changed in interpretation. the gettysburg college civil war institute provided the video for this event. toso, beth i would like start by getting a feel for what led you to civil war history and the career path you have taken. beth: that is a good question. most people when you ask them that question who are in this field have these glowing nostalgic memories of being taken to the battlefield as children and that is not my story. my family visited some historic sites but not really, not that many. for us, or for me, it was when i got to high school and was considering a lot of careers in science and engineering, but realized what i really loved was history. i just happened to -- i was boarding class one day because i bored my book -- i was in class one day because i forgot my book. i picked book off the shelf. the teacher also taught a civil war class. the people i read about were fascinating. that is what fascinated me, these people who were dealing with the most cataclysmic moments of their lives and in some ways, the nation's life, trying to figure out how to navigate the situation and they were just far enough away to be strange and just close enough to be very smelly or -- very familiar at the same time. peter: so you get to chancellorsville, fredericksburg temporary historian, now is a permanent historian. can you tell us what you did they are, not in terms of accomplishments, but what does it mean to be a park interpreter/in -- interpreter/historian? than it's more paperwork people expect, but we are the federal government. involves managing volunteers, getting to work alongside very passionate volunteers every day, help visitors figure out where they want to go and how they want to spend their day, daily programs, especially special programs, because that allows us to do more research and dig into stories. untilat spotsylvania 2019, which means i was therefore their 150th anniversary commemoration. also the national park service centennial. i led up to a seven hour battlefield hike in spotsylvania. it is everything from short 35 minute programs every day with the visitors to all day hikes. peter: so your favorite tour and why? beth: favorite tour of all time? peter: i'm not talking about a specific time or date. you have got for battlefields at fredericksburg and spotsylvania. you have the jackson shrine, which has been renamed. beth: the jackson death site. you are asking me to choose between my favorite children. peter: you have to. beth: my favorite topic wise, spotsylvania. of the normal tours, my favorite is fredericksburg. group,ally have a larger so you have more discussion. >> the story of fredericksburg is one that i think for most visitors is one of cynicism, cynicism that the war effort was angled from the beginning, that these men died in vain -- bungled from the beginning, that these men died in vain. the battlefield is almost entirely gone to development. it doesn't really look like a battlefield. the story itself is not one that is life-affirming. how do you deal with that, visitors who walk away from isdericksburg and say "this further evidence of a northern war effort that was horribly misguided and resulted in the slaughter of men"? beth: that is a lot to come up against, pete. nott of our visitors were that knowledgeable about fredericksburg. thinkid not come in and on that nuanced of a level, but a tropethem did no -- from an interpreter, but usually you break down those barriers. it all started with sideburns as many things do. that little find everyonevel ground -- immediately, there is that one person in the crowd who is too shy to say anything, kind of rubbing their face and you say "that is right, he is best known for his sideburns!" that probably doesn't mean he was a very good general, does it? can going into what here is what he is thinking at fredericksburg, here are the pressures he is facing from command. once you bring in these other factors, people start to see it from burnside's point of view. once you level things out, people get into more of a learning zone. is askingsion for me a lot of questions that they could dig into as well, giving people enough information and then saying "what do you think?" the questions i asked in my program was complete union disaster, battle is over, burnside's next campaign attempt fails. should abraham lincoln sign the emancipation proclamation? remember there is a larger war going on here. it is not just the slaughter at fredericksburg or what is to come at chancellorsville. there is more to talk about. that gets people to think in broader terms. they cannot just walk away dismissive of the battle or dismissive of burnside because war continues, even if it seems like just a complete disaster. there are pieces to be drawn from this. monument, beautiful would you tell the story about kirkland and your take on that story and how you handled that monument, which for those of you who have not been to fredericksburg, is right on the stonewall, and right below the stonewall is the open ground that led up to the ridge the union soldiers attacked over. beth: kirkland is a fascinating story. as the story comes to us, the short version being that in the aftermath of the battle of fredericksburg there are untold union wounded left out on the plane in front of the town. behind the stonewall you have sergeant richard kirkland, who is listening to the cries of the wounded and he goes to ask his commanding officer if he can take water, other things out to the wounded. he finally gets permission to go across. to take a white flag. he gathers up a bunch of canteens and starts giving water to the wounded soldiers. there is now a monument to kirkland. it is beautiful. a very remarkable monument, statue, but there are some challenges. kirkland died. we cannot ask him if that happens. his story resurfaces any years later. there's is not much corroborating evidence. there is a some. we can say with some certainty there was a confederate or more than one confederate who assisted union soldiers wounded out in the fields, but we are not for certain it was