Faculty and Staff

Connie L. Lester, Ph.D.

• Assoc. Prof.; Director, RICHES; Editor, Florida Historical Quarterly
• Email: [email protected]
• Phone: 407-823-0261
• Office Hours: 1:00-2:30 Tuesdays
• Campus Location: CNH415D
• View CV

Education

• Ph.D. in U.S. History, History of the U.S. South from University of Tennessee (1998)

Research Interests

Modern South, agricultural, environmental and economic history

Recent Research Activities

Books:  
Up from the Mudsills of Hell: The Farmers' Alliance, Populism, and Progressive Agriculture in Tennessee, 1870-1915 (University of Georgia Press, 2006
West, Lester, et. al., Tennessee Encyclopedia of History of Culture (Tennessee Historical Society, 1998)
Book Manuscripts in progress:
"Yours Always": The Civil War Diary of L. Virginia French, 1862-1865 (University of Tennessee Press)
Making Do: History, Poverty, and the Mississippi Economy in the Twentieth Century Mississippi Heritage Series (Under Contract, University Press of Mississippi)
Articles and Book Chapters:
Twelve articles and book chapters on Populism, the New South, and the Southern Economy

Selected Publications

Books

• Up from the Mudsills of Hell: The Farmers' Alliance, Populism, And Progressive Agriculture in Tennessee, 1870-1915 (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2006).
• Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture, Caroll Van West, editor, Connie L. Lester, associate editor (Tennessee Historical Society, 1998)

Articles/Essays

• "Balancing Agriculture with Industry: Capital, Labor, and the Public Good in Mississippi's Home-Grown New Deal," Journal of Mississippi History, Volume 70 (Fall 2008), 235-263.
• "Populist Scholarship as a Survey of American Political and Social Change," essay for "Agricultural History Roundtable on Populism" with Robert C. McMath, Jr., Peter H. Argersinger, Connie L. Lester, Michael F. Magliari, and Walter Nugent. Agricultural History Volume 82, No. 1 (Winter 2008): 10-16.
• "Let Us Be Up and Doing: Women in the Tennessee Movement for Agrarian Reform, 1870-1892." Tennessee Historical Quarterly 54, Summer 1995, 80-97.

Book Sections/Chapters

• Forthcoming "Negotiating the Peace: Reconstruction and the New South," Oxford Handbook on Reconstruction, Andrew Slap, ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2024)
• "Shaping a More Humane Economy: The Agrarian Revolt, 1885-1905," in Douglas Hurt, ed. A Companion to Agricultural History (Wiley Publishing, 2022)
• "To Break the Hold of the Money Class: The Sub-Treasury Scheme," in Wesley Hogan and Paul Ortiz, eds., People Power: History, Organizing and Larry Goodwyn's Democratic Vision in the Twenty-First Century (University Press of Florida, 2021)
• Planting the Seeds of Racial Equality: Floridas Independent Black Farmers and the Modern Civil Rights Era, in Old South, New South, or Down South: Florida and the Modern Civil Rights Movement, Irvin D.S. Winsboro, editor (Charleston: University of West Virginia Press, 2009), 113-133.
• "Lucille Thornburgh: I had to be right pushy'" in Tennessee Women: Their Histories, Their Lives, ed. Beverly Bond and Sarah Wilkerson-Freeman, (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2009).
• "Lucy Virginia French: Out of the Bitterness of My Heart," in James C. Klotter,ed., The Human Tradition in the Old South (Scholarly Resources, 2003)
• "Lucy Virginia French: Out of the Bitterness of My Heart," in Steven E. Woodworth, ed., The Human Tradition in the Civil War and Reconstruction (Scholarly Resources, 2000)

Awards

RICHES Projects:  
Internal and external grant awards as PI and Co-PI totals $1,060,435, including grants from NEH, IMLS, and Iron Mountain.
Research:
Leu Research Fellowship Award, Tennessee Historical Society, 2007
Research Recognition Award, UCF College of Arts and Humanities, 2006
Award of Merit, American Association of State and Local History, 1999
Editing and Publishing:
Florida Humanities grant for the 9th Annual Shofner Lecture on Florida History and Culture, 2021
Distinguished Service Award, Florida Historical Society, 2015

Courses

• Spring 2026
• Fall 2025
• Summer 2025
• Spring 2025
• Fall 2024
• Summer 2024
• Spring 2024
• Fall 2023
• Summer 2023