After holding a post-doctoral fellowship from the National Publications Commission, he joined the faculty at USC in 1972. Professor Edgar teaches several interdisciplinary honors seminars on the American South, undergraduate and graduate courses on South Carolina history, and a graduate seminar on Southern Cultural history. His publications include THE SOUTH CAROLINA ENCYCLOPEDIA, South Carolina: A History, Partisans and Redcoats: The Southern Conflict that Turned the Tide of the American Revolution, South Carolina in the Modern Age, and several edited works, Renaissance Man: Essays on Robert Penn Warren and The Letterbook of Robert Pringle. He was the founder and first director of the department's highly acclaimed Public History Program. In addition to his departmental responsibilities, Professor Edgar directs the interdisciplinary Institute for Southern Studies and hosts a statewide program on South Carolina Educational Radio: “Walter Edgar’s Journal,” a look at contemporary events in context.

Current Activities

In the Spring of 2008 I will begin a three year cycle of public lectures on South Carolina history. This year’s series, “That Most Opulent Colony,” covers South Carolina history from 1670-1763.

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