kirkland. it can be a little problematic. in thededicated centennial. an era of good feeling encouraging brotherhood between the two sides. "we were all soldiers and it was ok in the end." on some days i was not feeling kirkland at all. sometimes i finish there and say there are more important things to talk about. howre going to talk about humanity can transcend the battlefield, but when you are talking about a battlefields where a person could walk from one end to the other without touching a blade of grass, humanity is in what you want to talk about. -- isn't what you want to talk about. it is up to you to decide what you want to believe. if you decide -- if you want to see kirkland as someone who is representative, it is not for me to tell you what to make of this monument, but i want to encourage people to think more deeply about that monument and all monuments. all monuments tell us a story about what people wanted to tell us, not necessarily the stories -- story people want today. as an interpreter at fredericksburg when i was in college, i gave many a walk along the sunken road. i incorporated that story without ever challenging the visitors to think critically about it. that monument of kirkland cradling a wounded union soldier and giving that soldier water is the kind of feel-good story, a bedtime story that americans want. you will hear it here first -- when i retire from this position, i am going back to fredericksburg, i will volunteer, if they let me. i have to make amends. i will point to that monument and i will yell "bedtime story! that's what people want and it is an absurdity!" want to see the civil war. there was zero joy -- i am reminded of gods and generals, movie full of all kinds of absurdities, but one of the most ridiculous moments is the confederate irish soldier should -- crying as he shot down members of the irish brigade. beth: there are some quotations that have confederates feeling badly or expressing they feel badly for shooting brave men, but i not believe it stop them, which i think is an important thing to note. there were others who were like we will kill every genki you put in front of me. put in frontee you of me. peter: there was a south carolinian that stood up and said -- north carolinian that again sargonhem up shoot them"o i can i think that has changed. john, you might have some questions about chancellor's -- chancellorsville. interpretations there have changed radically since my day. john: you laid the groundwork. peter: i was one of yours -- beth: i was one of your students, so i know how it goes. peter: i don't see a copy of my book behind you on your shelves. beth: it is over here. peter: buried! beth: it is top shelf. my top shelf is really a middle shelf, but it is literally top shelf. peter: good. you have made amends. you want to take it every hair, john? -- take it over here john? john: shout out to beth because i found out she is a beaker fan from the muppets. absolutely! transitionas your from interpretation going from chancellorsville to appomattox? how did that work for you personally? beth: very interesting. ,redericksburg and spotsylvania for anyone who does not know, has the battlefield for spans froma, -- it to 1864.862 logically ontoty april of 1865. the armies were barely recognizable. it was a big shift to me to go through -- to go from the armies that i knew to these almost brand-new fighting forces. it was a big shift in terms of understanding the armies. a big shift as well from battlefield interpretation culture to a at appomattox we theerve and reconstruct village. story ona military april 9, april 8. there is a different kind of story. atre is a different air appomattox. people come to hear about the surrender more than they do to hear about the battle. there is a shift in terms of subject matter. were just talking about the kirkland monument into this how of what how we have -- what we have perceived about the civil war in the past, and at appomattox i would think there would be this same kind of mythology hanging out in a different capacity. is that true? beth: there is a lot of it and it is something that we are always coming up against. when you drive into appomattox thety, you read "where nation was reunited." not really! one of the first history books i is what my dads grew up with. fantastic. except, if you read it, you will come away with a very different impression of appomattox than necessarily what we would want you to walk away with today. it is one that focuses very much on stability. interestingly, it hyper focuses on what each general is wearing. on how thecus gentleman is reflected in his clothing versus the harsh rebel grant shows up in his mud spattered boots. it tells us that -- us something about the character of each of them. it is a story that generally ends april 9 with lee's dramatic farewell address. all of these things that helped build the lost cause. they did not really look at april 9 as the beginning of the end and to the beginning of reconstruction, the beginning of the emancipation, the beginning of the surrenders of the major confederate armies. it is a turning point instead of the end. it also shows some shifting minds. at appomattox, citizens around the turn-of-the-century -- in the early efforts to establish parks and memorials, the southern people here were quick to remind everybody that in fact we were so keen on remembering it that way, thank you very much. a lot of things were lost that day. "theays we think of it as nation is coming back together!" let's talk about one of those complications. you mentioned emancipation, which obviously did not begin with appomattox. it was an ongoing process. it is oftenect -- perceived by people that when lee and grant shook hands, that resolve the war in a tidy fashion. scholars and public historians now see this as part of an ongoing story. here we go -- there is a challenge here. there is a challenge at all these historic sites to bring in the african-american story. terms ofroblem in sources, it is a problem in terms of the site, it is a problem in terms of