I retired after nearly four decades at a “prep school,” a History PhD. teaching on the secondary level and gradually growing to like it very much. During my career, I also managed to keep my hand in scholarly activities: reviewing books for historical journals; giving occasional public lectures on historical topics; and publishing several scholarly articles, as well as, now, three books (see below).
Once I retired, of course, I had a lot of time on my hands: no bells ringing every 55 minutes; no classes to prepare for, tests to make up, grade averages to figure, comments to write–which I hope helps explain the “Retired” part of the blog’s title. Those of you who either know me or are familiar with the post-presidential career of my avatar, John Quincy Adams, will perhaps understand the “But Not Shy” part.
Since I retired from the classroom in June 2010, I’ve had “all the time in the world” to work on my research projects, something scholars dream about. In that period, I finished my “big book” and a collection of essays on Georgia history, both of which were published in 2015. And, as you can see, I’ve also created this blog. Hence the subtitle, “Doing History After Leaving the Classroom.”
Some of my work on Georgia history appears at “Retired But Not Shy.” I’m also interested in: the teaching of History, both in general and specifically on the “prep school” level; the history of the American South, with an emphasis on the modern American Civil Rights Movement; American popular culture; the era of the Vietnam War; interdisciplinary projects I have known (but not necessarily loved); a slew of reflections on various subjects; and the history of the Blues, the music and the people who sang and played it, placed in historical context. All of these topics also turn up here. So, browse away!
Below is an abbreviated c.v.:
JUNE 2018
DR. GEORGE R. LAMPLUGH
e-mail: george.lamplugh4@gmail.com
ACADEMIC BACKGROUND:
B.A. (History), University of Delaware, 1966
M.A. (History), Emory University, 1971
PhD. (History), Emory University, 1973
Education for Ministry certificate (a four-year program of Theological Education by extension, offered by the Bairnwick School of Theology, University of the South, under the auspices of the Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta, 1983-1987)
DISSERTATION:
“Politics on the Periphery: Factions and Parties in Georgia, 1776-1806” (Emory University, 1973), Dr. James Z. Rabun, Director.
TEACHING EXPERIENCE:
Teacher, Department of History, The Westminster Schools, Atlanta, Ga., 1973-2010 (retired, May 2010):
Head, Department of History, The Westminster Schools, 1989-1996
Interim Head, Department of History, The Westminster Schools, 1999-2000
Visiting Assistant Professor, Emory University, Summer 1975
Instructor, Georgia Institute of Technology, Spring 1973
Teaching Associate, Emory University, 1972-1973
Teaching Assistant, Emory University, 1970-1971
PUBLICATIONS:
Books:
Contributor:
“John Wereat,” “James Gunn,” “Thomas Gibbons,” “James Jackson,” “John Clark,” in Kenneth Coleman and Steve Gurr, eds., Dictionary of Georgia Biography (Athens, Ga.: University of Georgia Press, 1983)
“The Philippine War for Independence,” (with Craig Schmidt), World History: Global Connections in an Age of European Power, 1750-1900 (Princeton , N.J.: The Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation History Institute, 1993), pp. 169-174.”
James Jackson, Yazoo Land Fraud, John Wereat, in John Inscoe, ed., The New Georgia Encyclopedia
Articles:
“The Image of the Negro in Popular Magazine Fiction, 1875-1900,” Journal of Negro History 57 (April, 1972): 177-189.
“Farewell to the Revolution: Georgia in 1785,” Georgia Historical Quarterly 56 (Fall, 1972): 387-402.
“William Few’s Brownsborough Plan,” Richmond County [Ga.] History,5 (Winter, 1973): 40-46.
“Thomas Carr and the Camden County ‘War’ of 1793,” Atlanta Historical Bulletin 20 (Fall, 1976): 37-45.
“Origins of Western Society: Introduction to ‘Doing’ History,” Newsletter of the Georgia Association of Historians 3 (Winter, 1977): 7-8.
“‘To Check and Discourage the Wicked and Designing’: John Wereat and the Revolution in Georgia,” Georgia Historical Quarterly 61 (Winter, 1977): 295-307.
“Secondary School Students and the Changing Face of the South,” Newsletter of the Georgia Association of Historians 4 (Spring, 1978): 20-21.
