7 Questions With Lee Lancaster, Agricultural Historian and Author

 

Lee Lancaster was born and raised in Milan, Georgia and attended Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College and the University of Georgia, earning a degree in Agriculture Education.  He started working for the Georgia Department of Agriculture in 2003.  In 2017, he began writing a regular column in the Georgia Farmers and Consumers Market Bulletin called "Georgie's Drive Thru Agriculture" about agricultural and historical points of interest found in rural Georgia.  In July 2023, he published The Georgia Farmers' Strike:  The American Agricultural Movement vs Jimmy Carter.  In October of 2023, he published Vidalia Onions:  A History of Georgia's State Vegetable.  He and his family reside in Eastman, Georgia.  

(Personal connections:  My hometown is Vidalia, Georgia, and although my family didn't grow onions, we definitely ate hundreds of pounds a year, and my aunt was the first Vidalia Onion Queen, hand-picked by Mr. Moses Coleman, the first planter of Vidalia onions, about 1950.  If I remember correctly, a classmate of mine was the very first to portray Yumion, the official Vidalia Onion ambassador character. And we always subscribed to the Market Bulletin.)

1. How and when did you get hooked on history?

      During the first Gulf War, I started really paying attention to the news and history. I learned a lot about the military and the Middle East at that time. I did not take any extra history courses in high school or college. When I began to write articles for the Georgia Farmers and Consumers Market Bulletin, I began to dig into Georgia and agricultural history. I use the research I've done to finish my stories. Most of the research materials I've used were UGA research materials and minutes from historical society meetings. There's not much to choose from in agricultural history, so I have been able to expand the category a little bit.

2. What role does history play or has it played in your personal life?

      Whenever we plan a trip, we always look for the historical points of interest along the way. When we went to Louisville, Kentucky this summer, we were able to visit Abraham Lincoln's birthplace, Shiloh Battlefield Military Park, Churchill Downs, and Muscle Shoals Sound Studio. I hope to pass this interest on to my children, Nate and Caroline.

3. How does history play a part of your professional life/career?

      I participate in a lot of outreach programs for the Georgia Department of Agriculture. When I talk to people at events, I am disappointed at the amount of knowledge and interest in history and agriculture people have. I wrote these two books to educate the public about agricultural history. The Georgia Farmers' Strike took place in the late 1970's through the mid 1980's. No one my age, except for the descendants of the participants, knew about the events of the book until I had it published. The reason these events are not well known is simple: interest in agriculture was been left behind by the public when they left the farm for the bright lights in town. It's not flashy or sexy and doesn't hold their interest even though we need farmers for three meals a day. 

4. Why is studying/knowing history important?

      Knowing history's importance is playing out in the national news right now. If you don't know the facts firsthand, you can be led down any road like the blind leading the blind. "Googling information" is a dangerous thing since anybody can put anything on the internet that's wrong, slanted or occasionally right, but one can tell the difference. Go to the library and find out for yourself. The libraries are drying up and dying because the internet has taken its place.

5. What is your favorite period or aspect of history to learn about and why?

      I love the Revolutionary and Civil War periods but also learning about the way things were before cell phones, electricity, tractors, etc. I like to read about how people survived before the cell phone was invented because I'd like to go back to those days...

6. How did Georgia’s agricultural history specifically become a part of your life?

      The books I wrote have become a huge part of my life. I enjoy educating people about the subjects I researched and reliving the events experienced in the books with some of the people I meet that were there.

7. You’ve written a new book about the history of Georgia’s famous official state vegetable, the Vidalia Onion.  What will readers find as they read your book?

      Readers will read about the struggle it took to establish the communities around Vidalia first and then the struggle to establish the crop itself. I also wrote about the legal and legislative process it took to establish the Vidalia onion. Everything that is written about in the news is contradictory to the facts about migrant workers so I took it upon myself to research and explain the legal process of obtaining workers from other countries, known as H2A. 

