Kentucky Association of Teachers of History

Lance Banning (circa 2001)

Come to the Boone Center at the University of Kentucky on May 15th at 5 pm to join in “A Celebration of the Life and Career of Historian Lance Banning” (see more at UKNow).

snippet from press release from the University Press of Kentucky

Banning was one of the most distinguished historians of his generation. His first book, The Jeffersonian Persuasion: Evolution of a Party Ideology, was a groundbreaking study of the ideas and principles that influenced political conflicts in the early American Republic. His revisionist masterpiece, The Sacred Fire of Liberty: James Madison and the Founding of the Federal Republic, received the Merle Curti Award in Intellectual History from the Organization of American Historians and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.

Banning was assembling this collection of his best and most representative writings on the Founding era when his untimely death stalled the project just short of its completion. Now, thanks to the efforts of Todd Estes, this work is finally available. Founding Visions: The Ideas, Individuals, and Intersections that Created America showcases the work of a historian who shaped the intellectual debates of his time. Featuring a foreword by Gordon S. Wood, the volume presents Banning’s most seminal and insightful essays to a new generation of students, scholars, and general readers.

Lance Banning (1942–2006) taught at Brown University and the University of Kentucky and held a senior Fulbright appointment at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands in 1997. During his prolific career, he held fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, the National Humanities Center, and the Center for the History of Freedom.

For more information, contact: Mack McCormick, Publicity Manager, University Press of Kentucky, 859/257-5200, permissions@uky.edu