Inauguration symposium on "New Perspectives on the American Civil War" to feature Harvard and Richmond presidents, University of Virginia scholar
March 28, 2008
Three leading historians of 19th-century America will discuss "New Perspectives on the American Civil War," an April 10 symposium kicking off the two-day Presidential Inauguration celebration at the University of Richmond.
Edward L. Ayers, who will be officially installed April 11 as Richmond's ninth president, will be joined on the symposium panel by Drew Gilpin Faust, president and Lincoln Professor of History at Harvard University, and Gary W. Gallagher, John L. Nau III Professor of the American Civil War at the University of Virginia.
Ayers is a historian of the American South who has written and edited 10 books. His presentation will focus on the ways that Americans—black and white, Northern and Southern—rebuilt their lives after the war. He will be carrying forward stories begun in "In the Presence of Mine Enemies: War in the Heart of America, 1859-1863," his 2003 book that won the Bancroft Prize for distinguished writing in American history and the Beveridge Prize for the best book in English on the history of the Americas since 1492. A previous Ayers book, "The Promise of the New South: Life after Reconstruction," was a finalist for both the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize.
Faust has written six books, including "Mothers of Invention: Women of the Slaveholding South in the American Civil War," for which she won the 1997 Francis Parkman Prize for the best non-fiction book on an American theme from the Society of American Historians. Her most recent book, "This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War," published earlier this year, looks at the impact of the Civil War's enormous death toll on the lives of 19th-century Americans.
Gallagher has written a broad range of books on the American Civil War and has edited the leading series on the subject. His "The Confederate War" has helped reorient discussion of the subject. Gallagher's current research focuses on ways that art, film, and television use the Civil War to convey messages about contemporary American society.
A book-signing by the three will follow the symposium, which takes place at the Robins Center from 4:30-6 p.m. (please note new location for this event.) Admission is free and open to the public, but advance online registration is required at inauguration.richmond.edu. For more information, call (804) 287-1800. The symposium also will be available via a live webcast on the inauguration Web site.
The symposium is co-sponsored by the Virginia Historical Society, The American Civil War Center at Historic Tredegar, The Museum of the Confederacy and The Library of Virginia.