Since 1987, the History Department has hosted the Louis R. Gottschalk Lectures, which promote the study of History by inviting distinguished historians to U of L.  Gottschalk (1899–1975) was a noted historian of the American and French Revolutions.  He authored seven books, and served as president of the American Historical Association in 1953.  Dr. Gottschalk taught at U of L from 1923 to 1927, when he moved to the University of Chicago.

1987   George C. Herring (University of Kentucky) "The Johnson Administration Public Opinion and the War in Viet Nam"

1987   Colin Heywood (University of London) "Ottoman History: Between European and Islamic History a Problem for the Historian"

1987   He Fangchuan (Beijing University) "Three Navigators of the 15^th Century: Zheng Ho, Columbus and Vasco Da Gama"

1988   Aron Rodrigue (Indiana University) "The Westernization of the Jews in the Lands of Islam"

1988   Arthur Hansen (California State University) "Japanese American Resistance:  From 'Relocation' to Redress"

1988   Gunther Rothenberg (Distinguished Military Historian) "Napoleon and the Revolution in War"

1988   Richard J. Sommers (US Army Military History Institute) "Grant and Lee at Petersburg"

1989   Charlotte Beahan (Murray State University) "Mothers of Citizens:  The Woman's Movement and Nationalism in China"

1989   Erik Zurcher (Catholic University of the Netherlands) "The Ottoman Legacy and Middle Eastern Reform:  The Turkish Case"

1989   Edward M. Coffman (University of Wisconsin) "Military History Via Oral History"

1990   Ronald J. Grele (Columbia University) "1968:  The Student Movement Through Oral History"

1990   James R. Bentley (The Filson Club) "The Filson Club:  An Important Resource for Students of History"

1991   John E. Toews (University of Washington) "Historicizing:  Is the Historical Turn in the Human Sciences a Turn to History?"

1991   John J. Fox (Salem State College) "A Hired Gun I Ain't:  The Historian and the Selling of History"

1992   Takeshi Hamashita (University of Tokyo) "Japanese Views of American Views of Japan"

1992   Arnita A. Jones (Organization of American Historians) "History, The Public, and Professional Historians"

1993   Franklin L. Ford (Harvard University) "The Mystery of the Huguenots:  French Protestants in Five Centuries"

1993   Richard I. Cohen (Hebrew University of Jerusalem) "The Visual Image of the Jew in Early Modern Europe:  From Symbolism to Realism"

1993   Henry Stenberg (Salem State College) "Yankee Rails, Yankee Voices:  Life and Work on the Boston and Maine Railroad"

1994   Armstead L. Robinson (University of Virginia) " Academic Culture and Scientific Racism:  The Case of Charles H. Wesley"

1994   Louise Tilly (New School for Social Research) "French Women in Action"

1994   Thomas W. Africa (State University of New York) "The Multi Cultural World of Edward Gibbon, or a Loose Cannon in the Canon"

1995   Joe William Trotter (Carnegie Mellon University) "The Great Migration and the Transformation of African American Life"

1995   Alfred Andrea ( University of Vermont) "Gunther Paris:  The Historian as Divine Comedian"

1995   Frank W. Walbank  (University of Liverpool)  "Polybius and Josephus: Two Case Studies in 'Treason'”

1996   Thomas Cripps (Morgan State University) "Movies, Race and World War II"

1996   Israel Bartal (Hebrew University, Jerusalem) " Fundamentalism and History: How Orthodox Jews Write Jewish History"

1996   Robert E. Lerner (Northwestern University) " Millennium and Revolution in the Later Middle Ages"

1997   Hasia Diner (New York University) "Not by Bread Alone:  Immigration and the Invention of Ethnic Foodways"

1997   Parks M. Coble (University of Nebraska) "Collaboration and Resistance in Wartime China:  Shanghai Capitalists under Japanese Occupation, 1937-1945"

1997   Robert M. Levine (University of Miami) "Race and Class in Brazil:  The Cautionary Tale of Carolina Maria de Jesus"

1998   John Kleber (The Encyclopedia of Louisville) "Collecting the Puzzle's Pieces:  The Importance of Local History in the Big Picture"

2000   Harry Ritter (Western Washington University) "From Dracula to Hitler and Back:  The Hero in German Film"

2001   Randy J. Sparks (Tulane University) "The Prices of Calabar:  An Atlantic Odyssey from Slavery to Freedom"

2002   Cynthia B. Herrup (Duke University) ""Dangerous Mercies":  The Place of Pardons in Early Modern English Culture"

2002   Jayasinhji Jhala (Temple University), “Kings, Colonials, and Coats-of-Arms:  The meanings of Royal Heraldry in India”

2003   Timothy Tyson (University of Wisconsin-Madison) "Miss Amy's Witness:  Why the History of the Civil Rights Movement is [Mostly] Wrong"

2004   André Wink (University of Wisconsin-Madison) "The End of Jihad"

2005   Karen Offen (Independent Scholar, affiliated with Stanford University) "Civil Society, Gender Justice, and the History of European Feminisms"

2005   José C. Moya (University of California-Los Angeles and Barnard College) "Migration and Modernity in the Western Hemisphere"

2006   Toyin Falola (University of Texas-Austin) "A History of African History"

2006   Bertram Wyatt-Brown (University of Florida) "Light Horse Harry, Robert E. Lee, Character, and Virgina Honor"

2007   William W. Freehling (Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, formerly University of Kentucky) "The Road to Disunion: The Climactic Uncertainty"

2008   James M. McPherson (Princeton University) " Tried by War: Abraham Lincoln as Commander in Chief"