By WILLIAM W. STARR Staff Writer

For serious scholars of Southern and African-American history, the University of South Carolina "is a gold mine," says history department chairman Patrick Maney.

And Dan T. Carter is a believer.

Carter, one of America's most prominent historians and former president of the Southern Historical Association, is leaving an endowed chair at Emory University in Atlanta to come back home to the Palmetto State.

"There's a real community of outstanding scholars in this history department," says Carter, 59, who joins the USC faculty in August as the first Educational Foundation Professor of History.

The prize-winning author of books such as "Scottsboro" and "The Politics of Rage" is a native of the Pee Dee who is happy to be returning to South Carolina, "where I plan to spend the rest of my teaching days."

"Dan Carter is one of the most respected historians in the country," says USC President John M. Palms, who was Carter's dean at Emory several years ago and who pursued him to accept the USC position.

"Dan Carter is a revered and distinguished scholar. His books have played a major role in shaping the way Americans view some of the central episodes of our history," says Alan Brinkley, an author and historian at Columbia University in New York.

"This puts the history department on the map as never before," adds Maney, a nationally renown authority on Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Among his other important hirings since arriving on campus in the fall of 1998 are Dan Littlefield, one of the nation's best-known and respected scholars and authors of African-American history; His wife, Val Littlefield, who is completing her Ph.D. on women school teachers in the rural South from the 1890s until 1954; Page Putnam Miller, who comes in the fall as Distinguished Lecturer in Public History. A former Washington lobbyist for historians and archivists, "She is probably better known in government and foundation circles than any other historian," Maney says.

Maney says Carter's presence will help attract not just other well-known scholars but the best graduate students as well.

"With so much happening in this state right now -- the debate over the Confederate flag and the King holiday -- we are on the front line for the study of race relationships," Maney said. "I am using it as a recruiting device. Right here is where you can see some of the central issues of history being engaged."

And Carter says he believes South Carolina ultimately will be better off for having had the flag debate, adding that racial tensions can be inflamed even more in states where discussions on racial issues are not thrashed out in public view.

The history department's additional emphasis on Southern history, African-Americans and race-connected issues seems perfectly fitted for a mission of a university in the South, Maney says, though he also points out the department's high standing in European and Asian histories.

Carter, who received his undergraduate degree from USC, his master's at the University of Wisconsin and his doctorate at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, has been a member of the Emory faculty since 1974.

Carter's "Scottsboro: A Tragedy of the American South" (1969) received the Bancroft Prize in History, the Jules Landry Prize and the Avery Craven Award from the Organization of American Historians.

His 1995 book, "The Politics of Rage: George Wallace: The Origins of the New Conservatism and the Transformation of American Politics," was awarded the Robert F. Kennedy Book Prize.

His other works include "When the War was Over: The Failure of Self-Reconstruction in the South 1865-1867" (1985) and "From George Wallace to Newt Gingrich: Race in the Conservative Counterrevolution" (1996).

Carter currently is working on a book exploring extremism in American politics, looking at the character of Asa Carter, a one-time far right-wing speech writer for George Wallace who turned himself into Forrest Carter, author of "The Education of Little Tree." a best-selling memoir of a Cherokee Indian boyhood in the 1930s.

Carter also has served as a consultant to Public Broadcasting Service for "The American Experience" and will be featured in a two-part nationally televised program April 21-22 largely drawn from his book on Wallace.

At USC, Carter will teach graduate courses in post-Civil War history and 20th century Southern history as well as undergraduate survey courses.

"I'm doing that on purpose," he says. "I want to teach undergraduates. I think that's important at a public university. Good teaching and good research go hand in hand."
 

THE USC TIMES recently featured an article about a PBS documentary about George Wallace based in part on Dan Carter's book "The Politics of Rage."

Dr. Dan T. Carter, one of the nation's foremost Southern historians, will join the University of South Carolina's history faculty next summer as the first Educational Foundation Professor of History. Carter, who has taught and chronicled Southern history at Emory University since 1974, is a Florence native and a USC graduate.

USC's history department, in the College Of Arts And Sciences,  has hired several notable scholars in the past year. USC President John M. Palms said Carter's addition to USC's history faculty puts the department among the best in the country.

"Dan Carter is a gifted scholar and one of the most respected historians in the country," Palms said.  "His writing, his research and his talent for bringing to life some of the South's most momentous events make him an invaluable addition to Carolina and to our community.  I am delighted not only for what his presence will mean for students who study with him, but also for the stature it gives the university and a department that is becoming increasingly known nationwide for its scholarly research and teaching."

Carter's decision to return to his alma mater already is getting the attention of historians around the country. "Dan Carter is a revered and distinguished scholar and a leading figure in the history of the South and 20th-century American history," said Dr. Alan Brinkley, a Columbia University professor and leading scholar of 20th-century American history.  "His books and articles have played a major role in shaping the way Americans view some of the central episodes of our history."

Outside of history circles, Carter is widely known as a consultant for Public Broadcasting System's "The American Experience" and for his books, "Scottsboro: A Tragedy of the American South" (1969), "When the War was Over: The Failure of Self-Reconstruction in the South, 1865 - 1867" (1985) and "The Politics of Rage: George Wallace, the Origins of the New Conservatism, and the Transformation of American Politics" (1995), all of which have won top history and literary awards.

"Scottsboro" won The Bancroft Prize in History and The Jules Landry Prize; "When the War Was Over" won the Jules Landry Prize and the Avery Craven Award from the Organization of American Historians (OAH) , and "The Politics of Rage" won The Robert F. Kennedy Book Prize.  His latest work is the 1996 book, "From George Wallace to Newt Gingrich: Race in the Conservative Counterrevolution."

Carter is former president of the Southern Historical Association.  He  has held prestigious fellowships with the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Humanities Center and in 1991 was awarded the Georgia Governor's Award for Achievement in the Humanities.  He has served on the editorial and executive boards of many professional organizations, including the Pulitzer Prize Nominating Committee for Biography and Autobiography, the Southern Historical Association and the OAH.

Carter earned his bachelor's degree from USC  in 1962, his master's from the University of Wisconsin and his doctorate from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  He began his career as a writer for the Florence Morning News. At USC, Carter will teach undergraduate and graduate courses on the modern South.