Yumion

7 Questions With Lisa Cooper, History Blogger, Author, and Curriculum Specialist

 

Lisa Land Cooper has focused on history in one way or another for at least 42 years. At the age of nineteen as a college student, she spent some time working in the Clerk of the Superior Court’s office in Cherokee County, Georgia recording deeds. This was followed by working as a paralegal for several years researching case law and real estate chains of title. In the mid-1990s she began teaching American History to fourth and fifth graders and soon earned her Masters in Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment.. She shifted again in 2010, researching and writing a local history column for  her local newspaper, the Douglas County Sentinel which has led to two published books focusing on the history of Douglas County and a third with a selection of  #TrueTales from around the state of Georgia. During this time, she also researched and designed several online courses of study for students enrolled in the School of Education at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore Maryland. Currently, she is focusing all of her time on future book projects, her social media platforms, and her website where she tries to bring history to a 21^st century audience.  (Facebook https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100089470731570  , Website https://lisalandcooper.com/  )

1. How and when did you get hooked on history?

I was hooked on history as a young girl listening to family stories told by my grandfathers and my mother. They would tell me about how things were when they were growing up and what they experienced as national, state, and local events happened all around them. My mother told my sister and I about growing up in a small town during the Great Depression. I was able to take these family stories and make connections with the history I was exposed to as a student.

2. What role does history play, or has it played in your personal life? 

My love of history has consumed me since I was a young girl.  My children like to joke that I can find the history of a button, and I probably could cobble a few sentences together after a little research.  I research history, I write about history, and I post about history on social media. 

3, How does history play a part of your professional life/career? 

History has played an important role in everything I have done professionally from working as a paralegal researching case law and chains of title, introducing a full course of American history in the classroom to fourth and fifth grade students, as a researcher helping individual clients as well as municipalities with various projects, and as an author with my books, social media posts, and my former newspaper column with the Douglas County Sentinel.

4. Why is studying/knowing history important?

I could write at great length on the importance of history, but I’ll stick to the top four reasons. The first being that history has value to our society. Thousands of people throughout history have gone to great lengths to record history through newspapers, diaries, journals, saved letters, family Bibles, and oral traditions. It is believed that Aborigines of Australia managed to hang onto their history for 40,000 years by word of mouth.

Second, history is the narrative of mankind. It provides answers as to how people lived as well as provides for us the roots to certain ideas concerning laws, customs, and political ideas.

The third reason why history is important is it teaches a wide range of material. History is not a litany of dead people, places, and dates. History content has links to science and the arts. These links provide relevance for students or the adults who read my meager little offerings. History assists them to take small chunks of history squares and weave them into a knowledge quilt.

Finally, history is important because when presented properly it lends itself to critical analysis. Even young students can review a series of primary and secondary resources and independently determine what happened during an event and why. In 1988 the Bradley Commission Report on History in the Schools stated, “…history is the only avenue we have to reach an understanding of ourselves and our society. Without such understanding the two foremost aims of American education will not be achieved---the preparation of all our people for private lives of personal integrity and fulfillment, and their preparation for public life as democratic citizens.”

I strongly identify with a character in the Kingsley Amis novel, Lucky Jim, who works in the history department of a fictitious English university when he answers the department telephone by stating, “History speaking!” We are all history every minute of every day. We participate in the history of our families, we add to the history of the corporations and businesses we serve each day at work, and we participate in history as we vote, compose a letter to our congressman or a newspaper editor or attend a demonstration or memorial.

5. What is your favorite period or aspect of history to learn about and why?

My favorite period of history is whatever I’m currently researching or writing, but I’m always drawn to the American Revolution, Founding Fathers, and Constitutional history. I consider The Federalist Papers as light reading, but sadly have found myself too busy to enjoy reading history for just enjoyment over the last few years.

6. How did you become a history blogger and how did “The Story Behind the History” come about?

I began writing online at a blog I titled History Is Elementary under the screen name ElementaryHistoryTeacher in 2006 where I shared the day-to-day challenges of meeting social studies standards, classroom discipline, teaching techniques, and history content.

I kept the project from my family and from my school’s administration though I steadily gained a following. When the newspaper, USA Today, featured me and others in an article regarding teachers who blogged the secret was out to much acclaim. My readers tripled overnight, and plans were to produce a line of curriculum, etc.