“Up From the Depths: The Career of Thomas Gibbons, 1783-1789,” Atlanta Historical Journal 25 (Fall, 1981): 37-44.
“George Walton, Chief Justice of Georgia, 1783-1785, Georgia Historical Quarterly 65 (Summer, 1981): 82-91.
“‘The Duty of Every Good Citizen’: John Wereat and Georgia, 1782-1793,” Atlanta Historical Journal 27 (Spring, 1983): 87-94.
“John Wereat and Yazoo, 1794-1799,” Georgia Historical Quarterly 72 (Fall, 1988): 502-517.
“‘Oh the Colossus! The Colossus!’: James Jackson and the Jeffersonian Republican Party in Georgia, 1796-1806,” Journal of the Early Republic 9 (Fall, 1989): 315-334.
“The Importance of Being Truculent: James Gunn, the Chatham Militia, and Georgia Politics, 1782-1789,” Georgia Historical Quarterly 80 (Summer, 1996): 227-245.
“James Gunn: Georgia Federalist, 1789-1801,” Georgia Historical Quarterly 94 (Fall, 2010): 313-341.
Book Reviews:
American Historical Review 100 (October, 1995): 1294.
Atlanta Historical Bulletin 20 (Spring, 1976): 86-87; 21 (Spring, 1977): 147-148; 22 (Fall, 1977): 87-88.
Atlanta Historical Journal 22 (Fall-Winter, 1978): 84-86; 24 (Spring, 1980): 65-66; 25 (Spring, 1981): 79-80; 25 (Fall, 1981): 95-96.
Atlanta History 31 (Winter, 1987-1988): 64-65; 34 (Summer, 1990): 44-45; 36 (Spring, 1992): 54-55; 41 (September, 1997): 50-51; 44 (Summer, 2000): 35-36.
Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 6 September 1970.
Georgia Historical Quarterly 73 (Fall, 1989): 630-632; 77 (Summer, 1993): 407-408; 81 (Spring, 1997): 169-171.
The History Teacher 10 (November, 1976): 151-153; 12 (November, 1978): 120-122; 18 (November, 1984): 135-137; 18 (August, 1985): 615-617.
Jackson [Tenn.] Sun: 16, 30 April, 3 December 1972; 7, 28 January, 11 March 1973.
Journal of Southern History 42 (February, 1976): 112; 44 (May, 1978): 328-329.
William & Mary Quarterly 47 (July, 1990): 453-455.
Editor: History Department Newsletter, The Westminster Schools, Atlanta, Ga., 1999-2000; 2006-2010.
BLOG:
“Retired But Not Shy: Doing History After Leaving the Classroom” (June 2010-Present)
https://georgelamplugh.com/
CURRENT RESEARCH INTEREST: The History of the Blues
Retired But Not Shy 
Hey Rus,
I’m confident that you’ll take the research where you want it. Thanks for sharing your concerns and goals on the blog.
Rick
Boss,
Great to see you up and running. I don’t know what happened to my first attempt to respond. Sorry all you have to do is read and write and wander bookstores!..Look forward to lunch next week. Will update time and place when I’m certain no “needs” my valuable input!
RB
RUS,
YOU’VE ALWAYS BEEN ABLE TO GET WHERE YOU WANTED TO BE AND TO DO WHAT YOU WANTED TO DO, JUST DON’T TAKE SO LONG THIS TIME.
JUDY
I’ll try not to take so long this time around, especially given my current age! Glad you checked out the new “About” page.
As if you aren’t impressive enough in person, friend! I’m glad that I had the chance to read this.
I’m also glad you had a chance to read it, Kimberley. Now, if it were only as entertaining as your Facebook page, especially your adventures with Liam!
It’s been a while since I’ve actually read through your entire c.v. I’ve got to say, wow! You’ve written a whole lot and consistently published over your entire career, when (unlike if you were teaching at the college level) your job frankly didn’t require it. As ever, I am really impressed with your writing discipline and your continuing commitment to explore history and share your explorations with the rest of us. And taking on simultaneous book projects without cracking is pretty tight too.
Thanks for the comment, Jim. Yes, if there’s one thing I learned in grad school at EU it was the importance of continuing to publish once I landed a teaching post. Of course, as you accurately note, my job at the Big W didn’t require publications of any kind. Still, I kept my hand in, largely, I suspect, because for a long time I actually thought I might land a college job if I had an impressive c.v. And we both know how that worked out for me!
