2017-2018 History Series

in this series

Joe Berton

Kenneth Harl

Dorsey Armstrong

Evenings begin with a 6:45 Reception. Talks begin at 7:30 p.m. in the Salisbury House Common Room.

T. E. Lawrence, His Life and Legend.
A talk by Joseph Berton, author of T. E. Lawrence and the Arab Revolt,
An Illustrated Guide.

Joe Berton will explore the fascinating life of T. E. Lawrence, the subject of David Lean’s classic film, Lawrence of Arabia. He’ll share insights into the Lawrence story, show a number of rare photographs, and provide some background stories uncovered by his continuing research. Berton is the author of a highly acclaimed illustrated biography of Lawrence and the Arab Revolt.

Joe Berton has studied Lawrence and the Arab Revolt extensively. He is very familiar with the major Lawrence collections in England and the United States. He has lectured in Oxford at the T.E. Lawrence Symposium and published journal articles on Lowell Thomas, the photographs of Harry Chase and on the Imperial Camel Corps. He is most interested in photographs and original documents related to the Arab Revolt and the men who served with Lawrence in the Hejaz. Joe has an important study collection of original artifacts from this period and was a major contributor to the 2010-­‐11 museum exhibition Lawrence von Arabian, Genese eines Mythos held in Oldenburg and Cologne Germany. He is also a contributor to the current show on Lawrence of Arabia in Newark England. He is the author of the highly acclaimed book T. E. Lawrence and the Arab Revolt, An Illustrated Guide. In addition to his work on Lawrence, Joe is an internationally recognized sculptor of military miniatures, and his work, mostly of Middle Eastern subjects, has received numerous awards. Until recently, he has taught art to middle school students in Oak Park, Illinois, where he lives with his wife Gloria Groom, the chair of European Painting and Sculpture at the Art Institute of Chicago.

History Series at Salisbury House
March 22, 2018
Ottoman Empire and Early Sultans

Dr. Kenneth W. Harl is Professor of Classical and Byzantine History at Tulane University in New Orleans, where he teaches courses in Greek, Roman, Byzantine, and Crusader history. He earned his B.A. from Trinity College and his M.A. and Ph.D. from Yale University. Recognized as an outstanding lecturer, Professor Harl has received numerous teaching awards at Tulane, including the coveted Sheldon H. Hackney Award. He has earned Tulane's annual Student Body Award for Excellence in Teaching nine times and is the recipient of Baylor University's nationwide Robert Foster Cherry Award for Great Teachers. In 2007, he was the Lewis P. Jones Visiting Professor in History at Wofford College. An expert on classical Anatolia, he has taken students with him into the field on excursions and to assist in excavations of Hellenistic and Roman sites in Turkey. Professor Harl has also published a wide variety of articles and books, including his current work on coins unearthed in an excavation of Gordion, Turkey, and a new book on Rome and her Iranian foes. A fellow and trustee of the American Numismatic Society, Professor Harl is well known for his studies of ancient coinage. He is the author of Civic Coins and Civic Politics in the Roman East, A.D. 180-275 and Coinage in the Roman Economy, 300 B.C. to A.D. 700.

Other Resources: The Great Courses

History Series at Salisbury House
April 12, 2018
Arthurian Legend

Dr. Dorsey Armstrong is Associate Professor of English and Medieval Literature at Purdue University, where she has taught since 2002. The holder of an A.B. in English and Creative Writing from Stanford University and a Ph.D. in Medieval Literature from Duke University, she also taught at Centenary College of Louisiana and at California State University, Long Beach. Her research interests include medieval women writers, late-medieval print culture, and the Arthurian legend, on which she has published extensively, including the 2009 book Sir Thomas Malory's Morte Darthur: A New Modern English Translation Based on the Winchester Manuscript and Gender and the Chivalric Community in Sir Thomas Malory's Morte d'Arthur, published in 2003. In January 2009, she became editor-in-chief of the academic journal Arthuriana, which publishes the most cutting-edge research on the legend of King Arthur, from its medieval origins to its enactments in the present moment. Her current research project-Mapping Malory's Morte-is an exploration of the role played by geography in Malory's version of the story of King Arthur.

Other Resources: The Great Courses