Director

Dr. Samuel C. Hyde, Jr.

Director, Center for Southeast Louisiana Studies

 

Dr. Samuel C. Hyde, Jr., Professor of History at Southeastern Louisiana University, is the Director of the Center for Southeast Louisiana Studies and holds the Leon Ford Endowed Chair in Regional History.

Hyde, a northern Tangipahoa Parish native who has extensively studied the history of the Florida Parishes, is the author of Pistols and Politics: Feuds, Factions, and the Struggle for Order in Louisiana's Florida Parishes 1810 - 1935 (winner of the 2019 Michael V.R. Thomason Award for Best Book on Gulf South History) and author/editor of Plain Folk of the South Revisited. His forthcoming (2022) Becoming American: War, Ritual, and the Evolution of Identity in the Gulf South, co-written with Sarah Hyde, is his first work of historical fiction highlighting regional history.

Dr. Hyde is also the author/editor of Sunbelt Revolution: The Historical Progression of the Civil Struggle in the Gulf South, 1866-2000; A Fierce and Fractious Frontier: The Curious Development of Louisiana's Florida Parishes, 1699-2000; A Wisconsin Yankee in Confederate Bayou Country: The Civil War Reminiscences of a Union General, among other publications.He is author of numerous articles including “Plain Folk Reconsidered: Historiographical Ambiguity in Search of Definition” ( Journal of Southern History, November 2005).

He is also script writer and producer of numerous films including Louisiana's Florida Parishes: Securing the Good Life From a Troubled Land; Reluctant Americans: The West Florida Revolt, Completing the Louisiana Purchase; The Manchac Swamp: Manmade Disaster in Search of Resolution; and the recent award winning American Crisis, American Shame: The National Consequence of Coastal Erosion (recipient of the 2009 gold medal for environmental documentary from the New York International Independent Film and Video Festival).

He serves as executive director of the Gulf South Historical Association and his work has been featured in numerous regional and national media outlets such as The Discovery Channel, The History Channel, The Travel Channel, ABC's World News Tonight, National Public Radio, The Washington Post, and The New York Times.