The Idaho Humanities Council is proud to have brought nationally recognized historians, journalists, and novelists to Idaho annually since 1997 for the IHC’s Distinguished Humanities Lecture and Dinner. The event began in Boise as a way to increase the awareness of the humanities in the Boise valley. Due to continued and overwhelming success, the IHC board decided to implement similar regional events in Coeur d’Alene in 2004 and in Idaho Falls in 2008.

Boise

Previous speakers have included historian Stephen Ambrose (1997), western writer Ivan Doig (1998), presidential biographer Doris Kearns Goodwin (1999), historian David McCullough (2000), journalist David Halberstam (2001), author Frank McCourt (2002), novelist John Updike (2003), presidential biographer Robert Dallek (2004), Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jane Smiley (2005), NewsHour anchor and author Jim Lehrer (2006), presidential historian Michael Beschloss (2007),  ABC News White House correspondent and author Martha Raddatz (2008), and in 2009 Abraham Lincoln scholar Harold Holzer.  

Coeur d'Alene

Featured speakers at the IHC’s Northern Idaho Distinguished Humanities Lecture and Dinner have included presidential biographer Robert Dallek (2004), western writer Ivan Doig (2005), New Yorker columnist Susan Orlean (2006), War Letters author Andrew Carroll (2007), National Public Radio news analyst Juan Williams (2008), and in 2009 National Book Award-winner and The Big Burn author Timothy Egan.

Idaho Falls

The inaugural guest speaker was presidential biographer Robert Dallek (2008), and in 2009 Pulitzer Prize-winning author Laurel Thatcher Ulrich offered a talk based on her latest book Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History.