Maine Humanities Council | A Good Book on a Fall Day

The Huey Long — Willie Stark Connection	Ray Arsenault is Professor of History at the University of South Florida in St. Petersburg. He is speaking as part of the Organization of American Historians’ Distinguished Lecturer series, which honors major scholars who are also outstanding teachers. He is an expert on contemporary Southern politics, notably the phenomenon of the political demagogue. He will discuss the life and times of Huey Long, Louisiana’s governor and U.S. Senator in the depths of the Depression, and a potential rival to FDR as a presidential candidate.
Filming American Politics	Tricia Welsch is Associate Professor of Film Studies at Bowdoin College. She will analyze both film versions of Warren’s novel—the 1949 film starring Broderick Crawford and the 2006 re-make starring Sean Penn—against the background of the history of Hollywood’s treatment of politics.
Jack Burden and the Limits of Political Idealism	Joseph Wensink is a PhD candidate in English at Brandeis University, where he teaches writing. He has written on the links between intellectual history and the modern American novel, and is particularly interested in studying Warren’s Jack Burden as a failed idealist.