Let’s Talk About It: Understanding the American Civil War.
GRU University Libraries third meeting of the Let’s Talk About It: Understanding the American Civil War book discussion series will take place on March 15, 2014 at 10:30 a.m.-11:30 a.m. on the second floor of the Summerville Campus Reese Library. An additional event to commemorate the Civil War Sesquicentennial, A Concert of Civil War Music, directed by GRU’s own Dr. William Hobbins, will follow at 2:00 p.m. in the JSAC Ballroom on the Summerville Campus.
The third discussion will cover James M. McPherson’s Crossroads of Freedom, a masterful account of the pivotal Battle of Antietam, the events that led up to it, and its aftermath. McPherson (one of America’s most eminent Civil War historians) brilliantly weaves strands of diplomatic, political, and military history into a compact, swift-moving narrative. The book documents why America’s bloodiest one-day battle secured the survival of the nation thereby restoring morale in the North, solidifying Republican control of Congress, crushing Confederate hopes of British intervention, and freeing Lincoln to deliver the Emancipation Proclamation, which instantly changed the character of the war.
Discussion will be led by GRU professor and head of History, Anthropology and Philosophy, Hubert van Tuyll. The list of readings can be found on the series website http://guides.gru.edu/LetsTalk. All events for Let’s Talk About It: Understanding the American Civil War are free and open to the public. Participants can still check out book sets from Reese Library during normal operating hours. Funding to support this series is provided by the Georgia Humanities Council. For more information, visit the GRU Libraries Presents Let’s Talk About It: Making Sense of the American Civil War web page at http://guides.gru.edu/LetsTalk , send an email to spcoll@gru.edu, or call 706-667-4904.
