and archival work—research, critical thinking, communication, problem-solving, and storytelling—can translate into careers well beyond the history field. Our first conversation features Dr. Stan Deaton, Senior Historian at the Georgia Historical Society, who shares insights from his career and the skills that have shaped his work.

Discover how history builds transferable skills for today’s workforce. Listen to the interview with Dr. Stan Deaton and hear his career story firsthand.

An Evening with Alan Taylor – 2026 Dooley Distinguished Fellow

by

Video and Audio

An Evening with Alan Taylor – 2026 Dooley Distinguished Fellow

On September 10, 2026, the Georgia Historical Society inducted Pulitzer Prize-winning author and historian Alan Taylor as the 2026 Vincent J. Dooley Distinguished Teaching Fellow. Following the induction, Dr. Taylor discussed his career, groundbreaking scholarly work, and publications.

Dooley Distinguished Teaching Fellows are national leaders in the field of history as both writers and educators whose research has enhanced or changed the way the public understands the past.

In addition to their outstanding scholarship, Dooley Distinguished Teaching Fellows have served the Georgia Historical Society as faculty in teacher training seminars, as lecturers, as consultants, or in a similar capacity, advancing the mission of the institution. Being designated as a Dooley Distinguished Fellow recognizes and formalizes the relationship forged through this service.

Learn more about the Vincent J. Dooley Distinguished Fellows Program.

Major program support by

Delta

A United States but a Divided America: How We have Celebrated the Nation’s Birthday During Turbulent Times

by

Video and Audio

A United States but a Divided America: How We have Celebrated the Nation’s Birthday During Turbulent Times

On February 26, 2026, the Georgia Historical Society presented "A United States but a Divided America: How We have Celebrated the Nation’s Birthday During Turbulent Times," a discussion with historians Dr. William Hitchcock, James Madison Professor of History at the University of Virginia and expert on the Cold War, and Dr. Elizabeth Varon, Professor of History and Associate Director of the Nau Center for Civil War History at UVA, about past national commemorations.

The United States will commemorate its 250th anniversary during one of the most partisan periods in American history. Once again, our national commemoration will take place during a divisive era—much like the centennial of 1876 followed the Civil War and Reconstruction, and the bicentennial of 1976 followed the tumultuous 1960s, Vietnam, and Watergate, all in the midst of the Cold War. How did those two earlier critical and pivotal events—the Civil War and the Cold War—shape those commemorations and what can we learn from the leadership of those who steered the American ship of state through the political, social, and economic upheaval and vicious partisanship of those divisive eras?

Presented by:

 

whitchcock
About William Hitchcock

William I. Hitchcock is a New York Times bestselling author and award-winning teacher who has published numerous books relating to World War II, including The Bitter Road to Freedom: A New History of the Liberation of Europe, which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and a winner of the George Louis Beer Prize from the American Historical Association. He is also the author of The Age of Eisenhower: America and the World in the 1950s. He received his B.A. degree from Kenyon College and his Ph.D. from Yale University. He has been a Fulbright scholar, a fellow of the Nobel Institute in Oslo, the holder of the Henry Kissinger Chair at the Library of Congress, and Berlin Prize fellow at the American Academy in Berlin. He is now the James Madison Professor of History at the University of Virginia.

evaron
About Elizabeth Varon

Elizabeth R. Varon is the Langbourne M. Williams Professor of American History at the University of Virginia and a member of the executive council of UVA’s John L. Nau III Center for Civil War History. She is the author of six books, including Armies of Deliverance: A New History of the Civil War, which won the 2020 Gilder Lehrman Lincoln Prize. Her most recent book Longstreet: The Confederate General Who Defied the South (Simon & Schuster, 2023) was reviewed in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and The Atlantic. The book won the inaugural American Battlefield Trust Prize, the Georgia Historical Society’s Malcolm Bell, Jr. and Muriel Barrow Bell Award, and was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times biography prize, among other honors. Varon’s current project is a biography of humanitarian Clara Barton.

An Evening with Rick Atkinson

by

Video and Audio

An Evening with Rick Atkinson

The Georgia Historical Society (GHS) welcomed acclaimed historian and three-time Pulitzer Prize winner Rick Atkinson to Savannah on Thursday, October 9, 2025, as the keynote presentation of the 2025–2026 Georgia History Festival and part of GHS’s statewide US250 commemoration. The evening program explored the Revolutionary War’s pivotal middle years and their lasting impact on the fight for American independence. In conversation with Dr. Stan Deaton, the Dr. Elaine B. Andrews Distinguished Historian at GHS, Atkinson discussed his latest work, The Fate of the Day: The War for America, Fort Ticonderoga to Charleston, 1777–1780.

Soundbites with Dr. Stan Deaton: “A Nation of Laws”

by

Soundbites with Dr. Stan Deaton

"A Nation of Laws"

A resource for the 2025-2026 Georgia History Festival, A Nation of Laws: Courts and the Foundation of Freedom.

Read the questions below and click the sound files to hear the responses.

Teachers:
View the Soundbites with Dr. Stan Deaton Discussion Guide.

Soundbite 1 –

What does "A Nation of Laws" mean?

Soundbite 2 –

What is an Independent Judiciary?

Soundbite 3 –

Where did the idea for the Supreme Court come from?

Soundbite 4 –

How was the Constitution written to change and reflect the people of America?

Soundbite 5 –

Why do the Supreme Court justices serve life terms?

Soundbite 6 –

Why are there nine Supreme Court justices? Were there always nine?

Soundbite 7 –

Why does the Supreme Court reverse decisions? What happens when a decision is reversed?

Soundbite 8 –

What are the Landmark Court Cases and how have they remained relevant?

Soundbite 9 –

What are some notable Georgia court cases that have reached the US Supreme Court?

Soundbite 10 –

How does the Supreme Court enforce their decisions?

Pictured: U.S. Supreme Court Crowds, July 8, 1974. Library of Congress.