History Professor on Author Panel
The past year has been busy for Utah State University history professor Lawrence Culver. He earned tenure in the spring of 2010 and was promoted to associate professor. His first book, a re-working of his award-winning doctoral dissertation, was published in September by Oxford University Press. And, for the past nine months, Culver has been on sabbatical leave, beginning work on yet another book project. During the summer and fall months, he was out of the country, taking advantage of a research fellowship at the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society at the University of Munich in Germany.
Returning to the United States, Culver has spent the recent months in Los Angeles with a research fellowship at the Huntington Library.
Still in Los Angles, Culver has been engaged in promotional activities for his book, The Frontier of Leisure: Southern California and the Shaping of Modern America, and has been asked to join an author panel at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, held on the campus of the University of Southern California.
Culver and three other authors are featured on the panel “Los Angeles: Myth and Memory.” The discussion will be broadcast live on “Book TV” via C-SPAN 2 Sunday, May 1, at 3:30 p.m. (ET).
“The invitation to join the panel came several months ago, and I was honored when asked to join,” Culver said. “We just received word that our discussion will be broadcast live.”
The Festival of Books is the largest book festival held in the United States, Culver said, and the subject of his book is a natural fit with the author panel.
Since its release, reviews for Frontier of Leisure have been positive.
“In his first full-length effort, beach tans, bungalows, and the California dream drive historian Culver’s smart and insightful exploration of the region’s lasting association with tourism and recreation,” a Publishers Weekly review opens. “While Culver views the promotion of leisure of Southern California as the coincidental result of a national phenomenon, he argues that this new attitude towards recreation played a big part in the country’s development during the 20th century.”
The book continues to receive positive attention and was honored with a 2011 Spur Award for best nonfiction book on the contemporary American West. Presented by the Western Writers of America, Culver will pick up the award in June at the organization’s annual conference.
While Culver’s author panel appearance is the result of his first book, he’s at work on a second project, an environmental history titled Manifest Disaster: Climate and the Making of America.
Culver will return to the classroom in USU’s Department of History for fall semester 2011, where he’s previously been honored for his teaching. In 2007 he was among five USU faculty members to earn a new award — with nominations coming from incoming freshmen — the “Excellence in Instruction for First-Year Students” award. The same year he was named the country’s “Top Young Historian” for the week of June 3 by the History News Network.
Related links:
USU College of Humanities and Social Sciences
Writer: Patrick Williams, (435) 797-1354, patrick.williams@usu.edu
Contact: Lawrence Culver, lawrence.culver@usu.edu
USU history professor Lawrence Culver (from the book jacket for 'Frontier of Leisure') is part of an author panel at the "Los Angeles Times" Festival of Books. The panel discussion will be broadcast live Sunday, May 1, by “Book TV” on C-SPAN 2.
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