I never got around to that (but still plan to) due to health concerns that caused me to leave the classroom. While recovering in 2010 I began researching and writing a local history column for the Douglas County Sentinel that lasted until 2021 along with my website where I still publish articles today. 

 

The tagline I use at my website, The stories behind the history, harkens back to the stories my family members told me that hooked me in and sparked the desire to learn more. I strongly believe that if history were  taught in the form of stories, it would never be forgotten. I love telling the story behind the story—we don’t simply arrive at a point in history by magic. There is always a backstory – a web of various other stories that dovetail and fit in many ways depending on a given point of view. There are many reasons why I love to tell the story, and the main one being I’m just compelled to do it.

7. What do you hope your followers and readers take away from your stories?

My hope for the take-away is that my readers have a better appreciation of their place in our world, our country, and their local surroundings. I hope they take away a feeling of being entertained for a few minutes and don’t realize they might have learned something or that their point of view might have shifted a bit. The main take away I wish for is that my writing encourages readers to search out more about the story.  

7 Questions with Wayne Ackerson, Prowling the Peach State

 

Wayne Ackerson was born in Corpus Christi, Texas but grew up around the world with a father who was in the navy.  He's been a college professor since 1990, teaching in Maryland and Georgia. In his spare time, he's a photographer, a minister, and enjoys reading, eating out, working out, and movies.  He earned his Ph. D. in British History from Temple University in 1999.

1.         How and when did you get  hooked on history?

Well, I was born in Texas but grew up in England, and I think living there is what did it.  You couldn’t go anywhere or do anything without being surrounded by history.  World War Two was still a big part of their cultural life, and it seemed like every TV show was about World War Two in some fashion (this was the early 70s).  I would just say that I have always loved history, for as long as I can remember.

2.         What role does history play or has it played in your personal life?

When I started college, I was a Psych major, but ended up with a double major with Psych and History.  Then onto an MA and started teaching college, then got my Ph.D. in History.  I’ve been a history professor since I was 24, back in 1990. 

3.         How does history play  a part of your professional life/career?

To say it’s important is an understatement.  It’s what I do, every day as a history professor at Georgia Gwinnett College in Lawrenceville, GA.

4.         Why is studying/knowing history important?

I am a big supporter of a broad-based, liberal arts type of education.  I believe that as citizens we should be generally well-rounded and well-informed.  In some ways, this is knowledge for knowledge’s sake.  I also believe that trends repeat themselves, and so it is useful to us to know what those are.  And of course there are practical skills which come from the study of history, such as understanding cause and effect, change over time, and being able to think critically about sources and information.

5.         What is your favorite period or aspect of history to learn about and why?

There isn’t much I dislike.  My specialty is 19^th century Britain, British anti-slavery in particular.  I wrote a book called  The African Institution (1807-1827) and the Anti-slavery Movement in Great Britain which came out in 2005.  I love the Tudor-Stuart period, and ancient Greece and Rome.  I love south Asian history, which is mainly what I teach.  I enjoy anything to do with aviation (my dad was a Navy pilot).  There’s just so much to like in all these areas!

6.         What is Prowling the Peach State and how did it come about?

Prowling The Peach State is a podcast that deals with Georgia history, very broadly defined, with an emphasis on things off the beaten path.  It just seemed like a fun idea to try and do.  I don’t for a minute think I am discovering “new” things, but maybe some of the locations are ones that many people don’t know much about.  I try to put the topic or location in a broader context as much as possible, be entertaining, and also be interesting and informative.  Georgia is a state with all kinds of stuff in it, and through the series I hope to teach Georgians a few things about their relative backyards, and I’d also hope to encourage out-of-staters to visit.

I also have a companion Facebook page where I post photos I’ve taken on location, random stuff to do with that month’s topic, as well as lesson plans (questions, really) for teachers who might want to use the podcasts with their students.

7.         What can lovers of history expect in the future from Prowling the Peach State?

Well that’s a secret!  What I can say is I have a long list of topics/places I want to cover.  Most will be serious, but there’s a few bizarre ones in there too.