visitors. no problems in this world, john, i forgot. only challenges. it tell us what the challenges are about the interpretation of african-american history at appomattox? beth: we should see it more as an opportunity to fix something we have not done very well in the past. i think it starts if you go very -- back to the founding of the park. appomattox was founded during the 1960's. it is a segregated park like all parks in virginia were at that time. problem,your first which is actually a problem. straight out of the gate we have got a problem. sources,he scarcity of which is in some ways everywhere, but one of the lovely things about being a community as opposed to a devastated battlefield where there are so many people who lived in the area and ran away and it is hard to track what they did, emancipation, which is a process, it did not begin in appomattox, but in appomattox, this area, the people did not have the chance to run to union lines. it grants arrival, lee's surrender spark that movement -- arrival, lee's surrender sparked that movement. wta narratives, we have records to work with, so there are sources, just not sources we traditionally mine. if you want to know the movement of an individual unit, we have a record that can tell us a lot in detail. we are still working on knowing the exact number of displaced people who belong to to any given place holder in appomattox at any given time. that there is a lot that we do not know, but there is a lot we do know that we can build on. i think a lot of it is shifting that culture. less focus on what the generals were wearing, little more on what does this matter and what are the opportunities and challenges of reconstruction? i will just say that the change in interpretive approach is truly revolutionary. i told you this was going to be ofut me -- in the summer a85, my very first job at park was to portray corporal bobby fields. we had to do first person interpretation for our audience. i had to pretend it was the summer of 19 -- 1865. inlds did provost to duty appomattox, so there is an abundance of records. mark green now, who is the curator of the richmond, virginia capital museum did incredible research and made it available to us. i did notars old, have the historiography and i had to pretend it was 1865 and in the source material in which the freedmen's bureau complained bitterly about free people, former slaves, african-americans, complained bitterly that they would not work. here is the problem of first person interpretation. this is a serious one. public historians like myself did not know the historiography, did not know the context. had to pretend it was 1865. visitors would say "we are struggling to get black people to work here." historically, they did not want to work on the terms of their former landowners into those terms were coercive and of course terms that led to their impoverishment. these were african-americans who were playing -- they wanted to play the free-market game, but those of course who owned the capital into land did not want to play by those rules. it is too bad that when i was there that i did not have that. i had some really good people i worked with, but they were all very much centered thin that that 1960'sthin interpretation. i have two students i can think of off the top of my head that have worked at appomattox. he both came back to gettysburg college and told me about programs in which -- they both came back to gettysburg college and it told me about programs in which stories about african americans were right in the wheelhouse. for those people to say again quote please do not change -- to change," --t beth: among my staff this week we have been talking about telling these stories and telling different stories. i hope at least to some of your students were telling the story of john robinson, who did a lot to embody the story of reconstruction. he lived within a village, the home he purchased. he founded the first african-american church in appomattox. he registered to vote right off the bat. even though we have very little he said himself, we can still construct around that to say he registered to vote -- do you know what it took to register to vote? .e sent his students to school the first african-american school was built up the road. arean the park, within the we talked about. that school was threatened by klan.an -- by htethe ande are opportunities there are things that can go wrong if you take advantage of those opportunities. that it is ak powerful response for anyone who claims to appomattox and claims that the war was a great tragedy and it did not respond in any profound consequences or changes. robinson got to vote. these are all things -- i am not trying to suggest that for african-americans that their initiation into citizenship was complete. no one is suggesting that, but you pointed out that is something that is right on the ground. beth: absolutely. is one of theat greater challenges to deal with? "eit that idea of how it nded"? is it that once in a while you have visitors who truly believe the way we thought a bit in the 1960's when lost because initiatives were in history books across the country? are those the hardest challenges you face or is it something else as an interpreter? things. is a couple it is trying to get our visitors to stay longer and invest in the park. a lot of visitors if they come to appomattox, one of the beautiful things about being in the middle of nowhere is people come to appomattox because they mean to. it means something to them. a lot of our visitors -- part of what i love is they find a peaceful atmosphere and they find that reflects what they think happened trade part of it is complicating it. some people do not think about robert ely backed into a corner before he had to -- robert e. lee backed into a corner before he had to surrender. he is trapped. story ofo expand the the surrender, so let's understand the terms. let's understand what they mean, what their implications are for soldiers across the south end for the nation at large, how lee responds. throughout