The Past, the Promise, the Presidency

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The Life and Death of Ryan White: A Conversation with Dr. Paul Renfro Feb 17, 2026

Show notes

Welcome back to Season 5 of The Past, the Promise, The Presidency, which features brief interviews with historians about their newest books.

Our second episode features former CPH postdoctoral fellow and current associate professor of history at Florida State University Paul Renfro, who will be giving a book talk on Thursday, February 19th, at 6 pm in SMU's McCord Auditorium (Dallas Hall 306). Dr. Renfro is the author of The Life and Death of Ryan White: AIDS and Inequality in America. In the 1980s, as HIV/AIDS ravaged queer communities and communities of color in the United States and beyond, a straight white teenager named Ryan White emerged as the face of the epidemic. Diagnosed with hemophilia at birth, Ryan contracted HIV through contaminated blood products. In 1985, he became a household name after he was barred from attending his Indiana middle school. As Ryan appeared on nightly news broadcasts and graced the covers of popular magazines, he was embraced by music icons and well-known athletes, achieving a curious kind of stardom. Analyzing his struggle and celebrity, Renfro’s powerful biography grapples with the contested meanings of Ryan’s life, death, and afterlives. Dr. Renfro is interviewed by CPH student research assistant Kennedy Moore.

Paul Renfro is an associate professor of history and an affiliate faculty and advisory board member in the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies program at FSU. He is the author of two books: Stranger Danger: Family Values, Childhood, and the American Carceral State (Oxford University Press, 2020) and The Life and Death of Ryan White: AIDS and Inequality in America (University of North Carolina Press, 2024), which received an honorable mention in the general nonfiction category at the Florida Book Awards. Alongside Susan Eckelmann Berghel and Sara Fieldston, Renfro also coedited the anthology Growing Up America: Youth and Politics since 1945 (University of Georgia Press, 2019). Renfro is currently writing two books. The first, titled Those Fearful Days, is a work of historical true-crime focused on the 1979–81 Atlanta youth murders, which claimed the lives of nearly thirty young, mostly poor and working-class African Americans in the self-proclaimed “city too busy to hate.” The second, The Passion of Matthew Shepard, situates Shepard’s life and 1998 murder within the broader history of the LGBTQ+ movement in the United States. Both books will be published by Liveright, a division of W. W. Norton & Company.

Kennedy Moore is a junior at SMU, and is double majoring in public policy and music with a minor in public policy and international affairs. Kennedy is a President's Scholar, Pre-law Scholar, and Meadows Scholar. At SMU, Kennedy is involved in Hegi Board Fellows, Meadows Chorale, the Tower Center's premier undergraduate research journal The Dialogue, and works at SMU's Center for Presidential History. Kennedy is interested in educational equity and national defense. She aspires to work for a federal agency to research and create policies to protect our education system and recenter citizens' voices in policy.

Prioritizing Faith: A Conversation with Dr. Ashlyn Hand Sep 16, 2025

Show notes

CPH is excited to announce Season 5 of The Past, the Promise, The Presidency. This season will feature brief interviews with historians about their newest books, ranging in topic from religious freedom to technology theft; from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mississippi River; from global diplomacy to Texas football.

This week's conversation features CPH Assistant Director Ashlyn Hand, who will be giving a book talk on Thursday, September 18th, at 6 pm in SMU's McCord Auditorium (Dallas Hall 306). Dr. Hand is the author of Prioritizing Faith: International Religious Freedom and U.S. Policy Choices (1993-2017), which compares the varied approaches to promoting freedom of conscience abroad during the Clinton, Bush, and Obama administrations. Prioritizing Faith shows how evolving bureaucratic dynamics, agenda-setting processes, and strategic shifts at the presidential level interact and change U.S. policy. Dr. Hand is interviewed by CPH Associate Director Brian Franklin and CPH student research assistant Kennedy Moore.

Ashlyn Hand joined SMU's Center for Presidential History in the fall of 2022. She received her Ph.D. from the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin in 2021, where she was a graduate fellow at the Clements Center for National Security. Prior to joining the team at CPH, she was a fellow with the America in the World Consortium, completing a pre-doctoral fellowship at Johns Hopkins SAIS (2020-2021) and a postdoctoral fellowship at Duke University (2021-2022). Ashlyn’s work has been published in the Journal of Conflict Resolution, the Journal of Church and State and Foreign Policy.

Ashlyn is the Assistant Director for Advancement and Partnerships at the Center for Presidential History and is the Program Director for the Article II Society. She is a Lecturer in Political Science, teaching classes on American politics and U.S. foreign policy.