You are a very busy historian. What do you do for fun?
Hah! A question the Willowy Bride has been asking me more often of late–I can’t imagine why!
George, you know my sense of humor. But now I am trying to find the proper and serious words to say how impressed I am with your blog and body of work. No jokes. Just admiration from a friend. I am going to buy a first edition of one of your books, and hopefully you will sign it when I see you next month. Then I will put it next to my signed first edition of Ray Bradbury’s “October Country”, which is, by the way, my most prized possession. Ray Bradbury signed it for me just before he died. Hopefully you will not suffer the same fate.
I, too, hope your purchase of my book won’t have the same effect on me as your patronage did on Mr. Bradbury. I certainly appreciate your kind words about my various endeavors. Even if my Emory grad school profs were unable to steer me to a college job, they did teach me the importance of writing, early and often! Fortunately, the job I did get–and the wife I was lucky enough to marry nearly half a century ago now combined to encourage me–or at least not discourage to write some history in my, um, “spare time.”
Did you mean to say that you’d be seeing me next month? I don’t believe I’ve heard that before, but if it’s true I’ll look forward to it! Just keep me posted.
Yes, Michael and I are taking a “road trip” through the US in August. We expect to be in Atlanta on August 18th to see my first born, and would like to see you if you are available. I just today worked out the itinerary.
Sounds like a plan, Dave! We should be available, as far as I can see now. By the way, if you do make it, I can provide you with copies of both the new books, signed of course. Just sayin’. . . .
George,
Been reading your posts on FB for quite a while, always fascinating. Now I’m subscribed.. you did me in when I read the posint today about teaching History. Since I am now finally legitimzing my claim to being a teacher (apparently 12 years teaching in the MC and 5+ in Juvenile Corrections) didn’t make me palatable to the “outside” world of education) I am reading all the time – along with course work, I’m fascinated by other peoples “take” on the essence of teaching… and I’m not a big fan of pedagogy as its presented. I know for a fact that whatever succes I have in the classsroom have more to do with the excellent education foundation I recieved at “the Big W” as you call it, or what i refer to now as “Starfleet Academy” as it it one hell of a lot more complex and sophisticated that when I went there… (but as DTL would say”…but I digress…”
Anyway, what i was saying before I “tangented” i learned so much of what I have done in the classroooms I have darkened based on what i saw pro’s like you and D. Drake, and Lauderdalle, and Leon Scott, and Rudolph, and Judy Smith, and a whole host of others. I’ve had other great teachers over the years, even when I was learning to teach Electronics in the MC, but y’all were who I think of when I think of “Who I want to emulate when I grow up”.
Keep writing – I learn a lot – I smile a lot, too!
Rob
What a great comment, Rob! I thank you for subscribing to the blog, of course, but I’m also happy to learn that you’ve finally entered the classroom “inside” the world of education. The background you mentioned (Marine Corps and Corrections) will, as you no doubt know but perhaps some “educationists” do not, stand you in good stead, no matter what, or where, you’re teaching. I’d love to hear more about your experiences if you’re willing to share them and/or ever need advice from a retired (but not shy) teacher. (My e-mail is included on the “About” page.) And, as trust you’ve discovered, I’ve devoted a bunch of posts to the art of teaching, the teaching of History, and the qualities possessed by some of the best teachers I’ve encountered. Thanks again for subscribing! GL
George—how nice to discover you. Thanks to Annie Williams.
Can we talk? I’m a Westminster alum (‘64) and a son of Bell Wiley. I would love to hear about your years at Emory.
George Wiley
gbellwiley@gmail.com
785-813-3149
Hi, George,
Glad you discovered my blog, and from Annie Williams! (I didn’t know Annie was even aware of it!) Oh, and I recognized your surname and thought I recognized it as Dr. Wiley’s son. I’ll be glad to pass on some of my memories of my five years in grad school at Emory. I also feature incidents from there in the blog, and your dad figures prominently in one post:
https://georgelamplugh.wordpress.com/2012/06/16/reading-the-civil-war-patriotic-gore-and-more/
Anyway, look around the blog some and see what you can find concerning EU, one of my favorite places!
george.lamplugh4@gmail.com
770/432-8016