those farewell orders that say -- those farewell orders that says a lot about what many come to believe. lostys the seeds of the cause are already sown everywhere. we are often coming up against all of these preconceived notions about appomattox and what it means. some of it is adding to the story, helping people understand this is in some ways the beginning, not the end. we are pivoting toward what this country will become after appomattox. peter: you said that so nicely. i know you weren't at appomattox during the 150th, but what appomattox did is something john and i have talked about on numerous occasions. in fact, we devoted an entire show to the relationship between public historians and academic historians. i think that he and i both believe that for the most part, , we are truly allies. we are partners in this enterprise. the 150th at appomattox revealed that. i am interested in the on 150th, and i'm especially interested in the ways, your predecessor, i believe, was a big part of this. how you were able to connect to the african-american community at appomattox. bernie, who i have immense respect for, did a lot of the background work that is required. even though there is a fair amount of african-americans who leave appomattox county after the war, their wages being a big part of why and other complicated factors, there is still a vibrant african-american community here. because we started out as a segregated park, because there were interpretations related to the lost cause for such a long time, i think the park has not historically been a place the african-american community felt welcome in. started thernie outreach to them. he did a lot to reach out to a local museum talking about civil rights, deeply involved with the african-american community. he went to speak to the church that john robinson helped found in appomattox and started working with the local african-american community. there's a prominent pastor in the community who does a lot with african-american history. you worked with -- he worked with al. he started to talk to them about, what would be a good and commemoration? he wanted to talk about what this meant, what were the reverberations outward? he was able to settle on the story of connor reynolds. she was an enslaved woman. they found that they thought she died almost immediately, but she was treated and didn't die for another three days, which is a serious distinction. as aneans she was wounded enslaved person and she died a free woman. even though she may not have been, who knows how conscious she was, but it is still pretty powerful. they took her story and gave her a funeral as part of the 150th commemoration. it was one of the cornerstone programs of the entire commemoration. they won an award for it. i think it was because he put in a lot of late nights. he did a lot of networking with communities. what programs would you like -- what would represent well for the african-american community? representation at large is important. it's not enough for me to say, i think we should talk about the african-american story. we need to have african-american perspectives at the table. ernie did a lot to make sure that happened. it is a remarkable accomplishment, and i suspect there are parks engaged in similar outreach, but the appomattox one really stands out. during this ceremony, i remember he spoke and other academics. everybody working together and bringing, as you mentioned, stakeholders, shareholders and the park together, it's pretty remarkable. i'm a visitor at the park. i come to you, and you tell me the civil war was a revolution, and you point to mr. robinson and say, that young man is a slave. he got the right to vote, and you point out to me, those enslaved people, they are now workers and not being treated fairly. do not tell me this is a revolution. surrendered, they did not hang him from an apple tree. the apple tree he was supposedly , thosea nap under confederate soldiers had to go through a formal surrender process, but they were allowed a go home with a past -- with pass to say federal authorities cannot molest them as long as they did not take up arms against the united states. those terms seem to be fairly generous, for the most part. finally, we will go back to lee's farewell address. i think you played that too soft. that is a chilling address. the language is beautiful, but what that language says is, you are not defeated. you were worn down. we never lost on the battlefield, and our sacrifice that you made, it is one you should take pride and honor in. lee did in that dress is more than the lost cause. it said to his men, carry on the struggle, boys. you are going to tell me that this is a revolution? as a visitor, i need to understand how you can make that argument. beth: that's a really great point. if you came to me as a visitor and said that, i would start asking you a series of questions. i want you to figure it out yourself. i would start with questions like, do you think the terms were appropriate? do you think -- what should have robert e. lee have said to his men? what if the union had been tougher on confederates? how do you think this would've played out? that's not to avoid your question, but to say, we don't know. we do not know what would have happened. i can tell you that reconstruction was abysmal. even tell you in detail why. i can also tell you in some ways it succeeded. for john robinson, is he better off than he was before? is that a great measure? his life could have been better if you have been able to get land from former slaveholders. are there limitations? absolutely. aren't there limitations to all revolutions? did the terms go far enough? who am i to say? i don't know. i can tell you that for every , john robinson, there's a multitude of people who had nowhere near the options that he had. you could easily say it didn't go far enough and that promises of freedom were broken for them. instead, they have to fight for what wages they can get while former slaveholders, landholders are fighting over how low they can get their wages and