Brian Franklin is the Associate Director of the SMU Center for Presidential History and an adjunct Lecturer in the Clements Department of History and the University Honors Program. Dr. Franklin’s research focuses on the religious, political, and regional history of the United States in the 18th and 19th centuries. His current manuscript America’s Missions explores the role of Protestant mission societies in shaping the early American republic. He teaches courses on Texas History and American History.

Dr. Jeffrey Engel, "Fifty Years Since Watergate: Presidential Power in the Age of Rampant Immunity and Feckless Impeachments" Feb 05, 2025

Show notes

On October 30th, 2024, CPH Director Dr. Jeffrey Engel presented a lecture as part of the SMU Dedman College Interdisciplinary Institute Godbey Lecture Series, described below. A few weeks later, we sat down with Dr. Engel for a Q&A about his talk -- that conversation follows a recording of the lecture itself.

Fifty Years Since Watergate: Presidential Power in the Age of Rampant Immunity and Feckless Impeachments

It has been fifty years since Richard Nixon resigned the presidency. Congressional power rode high in Watergate's wake, followed by a rejuvenated judiciary and invigorated national press corps. Reports of the imperial presidency's death proved premature. The past three presidential impeachments, the first since the 1860s, resulted in zero convictions. Zero was also the conviction left among the American people that anything more than partisan politics explains those verdicts, which recent Supreme Court rulings on presidential immunity appear to vindicate. This evening will trace that history since 1974, and outline the likely future of our nation's highest office.

S4 E10: Mourning the Presidents Apr 27, 2023

Show notes

For the conclusion of this season, we examine conclusions: the deaths of presidents. Not just presidents who died while in office, but those who died years after they retired from the presidency and the constant limelight. Our journey through the lives, deaths, and legacies of our presidents from 1799 to today offers surprising revelations about the constancy of mourning and the role of the president beyond the Oval Office.

Beyond exploring the moment of a president’s death, we explore the deeper historical context of that moment, and what we can learn about American society at the time. Presidents are more than just a man. They are figureheads of movements, international celebrities, and representatives (sometimes even unwillingly) of particular political and social values. And their deaths often reveal much not just about how Americans come together, but how they remain divided.

Guiding our final conversation this season are Lindsay Chervinsky and Matthew Costello, presidential historians and co-editors of Mourning the Presidents: Loss and Legacy in American Culture.
Lindsay Chervinsky is a historian of the presidency, political culture, and the government. Dr. Chervinsky is a frequent contributor to publications like the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, CNN, andthe Washington Post. She is also a regular guests on podcasts, such as the Thomas Jefferson Hour, and created the Audible course The Best and Worst Presidential Cabinets in U.S. History. Dr. Chervinsky is currently a fellow at the Kluge Center at the Library of Congress and a Senior Fellow at the Center for Presidential History here at SMU.

She is the co-editor of Mourning the Presidents: Loss and Legacy in American Culture, the author of The Cabinet: George Washington and the Creation of an American Institution, and author of the forthcoming An Honest Man: The Inimitable Presidency of John Adams.

Visit her website lindsaychervinsky.com and her Twitter @lmchervinsky.
Matthew Costello is a presidential historian specializing in the American Revolution and the early republic. Dr. Costello serves as Vice President of the David M. Rubenstein National Center for White House History and Senior Historian for the White House Historical Association. He also teaches a class at American University and has received research fellowships from Marquette University, the Virginia Historical Society, the United States Capitol Historical Society, and the Fred W. Smith National Library at Mount Vernon. After completing his Ph.D. in American history at Marquette University, Dr. Costello worked on the George Washington Bibliography Project for the George Washington Papers at the University of Virginia.

He is the author of The Property of the Nation: George Washington’s Tomb, Mount Vernon, and the Memory of the First President, which was a finalist for the George Washington Book Prize, and co-editor of Mourning the Presidents: Loss and Legacy in American Culture.

Visit his website on whitehousehistory.org and his LinkedIn @matthewcostello.

S4 E9: The Peacemaker Apr 13, 2023

Show notes

The early 1980s was a time of great political uncertainty. With the threat of nuclear destruction seemingly imminent, the emergence of global terrorism, and the rise of proxy conflicts in Africa, Latin America, and Asia, Ronald Reagan entered the White House with many global security problems on his hands, and very few clear solutions. He wasn’t alone, though. Throughout the end of the Cold War, Reagan was supported by a national security team with competing ideals to solve these looming crises. Recently declassified documents and interviews with many of these senior Reagan administration officials have revealed a new storyline toward the peaceful conclusion of the Cold War and the remaking of the world order.

