A few weeks ago I finished this memoir by Wayne Flynt, the retired Auburn history professor (he retired in 2005) and liberal voice of Alabama politics. I enjoyed the book as much as I have enjoyed any recent book that I've read.
Wayne was born in Mississippi but spent most of his childhood and all of his adulthood in Alabama. Growing up he lived mostly in Pinson and Anniston. He did his undergradute work at Samford and his Phd at Florida State. Southern history is his specialty. He spent about 20 years at Auburn (moving to Auburn from the Samford faculty) and in the book writes about the ups and downs of the various administration battles during his time on the Plains. It seems that he was always in the middle of all the Auburn politics.
I wanted to list his reference to my favotite Auburn professor, Dr. Joe Harrison, who was on the Auburn history faculty for many years and under whom I had three courses. Dr. Harrison was legendary for his incredible memory. He never lectured from notes. It was all in his head. I chuckle when I read this.
"Like the graduate students, I found myself seduced by the coffee club. These professors were some of the state's brightest people and best storytellers. Some (notably Joe Harrison, Robert R. Rea, and Bill Maehl) were brilliant. Joe possessed total recall,lectured without notes, and seemingly never forgot a date, statistic, or story. No one at Auburn matched him as a raconteur. Bob Rea---distant, acerbic, sometimes terrifying to graduate students---was a fine writer and a generous writer. Bill Maehl, our German historian, looked and acted the part of a Prussian field officer." P. 126
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