![\"\"](\"https:\/\/news.furman.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Heller_portrait.jpeg\")
Max Heller\/Furman Special Collections<\/p><\/div>\n
The collection includes about 35 cubic feet of records \u2013 papers, photos, scrapbooks and larger materials \u2013 making it one of Furman\u2019s largest holdings from a single person\u2019s life and career.<\/p>\n
When she learned about the Special Collections Summer Research and Creative Fellowship, Foster jumped at the chance to switch from cataloguing to researching.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a little daunting, being in charge of this on my own,\u201d she said. \u201cBut it\u2019s also sort of freeing. I really want to do a good job to show that I\u2019m capable of this kind of research.\u201d<\/p>\n
Foster\u2019s work will focus on Heller\u2019s unsuccessful run for Congress in 1978, which is something of a political mystery. Heller was leading in the polls as the race wound down; some have suggested a late survey of voters had anti-Semitic tones and swayed the results.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don’t believe that his defeat has ever been properly explained,\u201d Foster said. \u201cAnd that’s bugging me, giving me that urge to investigate.\u201d<\/p>\n
Baker will look at that episode as well, but his dissertation will cover a broader period.<\/p>\n
He studied history and political science at Clemson University, where he earned bachelor\u2019s and master\u2019s degrees, then taught at Anderson University, Greenville Technical College and Tri-County Technical College before heading to Auburn.<\/p>\n
Baker has always been interested in Southern history, but he didn\u2019t go into the doctoral program planning to focus on either Greenville or Heller. His initial plan was to study the decline of the textile industry in the South. But his research led him to the Heller collection in fall 2018.<\/p>\n
\u201cI got into his papers, and I thought, \u2018This is actually the better dissertation. This is way more interesting,\u2019\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Baker\u2019s work will examine the changes in Greenville from the 1970s to the present, including the shift from majority Democratic to majority Republican and the economic rebirth after the decline of the textile industry.<\/p>\n
\u201cHeller serves as the thread that holds the dissertation together,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He sees Heller not only as an economic leader but also as someone who gave Greenville a more international feel and appeal, leading ultimately to investments by major companies such as BMW and Michelin.<\/p>\n
Baker hopes to complete his manuscript by spring 2020. He\u2019ll be teaching at Anderson University again in the fall.<\/p>\n
Foster\u2019s fellowship lasts through the summer. She\u2019s planning a paper to summarize her findings.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s exciting because I don\u2019t know what I\u2019m going to find, what I\u2019m going to uncover,\u201d she said. \u201cI want to get to the bottom of this.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Two Greenville natives are digging into their hometown\u2019s history this summer, and Max Heller\u2019s papers, held in Furman\u2019s Special Collections and Archives, will be central to their work. Andrew Baker, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":272,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,42,13,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8266","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-academic-department-page","category-history","category-top-four-news-4th-story","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8266","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/272"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8266"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8266\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}