Guiding us through today’s conversation is Dr. William Inboden. William Inboden is a historian of national security and professor at the UT Austin LBJ School of Public Affairs. Prior to joining the UT faculty, he has served as senior director for strategic planning on the National Security Council, worked on the State Department's Policy Planning Staff and served as a congressional staff member. He also served as head of the London-based Legatum Institute, and as a Civitas Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. Dr. Inboden’s commentary has been featured in op-eds in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post, and more. As a professor, he has been awarded the “Texas 10” Award by the Texas Exes Alumni Association, selected as “Lecturer of the Year” at the LBJ School, and his classes Presidential Decision-making in National Security and Ethics and International Affairs have been voted as "Best Class in the LBJ School" and “Class Most Likely to Challenge Your Assumptions.”

He is the author of The Peacemaker: Ronald Reagan, the Cold War, and the World on the Brinkand Religion and American Foreign Policy, 1945–1960: The Soul of Containment.

Visit his pages on the University of Texas at Austin website and on the Clements Center website.

S4 E8: Framing Reconstruction Apr 06, 2023

Show notes

Many Americans, if they know about Reconstruction at all, likely think of it as a failed venture. What had begun in 1865 as an opportunity to guarantee equal citizenship and rights for African Americans, fizzled out as citizens and elected officials became apathetic, or even hostile to the struggle for equality.

Our guests today survey the four presidencies that touched Reconstruction—Lincoln, Johnson, Grant, and Haynes—and offer a broad-sweeping, and perhaps disappointing framing of the era. The picture they paint is one in which the ultimate fate of Reconstruction was not only understandable given the context, but regrettably predictable.

This episode, we featured Dr. Joan Waugh of UCLA and Dr. Gary Gallagher of UVA, two acclaimed historians with unique insights into the nuances of the Civil War and Reconstruction eras.
Joan Waugh is a historian of nineteenth-century America, specializing in the Civil War, Reconstruction, and Gilded Age eras. Dr. Waugh is a frequent contributor to op-eds in publications like the Los Angeles Times and has been interviewed for many documentaries, such as the PBS series, “American Experience.” She has been honored with four teaching prizes, including UCLA’s most prestigious teaching honor, the Distinguished Teaching Award. Currently, Dr. Waugh teaches history at UCLA, where she serves as Professor Emeritus.

She is the author of Unsentimental Reformer: The Life of Josephine Shaw Lowell, The Memory of the Civil War in American Culture, U. S. Grant: American Hero, American Myth, and The American War: A History of the Civil War Era.

Visit her page on the University of California Los Angeles website.
Gary Gallagher is a historian and specialist on the 19th-Century U.S. who has published widely on the history and memory of the Civil War. Dr. Gallagher has served as President of Association for the Preservation of Civil War Sites and currently teaches history as a Professor Emeritus at the University of Virginia. Along with his teaching, he has edited many books and won countless awards, which are listed on his biography page linked below.

He is the author of The Confederate War, Causes Won, Lost, and Forgotten: How Hollywood and Popular Art Shape What We Know about the Civil War, The American War : A History of the Civil War Era, and Reflections on the Great American Crisis.

Visit his page on the University of Virginia’s website.

S4 E7: Charlie Brown's America: The Popular Politics of Peanuts Mar 31, 2023

Show notes

Charlie Brown and the Peanuts gang are some of the most recognizable characters in American pop culture. From Snoopy’s doghouse to Linus’s blanket to Lucy’s perpetual football prank, the scenes from this iconic comic strip are imprinted in the memories of many Americans even today, more than 70 years after the strip’s debut. However, behind the lemonade stand, amateur psychiatric help, and baseball shenanigans, Charles Schultz placed underlying social commentary on the state of American politics and society. While many people praised Peanuts for its supposedly apolitical nature, Schulz used Peanuts to guide American households through critical issues, including the Cold War, integration, church-state relations, and more.

Our conversation partner this week Dr. Blake Ball, author of Charlie Brown's America: The Popular Politics of Peanuts. Blake Ball is a historian of American politics, society, and popular culture in the 20th century. After receiving his doctorate in history from the University of Alabama, he taught at Miles College, the University of North Alabama, and the University of Alabama. Currently, Dr. Ball teaches history at Huntingdon College, where he also chairs the History and Political Science departments.
Follow him on Twitter @bsb1945.

