This information is an updated and expanded version of a document my university distributed previously in connection with its public speaker program.
Robert Brent Toplin recently taught occasional courses at the University of Virginia as adjunct professor. Previously he taught History for ten years (with tenure) at Denison University and for twenty-eight years (with tenure) at the University of North Carolina, Wilmington. He also taught a graduate course at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Toplin has published eleven books, more than a hundred articles and has commented frequently about history on nationally broadcast television and radio programs.
With regard to teaching, Toplin received the Mellon Award for Teaching Excellence at Denison University and for several years he has been acknowledged by the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of North Carolina, Wilmington as an instructor that graduating seniors named as the professor who made the greatest contribution to their college experience.
Toplin has taught several lifelong learning courses in Charlottesville, Virginia (through the Osher Lifelong Learning Program at the University of Virginia) and in Sarasota, Florida (through the Lifelong Learning Academy, also associated with Osher) and in early 2020 at the Osher program at the University of North Carolina, Wilmington, and he has spoken to numerous civic, social and educational organizations in the three communities. Toplin was the creator and president of the Lakewood Ranch History Club in Florida. The club has more than 400 members. In 2018 he created and has been serving as president of the History Club in Charlottesville, Virginia. That organization now has more than 300 members.
Regarding scholarship, Toplin served as the editor of film reviews for The Journal of American History from 1986 until 2007, and he served as film and media editor for Perspectives in History, the monthly publication of the American Historical Association. Toplin has published articles in The New York Times, Time, The Chronicle of Higher Education, The American Historical Review, The Journal of American History, The Journal of Southern History, The Hispanic American Historical Review, and other journals and newspapers.
Robert Brent Toplin’s recent books include Reel History: In Defense of Hollywood, Radical Conservatism: The Right’s Political Religion, Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9//11: How One Film Divided a Nation, History By Hollywood (a revised and expanded second edition was released in 2010)and an edited work, Ken Burns’s The Civil War: Historians Respond, which was a History Book Club Main Selection. He also published Oliver Stone’s USA: Film, History, and Controversy. That book includes Toplin’s introductory essay, original commentaries by filmmaker Oliver Stone based on Toplin’s twenty-one hours of interviews with him, and original essays by Stephen Ambrose, David Halberstam, Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., former presidential candidate George McGovern, and other contributors.
Robert Brent Toplin has been a principal creator of historical dramas that appeared nationally on PBS Television, The Disney Channel, and the Starz network, including Denmark Vesey’s Rebellion (which received the George Washington Award from the Freedom Foundation for the best historical film of 1982), Solomon Northup’s Odyssey (a.k.a. Half Slave/Half Free), which received the Erik Barnouw Award from the Organization of American Historians for the best historical film of 1984, and Charlotte Forten’s Mission (1985).
Toplin has appeared more than 25 times as a commentator on nationally broadcast television programs. He has spoken on CBS Television, PBS Television, CSPAN, The History Channel, and the Turner Classics Movie Channel. His comments on film have also appeared in National Public Radio’s All Things Considered, and they have been reported in USA Today, The Washington Post, and The New York Times. Additionally, Toplin has written op-ed articles on domestic politics and international affairs for the History News Network and has published several op-ed articles that appeared in newspapers throughout the United States. Some of those articles were subsequently published by The Week and by Time (online edition).
Regarding public service, Professor Toplin served as a PTA President in Wilmington, North Carolina and was elected to the New Hanover County (Wilmington, N.C.) Board of Education. He served on the Board for four years. He and six other board members were responsible for education policies and management at thirty-one public schools.
Robert Brent Toplin received his undergraduate training in Psychology at Penn State University and received a Ph.D. in History from Rutgers University in 1968.
Toplin has received several grants and fellowships, including awards from The National Endowment for the Humanities, the American Council of Learned Societies, the American Philosophical Society, the Annenberg/CPB Project, the Ford Foundation, and other institutions. He also served as the Organization of American Historians Lecturer in Japan in 1999 and as a sponsored speaker in a United Nations conference on international violence that took place in Lima, Peru in 1991. He has also spoken in several conferences in European countries and in South Africa. In 2005 he was the featured speaker at The Miller Center for Public Affairs in Charlottesville, Virginia on the subject of “Reagan and the Movies.” Toplin lectured at universities in Israel in 2007. He has also given presentations at several colleges around the United States for the Organization of American Historians’ Distinguished Lecturer Program. Robert Brent Toplin is listed in Marquis Who’s Who in America.
