BEAUMONT, Texas, June 8 -- Lamar University issued the following news release:
Before discussing slavery, archival research or award-winning books, Dr. Jeff Forret talked about saxophones.
Specifically, a bass saxophone from somewhere around the 1930s.
"That's my big boy," he said, showing a photo of a saxophone on his phone.
Forret, a university professor at Lamar University, describes himself first as "a historian of slavery and the American South," though more recently he has begun working in antebellum Midwestern history as well. But he also identifies as "a husband, father of a teenager, vintage saxophone collector" and "decent saxophonist."
That mixture of humor, specificity and self-awareness runs through much of how Forret talk...