The robust liberalism of the sixties limped out of the 20th Century saddled with "the L-word," its record and core ideas assailed, its winning coalition shattered. This lecture explores this story of three decades of decline as different schools of thought have sought to explain it, and assesses the prospects ahead for those in the U.S. who increasingly call themselves "progressives."

Otis L. Graham, Jr., Distinguished Visiting Professor at the University of North Carolina, Wilmington and Professor Emeritus in the Department of History at the University of California, Santa Barbara will deliver the annual Harry Girvetz Memorial Lecture on the topic, "What Happened to Liberalism After the Sixties?" at 4 P.M. on Monday, May 20 in the McCune Conference Room, 6020 Humanities and Social Sciences Building.

An influential and prolific scholar, Graham has published five books, three co-authored books, and eight anthologies in American history, along with many essays and reviews. His books include An Encore for Reform: The Old Progressive and the New Deal; The Great Campaigns: Reform and War in America, 1900-1928; Toward a Planned Society: From Roosevelt to Nixon; Illegal Immigration and the New Reform Movement; Re-thinking the Purposes of Immigration Policy; A Limited Bounty: The United States Since World War II; Aged in Oak: A History of the Santa Barbara County Wine Industry.

After receiving his B.A. from Yale University and his Ph.D. from Columbia University, Graham joined the Department of History at UCSB where he taught from 1966 to 1980. Next he was appointed to a Distinguished University Professor chair at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. After returning to UCSB in 1989, he taught in the Department of History until his retirement in 1995. Since then he has served as a Distinguished Visiting Professor at the University of North Carolina, Wilmington. He has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford, and the Woodrow Wilson Center for Scholars in Washington. He edited The Public Historian from 1989 to 1997 and, in 1999, was awarded the Robert Kelley Memorial Prize by the National Council for Public History for "major contributions to the Public History movement in the United States."

The Harry Girvetz Memorial Lecture is presented by the Harry Girvetz Memorial Lecture Committee and the UCSB Interdisciplinary Humanities Center.