Aerial view of campus with Williamsport, the Susquehanna River and Bald Eagle Mountain as a backdrop

Ewing Lecture Series

The Ewing Lecture Series was established in 1973 to honor Robert H. Ewing for his 27 years of teaching and service at Lycoming College. A revered teacher and friend of the College, his life was characterized by a deep religious faith, a passion for history, and a strong devotion to a liberal arts education. These qualities touched the lives of all who came in contact with him and led his many friends to establish this annual Lecture Series to bring distinguished historians to campus to share their work with the Lycoming community.

T. Cole Jones, Ph.D.

March 23, 2023, 7:30 p.m.

Trogner Presentation Room

William Chester Jordan, Ph.D.T. Cole Jones, Ph.D., will deliver a talk for the 48th annual Robert H. Ewing Lecture entitled “The Tory Rising: Insurrection in the Revolutionary South.” This presentation also shares its title with Jones’ current in-the-works book. Both the talk and the book examine the topic of the Tory political party during the American Revolution. Specifically, Jones seeks to dissect the British loyalists who fought against the revolutionary Whigs in what would become the American south.

Jones is an associate professor of history at Purdue University, where he also works as an associate professor for their Cornerstone: Learning for Living program.

Jones’ specialization lies in the history of colonial and revolutionary America, as well as how the war and society during that time continue to impact us today. His most recent book, “Captives of Liberty: Prisoners of War and the Politics of Vengeance in the American Revolution” (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2020), won the 2021 Society of the Cincinnati Prize from the American Revolution Institute, while also being a finalist for the “Journal of the American Revolution” 2020 Book of the Year Award.

As mentioned, Jones is working on his next book, titled “The Tory Rising: Insurrection in the Revolutionary South,” which he has received support for through fellowships from the Virginia Historical Society, the David Library of the American Revolution, the Georgian Papers Programme from King's College London, and George Washington's Mount Vernon. He received his B.A. in history from Duke University, and his Ph.D. in history from John Hopkins University.

Past lecturers include:

  • 2022 — Dr. William Chester Jordan
    "The Harvest Indeed is Great, but the Labourers are Few; Strangers in the Medieval Countryside"
  • 2019 — Dr. Jane Dailey
    "White Fright: Sex, Race and the African American Freedom Struggle"
  • 2018 — Dr. Peter John Brobst
    "Two Navies, One Highway: Britain, America, and Global Sea Power since 1968"
  • 2017 — Dr. Diane Sommerville
    "The Accursed Ills I Cannot Bear"
  • 2016 — Dr. Paul Freedman
    "Basic Principles of Medieval Cuisine"
  • 2015 — Dr. Jonathan Scott Holloway
    "Whose Memories Matter? Race, Identity, and the Battle for American History"
  • 2014 — Dr. Leslie Brown
    "Power Politics in the Civil Rights Era"
  • 2013 — Dr. Edward Ayers
    "Where Did Freedom Come From?"
  • 2012 — Dr. Stanley Katz
    "Can the Liberal Arts College Help to Save Democracy?"
  • 2011 — Dr. David Witwer
    "The Acid Attack on Victor Riesel and the Racketeer Menace in Cold War America"
  • 2010 — Dr. Barbara A. Hanawalt
    "The Detection of Fraud in the Victualing Trade in Medieval London"
  • 2009 — Dr. Antulio Echevarria, II
    "An American Way of War or Way of Battle?"
  • 2008 — Dr. Kevin Boyle
    "Arc of Justice: The Sweet Case and the Course of Civil Rights"
  • 2007 — Dr. James H. Merrell
    "Revisiting and Revising the Colonial American Frontier"
  • 2006 — Dr. John J. Contreni
    "What Should We Know about the Crusades?"
  • 2005 — Dr. Gabor Boritt
    "The Most Important Election in American History?"
  • 2004 — Dr. David Nasaw
    "Andrew Carnegie: Marking Sense of Making Millions"
  • 2003 — Dr. Mark E. Neely Jr.
    "The American Civil War: Foretaste of Terror?"
  • 2002 — Dr. William H. Flayhart III '66
    "Perils of the Atlantic: Ship Disasters of the 19th Century"
  • 2001 — Dr. Robert H. Zieger
    "Race and Labor in 20th Century America"
  • 2000 — Dr. Ira Berlin
    "The Role of Memory in Writing the History of Slavery"
  • 1999 — Dr. John Lewis Gaddis
    "We Now Know: Rethinking Cold War History in light of Recent Revelations from Soviet Archives"
  • 1998 — Dr. James T. Patterson
    "America's Grand Expectations After World War II"
  • 1997 — Dr. Michael Burlingame
    "Emphatically the Black Man's President: Abraham Lincoln & Frederick Douglass"
  • 1996 — Dr. Henry Friedlander
    "The Origins of Nazi Genocide"
  • 1995 — Dr. Joan Hoff
    "Women and the Constitution"
  • 1994 — Dr. Barbara Sicherman
    "The Education of Jane Addams"
  • 1993 — Dr. Mary Beth Norton
    "The Curious Incident of the Gossiping Ladies of New Haven: Gender and Society in Seventeenth-Century America"
  • 1992 — Dr. Roland G. Foerster
    "Defense and Sovereignty: Ten Theses on German Rearmament after the Second World War, 1945-1950"
  • 1991 — Dr. Martin E. Marty
    "The Twentieth Century American Religious Scene: Important Conflicts/Few Dead Bodies"
  • 1990 — Dr. John M. Murrin
    "Baseball, Football and Nineteenth Century American Political Culture"
  • 1989 — Dr. John Wilson
    "Original Intent and the Church State Problem"
  • 1988 — Dr. Peter Paret
    "The History of War as Part of General History"
  • 1987 — Dr. Edward Pessen
    "George Washington Against the Cold War"
  • 1986 — Dr. James H. Smylie
    "Jefferson's Statue for Religious Liberty: Historical, Social, and Constitutional Contexts"
  • 1985 — Dr. Michael Vlahos
    "Strategy and National Culture"
  • 1984 — Dr. Carl E. Prince
    "The Great Riot Year: Jacksonian Democracy and Patterns of American Violence in 1834"
  • 1983 — Dr. Robert T. Handy
    "Common Themes in the Diverse History of Religious Groups in America"
  • 1982 — Dr. Harold E. Deutsch
    "The Influence of Ultra in World War II"
  • 1981 — Dr. Edmund S. Morgan
    "The Invincible Yeoman Farmer"
  • 1980 — Dr. Hans Hillerbrand
    "The Reformation and the Peasants' War: Reflections on Social History"
  • 1979 — Dr. Thomas Barnes
    "Legal History: Does It Have a Past? Does It Have a Future?"
  • 1978 — Dr. Michael Kammen
    "The American Revolution and the Historical Imagination"
  • 1977 — Dr. Oron Hale
    "Administration of Occupied Territories After World War II"
  • 1976 — Dr. Willie Lee Rose
    "Domesticating Domestic Slavery"
  • 1975 — Dr. John Shy
    "Hearts and Minds in the American Revolution: The Social Impact of the Revolutionary War"
  • 1974 — Dr. Roland Bainton
    "Erasmus and the Reformation"