As a young reporter in the 1970s, his investigative reporting helped to break the Watergate scandal and eventually led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon.
The University of South Carolina Upstate is pleased to welcome Bob Woodward, one of America’s preeminent investigative reporters and non-fiction authors, to campus as the speaker for the annual Dr. John B. Edmunds, Jr. Distinguished Lecture Series at 7 p.m. March 19, 2015 in the Humanities and Performing Arts Center Theatre.
“It is a great honor to bring Bob Woodward to Spartanburg and to USC Upstate,” said Dr. Rob McCormick, chair of the History, Political Science, Philosophy and American Studies Department. “This is a wonderful opportunity for us to hear first-hand from someone who not only covered historical events in American history, but who also helped to change the course of what happened.”
Tickets are $35 for reception, book signing and presentation. Reservations and book purchases may be made at www.uscupstate.edu/woodward or at (864) 503-5235. A reception will begin at 5:30 p.m.
The Dr. John B. Edmunds, Jr. Distinguished Lecture Series is sponsored by the Department of History, Political Science, Philosophy and American Studies at the University of South Carolina Upstate and features an address by a distinguished scholar each spring.
Woodward will speak on “Presidential Leadership and the Price of Politics.”
Woodward has worked for The Washington Post since 1971, serving currently as the associate editor. He is best known for his work with Carl Bernstein on the Watergate scandal. The duo chronicled their Watergate experience in the book, “All the President’s Men,” which was adapted for film. The 1976 movie became a classic, with Robert Redford starring as Woodward and Dustin Hoffman starring as Bernstein. Since that time, Woodward has won nearly every American journalism award in his field. His work on the Watergate scandal and the aftermath of the September 11 terrorist attacks helped The Post to win the 1973 Pulitzer Prize and the 2002 National Affairs Pulitzer Prize.
A national best-selling writer, Woodward has authored or co-authored 17 books. His most recent book, “The Price of Politics,” is based on 18 months of reporting and is an intimate, documented examination of how President Barack Obama and the highest profile Republican and Democratic leaders in the United States Congress attempted to restore the American economy and improve the federal government’s fiscal condition. Woodward provides verbatim, day-by-day, even hour-by-hour accounts, and shows what drove the debates, negotiations and struggles that defined and will continue to define the American future.
Born in Illinois, Woodward attended Yale University on a Navy ROTC scholarship and studied history and English literature. After graduating with a bachelor’s of arts degree in 1965, he served five years as a communications officer in the U.S. Navy. He began his work as a journalist at the Montgomery County Sentinel, where he worked for one year before joining The Post.
Who Is Dr. John B. Edmunds, Jr.?
Dr. John B. Edmunds, Jr. served for 43 years as a professor of American history at the University of South Carolina Upstate. A Spartanburg native, Dr. Edmunds earned his Ph.D. in history from the University of South Carolina, where he specialized in the history of the Palmetto State. In 1967, as the first professor hired by the University of South Carolina Upstate, Dr. Edmunds began a career distinguished by excellence as a teacher, a scholar and an administrator. For more than four decades, Dr. Edmunds inspired Upstate students with his enthusiastic teaching.
He is known for his encyclopedic knowledge of South Carolina history, his deep affection for his native state, and his ability to convey his love for South Carolina to his students. He is the author of two books, Francis W. Pickens and the Politics of Destruction and The Episcopal Church of the Advent: History and Records, 1848-1998, as well as numerous articles on South Carolina.
Sponsors for the evening include Eastside-Westside Eye Center.