Category Archives: Great Books

S9E3 Podcast: Tracking Hernando De Soto Through Georgia

Did Hernando De Soto travel near what is now DeSoto Falls in North Georgia? Or Desoto, Georgia, in Sumter County? Why don’t we know where he went and why is the evidence so hard to find? Stan’s guest this week is Dennis Blanton, professor of anthropology at James Madison University, author of Conquistador’s Wake: Tracking the Legacy of Hernando De Soto in the Indigenous Southeast (UGA Press, 2020). Dr. Blanton discusses the myths and realities of De Soto’s 16th-century expedition, based on his years of painstaking archaeological research—and how his current finds in southwest Georgia may re-define what we know about the infamous Conquistador’s entrada.

S9E1 Podcast: Summer School

Stan opens Season 9 of Off the Deaton Path talking about his summer reading (so far)—books by Nina Stibbe, Jane Gardam, Leah Hager Cohen, Helene Hanff, James Hilton, Ferrol Sams—short thoughts on the Braves lousy season (so far), a sneak peek at upcoming podcasts, and AJC political writer Jim Galloway on the 1956 Georgia state flag in the summer GHQ.

S8E17 Podcast: Shots Heard Round the World: The American Revolution and John Ferling

Stan’s guest this week is renowned historian John Ferling, who talks about his new (and perhaps final) book on the American Revolution, published just in time for the event’s 250th anniversary. Ferling reflects on his life and his remarkable 50-year career as one of America’s leading historians of the Founding era.

S8E15 Podcast: “Savage, Barbarian, Civilized”: The Invention of Prehistory and Our Obsession With Human Origins

Do we study the deep past only to justify our present actions toward those we deem less “civilized”? Are humans fundamentally good and altruistic or mean and self-serving? Is “human nature” warlike or peaceful? Stan’s guest this week is author and historian Stefanos Geroulanos of New York University, discussing all of these issues from his new book, The Invention of Prehistory: Empire, Violence, and Our Obsession with Human Origins, published in 2024 by Liveright.

S8E13 Podcast: Is Technology Changing What it Means to Be Human?

Do people prefer texting to face-to-face encounters? Will handwriting become obsolete? Have we lost the mental capacity for patience and boredom? And if we have, does it matter? Stan’s guest this week is author and historian Christine Rosen of the American Enterprise Institute, who tackles the impact of technology on what it means to be human in her new book, The Extinction of Experience: Being Human in a Disembodied World (published in 2024 by WW Norton).