Historian Neil Maher to present annual Stover Lecture for Purdue Department of History

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Historian and author Neil Maher will present the Purdue University Department of History’s annual John F. Stover Lecture at 7 p.m. March 21.

Maher, professor of history in the Federated History Department at the New Jersey Institute of Technology and Rutgers University at Newark, will discuss themes he addressed in his 2017 book, “Apollo in the Age of Aquarius.”

The book explores the connections between the space race and the grassroots political movements of the 1960s that involved issues like civil rights, the Vietnam War, the environment, feminism, counter-culture and conservatism. The American Astronautical Society recognized “Apollo in the Age of Aquarius” with the 2017 Eugene M. Emme Astronautical Literature Award, an honor named after NASA’s first historian. It was also named a Choice Outstanding Academic Title and a Bloomberg View Must-Read Book.

Maher’s talk, which is free and open to the public, will take place in the Neil Armstrong Hall of Engineering, Room 1010. The Giant Leaps event is one of many celebrating Purdue’s Sesquicentennial, 150 Years of Giant Leaps. The yearlong celebration highlights Purdue’s remarkable history of giant leaps, while focusing on what giant leaps Purdue can take to address the world’s problems.

The Stover Lecture Series is named for professor of history John F. Stover, who taught at Purdue from 1947 to 1978. Stover was a leading scholar of American history with a specialization in the history of American railroads. After his death in 2007, Stover’s wife Marjorie and children Charry and John established an endowment used for the benefit of a lecture series on issues of significance and relevance to the Department of History. The series presented its inaugural lecture in 2009. 

Media contact: Joseph Paul, 765-494-9541, paul102@purdue.edu

Source: Kati Pratt, pratt46@purdue.edu