S4 E6: Petroleum and Progress in Iran Mar 23, 2023

Show notes

Oil runs the world. From our cars to our houses, most of us can’t live without it. From the 1940s to the 1960s, though, oil played another specific role as a central part of conflict and diplomacy during the Cold War. It was during this era that Iran developed into the world’s first “petro-state”: a nation whose state revenue, industrializing economy, military, and growing middle class all depended on the growth of the oil industry. This all occurred alongside major Cold War developments, including the regime of the Iranian shah, the coup d’etat of 1953, and more. Centering our analyses of these Cold War moments around the role of petroleum casts the histories of the Iranian and US governments in an entirely new light.

Joining our conversation this week is Dr. Gregory Brew, a leading expert on the relationship between Iran, the US, and oil during the Cold War.
Gregory Brew is a historian and author specializing in U.S. foreign relations, oil, Iran, and the modern Middle East. He has authored two books on the Iranian “petro-state” and contributed to numerous peer reviewed publications. His work explores the connections between the formation of a global oil economy, the geopolitics of the Cold War, and the contemporary energy transition. After receiving his doctorate from Georgetown University in June 2018, he served as a post-doctoral fellow at the Jackson School for Global Affairs at Yale University from 2021-2023. Currently, Dr. Brew is an Analyst at Eurasia Group, covering energy and Iran.

He is the author of The Struggle for Iran: Oil, Autocracy, and the Cold War, 1951–1954and Petroleum and Progress in Iran: Oil, Development, and the Cold War.

Follow him on Twitter @gbrew24 and visit his website gregorybrew.com.

S4 E5: Japanese American Incarceration Mar 16, 2023

Show notes

Executive Order 9066, issued by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, stands out as a major affront to the promise of American liberty. In 1942, this executive order forced approximately 120,000 Japanese Americans out of their homes on the western coast, and incarcerated them in makeshift prisons all around the nation. Our guest today explains today that this was not only a case of civil rights being stripped from Americans, but labor rights as well.

In these glorified concentration and work camps, agents of the U.S. government coerced Japanese Americans into doing hard and dangerous labor, for little-to-no compensation, sometimes even for the benefit of private, for-profit companies. This coerced labor was justified by the rhetoric of the U.S. government, even as the imprisoned resisted and persevered.

Leading this week’s conversation on coerced labor during WW2 is Dr. Stephanie Hinnershitz, award winning author and historian of Japanese American incarceration, civil-military relations, and race on the American wartime homefront.
Stephanie Hinnershitz is a historian and author specializing in the American home front during World War II. She has written 3 books and became a Senior Historian with the Institute for the Study of War and Democracy at The National WWII Museum in New Orleans in 2021.

Stephanie Hinnershitz is an author and historian with the Institute for the Study of War and Democracy at The National WWII Museum in New Orleans. She has previously taught at Valdosta State University and Cleveland State University. In addition to her professorships, her research has been supported by grants and fellowships from the Social Science Research Council, the Baker-Nord Center for the Humanities, the Office of Diversity at the United States Military Academy at West Point, the Library of Congress, and the American Council of Learned Societies.

She is the author of Race, Religion, and Civil Rights: Asian Students on the West Coast, 1900-1968, A Different Shade of Justice: Asian American Civil Rights in the South, and Japanese American Incarceration: The Camps and Coerced Labor during World War II, which won the 2022 Philip Taft Labor History Award from the Labor and Working Class History Association and Cornell University Industrial Labor Relations School.

Follow her on Twitter @sdhinnershitz and visit her website stephaniehinnershitz.com.

S4 E4: Paper Trails Mar 02, 2023

Show notes

When we think about the history of westward expansion and the growth of state power in the United States, the postal system probably isn’t the first institution that comes to mind. But this week, that’s exactly what we’ll be exploring: the unsung power and reach of the U.S. Postal Service in the late-19th century America.

It took Anglo-Americans nearly two hundred years to occupy the eastern half of what became the United States, but just one generation in the late-19th century to occupy the rest of the continent. This exponential increase in settlement speed and occupation can be attributed in large part to the sprawling geography and localized operations of the American postal system. During this era of settlement, Americans relied on letters and newspapers, magazines and pamphlets, petitions and money orders to stay connected to the world, and the post office enabled them all. It did this at such a high volume that by 1899, there were five times as many post offices in the U.S. as there are McDonald’s restaurants in the U.S. in 2023.

This week’s conversation on the role of the postal system in developing the American West features Dr. Cameron Blevins of the University of Colorado Denver, author of Paper Trails: The US Post and the Making of the American West.

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