Let's Talk About It! Making Sense of the American Civil War

February 23, 2012

Coming up on Sunday, March 4th at 2:00 p.m. at the Midwest Genealogy Center is Imagining War, the first conversation we’ll have in an attempt to make sense of one of the defining wars in our nation’s history. Altogether, there will be five discussions on different themes designed to help us explore different facets of the Civil War experience. The entire series has been made possible through a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the American Library Association.

All of our discussions will be led by Dr. Randall Fuller, professor at Drury University and author of From Battlefields Rising: How the Civil War Transformed American Literature. March by Geraldine Brooks and America’s War anthology are the two readings scheduled.

I hope you will join us! Granted, it’s been 150 years now, so one might not think there would still be so many perspectives. But it does seem like we have them! I expect some thought-provoking discussions, especially as we are on the border of Missouri and Kansas. Even though I’ve been on this side of the state line for the last 15 years, I lived for seven years directly prior to that in Lawrence, Kansas. But, even more interesting to me is that few on the Border have heard the story about the Civil War that I grew up hearing! I went to high school in Central Missouri, in the Kingdom of Callaway. The legend behind that name was actually taught in my high school history class as an important lesson. I suppose it has always emphasized to me the quality of 'independence,' which always seems to be a part of the psyche of most of the Missourians that I know. The legend holds that most of the citizens in Callaway County didn’t want to be involved with the War Between the States. So, while they did secede with other parts of the state, they never actually joined the Confederacy during the war. But even more importantly after the war, they never officially rejoined the Union until much later!
 
After you register for each session, you can pick up a copy of each title at the Midwest Genealogy Center so you will be prepared to discuss the readings. You will also be given a copy of the national scholar’s essay. The national scholar, who selected the readings, is Dr. Edward Ayers, president of the University of Richmond, historian of the American South and a digital history pioneer. In addition to other Civil War information, the Digital Scholarship Lab that he created shows the Hidden Patterns of the Civil War. One of the books we’ll read in this series, America’s War, is an anthology of readings that he selected. His keynote essay, to be discussed in the first session, explains the different themes and why he selected the readings.

The following readings have been selected for Let’s Talk About It: Making Sense of the American Civil War, giving us a glimpse of the vast sweep and profound breadth of Americans’ war among and against themselves. Each reading adds a crucial voice to our understanding of the war and its meaning.

• March by Geraldine Brooks
• Crossroads of Freedom: Antietam by James McPherson
• America’s War: Talking About the Civil War and Emancipation on Their 150th Anniversaries edited by Edward L. Ayers

Click on these links to register for the sessions you can attend! All sessions will be at the Midwest Genealogy Center.
 
Imagining War on Sunday, March 4th at 2:00 p.m.

• Geraldine Brooks, March
• Part One of America’s War

Choosing Sides on Sunday, March 18th at 2:00 p.m.
 
Selections from the anthology:

• Frederick Douglass, "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?" [1852];
• Henry David Thoreau, "A Plea for Captain John Brown" [1859];
• Abraham Lincoln, First Inaugural Address [March 4, 1861];
• Alexander H. Stephens, "Cornerstone" speech [March 21, 1861];
• Robert Montague, Secessionist speech at Virginia secession convention [April 1-2, 1861];
• Chapman Stuart, Unionist speech at Virginia secession convention [April 5, 1861];
• Elizabeth Brown Pryor, excerpt from Reading the Man: A Portrait of Robert E. Lee Through his Private Letters [2007];
• Mark Twain, "The Private History of a Campaign That Failed" [1885]; and
• Sarah Morgan, excerpt from The Diary of a Southern Woman [May 9, May 17, 1862].

Shiloh on Sunday, March 25th at 2:00 p.m.

Selections from the anthology:

• Ambrose Bierce, "What I Saw of Shiloh" [1881];
• Ulysses Grant, excerpt from The Memoirs [1885];
• Shelby Foote, excerpt from Shiloh [1952];
• Bobbie Ann Mason, "Shiloh" [1982]; and
• General Braxton Bragg, speech to the Army of the Mississippi [May 3, 1862].

The Shape of War on Sunday, April 15th at 2:00 p.m.

• James M. McPherson, Crossroad of Freedom: Antietam 

War and Freedom on Sunday, April 29th at 2:00 p.m.

Selections from the anthology:

• Abraham Lincoln, address on colonization [1862];
• John M. Washington, "Memorys [sic] of the Past" [1873];
• Frederick Douglass, "Men of Color, To Arms!" [March 1863];
• Abraham Lincoln, letters to James C. Conkling [1863] and Albert G. Hodges [1864];
• Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg Address [1863];
• James S. Brisbin, report on U.S. Colored Cavalry in Virginia [Oct. 2, 1864];
• Colored Citizens of Nashville, Tennessee, Petition to the Union Convention of Tennessee Assembled in the Capitol at Nashville [January 9, 1865];
• Margaret Walker, excerpt from Jubilee [1966];
• Leon Litwack, excerpt from Been in the Storm So Long [1979]; and
• Abraham Lincoln, Second Inaugural Address, 1865.

Marlena Boggs
Grant Writer