banding together to make sure that they stay low and no one out prices them. all of these systems start to get in place. what does that tell us? it tells us it is not a complete revolution. beth: i like your response a great deal. i attribute your response to the superb training you got. when you think in binaries as i try to pose it, one thing or the other that is problematic, , although i think there is a lot there to discuss and have a conversation about. i will let you have another whack. john: i actually have a question from our online audience. it is kind of interesting question, when we are talking about postwar stuff and how appomattox is seen and stuff like that. i don't know why i'm going out of focus. my shirt must be too loud on the screen. beth: we want to see more of ottawa. john: i guess so. how did the radical republicans respond to those terms when they heard about them? that is something that one person would love to know in the comments. we were just talking about were they too lenient, etc., etc. beth: i think i'm going to start to show some of my own limitations, because i am by no means a political historian. i try to weave it in as best i can, but it is my least favorite thing. from what i can tell, the radical republicans took a much more unhappy approach. my guess would be that they were probably not thrilled with the generous terms, but i do not know. that is a good question. --n: beth: -- peter: they didn't think in a unified way. the second point is a recognition that there is a military victory that has been achieved. how do you preserve that military victory? a recognition among released some radical republicans that if you go easy you might then stop the continuation of warfare in another form. i think they quickly become disenchanted with andrew johnson, and we don't need to go down that rabbit hole. it is hard to come down hard on grant and sherman because everyone knew that those policies were done in consultation with abe lincoln. you've got a martyr president. it doesn't make for good politics to criticize a martyr president. it did not take much before they got frustrated with that. i have one more question, but do we have anymore questions from our audience? i do not want to deprive them. they can come to appomattox and ask you in person. john: i do have a confession. i have never been to appomattox. john. john: i've been to so many eastern front battlefields. i've never been to appomattox. beth: you haven't even seen the war. peter: it's ok. you've been to ottawa. that makes up for it. come on down anytime. peter: after this pandemic is over, we should do a live show down there. john: i said i wanted to bring some folding chairs. peter: just take bug spray. i don't like bugs. beth: we will sit on the porch. that is up a bit from the bugs. peter: talk to us about what it means to be a woman historian practicing civil war history in particular. again, i can't say the word problems. i cannot say challenges. i will say opportunity. i know there are challenges. i know there are problems. how is it change over time? very quickly, beth also received from the dallas civil war an award. it is quite an honor. they love you in dallas. i gave a talk down there. all they can do is rave about you. i love them, too. they are a fantastic and thoughtful group. i love speaking to roundtables in general because they are all so much fun. i have to ask you, what was it like to be a man in the civil war field? peter: it certainly has changed and almost all for the better. when i was a seasonal historian, it was almost impossible to find a woman to apply for these jobs. they were just not there. it was a problem. there is no challenge being a man and practicing civil war history, although i will speak broadly, i think there are times as men i am to say something for fear that i will be labeled a racist or sexist. for example, i told you about when i was 19. i took sources literally. i spoke about the african-american experience in first person. i'm nervous about saying that. i'm nervous that in today's social media world, someone will extract that point and say, look what pete carmichael did. i think twitter has created monsters out of many of our colleagues who i love at a conference, love face-to-face conversations with them but on , twitter, they are unrecognizable to me. i am always nervous now to be perceived as being sexist or racist in some of my comments that i do not think are. for me personally, maybe that is a good thing that i am more aware of what i am saying so it won't be misconstrued. beth: sure. it helps to be mindful. i will take the bait. for me, i didn't always feel this way, to me, the greatest lesson of being a woman practicing a look history world is that representation matters. i mentioned that once, and i didn't always think that way. when i first started out my , colleagues and coworkers were so supportive of me. even the occasional visitor who seemed not to know what to do with me -- i won't even start on some of the things people have said to me. peter: people should hear it. what are some of the things? beth: one of the most prominent ones that comes to mind was actually not saying anything to me. i watched people queue up in line to speak to the intern who happened to be male who was next to me, whereas being in full uniform being the building waveervisor was trying to people over, please talk to me. i'm like, i promise. i know what i'm talking about. after a 20-minute conversation with the same person that i had to wave over, as soon my male intern colleague finished, he asked him the next question that he had. i have visitors who don't seem to think that i want to be working where i'm working. i've had visitors who have walked in and said that they think -- they are convinced that they know more about this than i do, and here's why. you've probably never heard of general barksdale. i promise you i have. you may know more than i do. i do not know. a lot of those sorts of things. mostly, people who just don't know or think i only talk about women's topics, that sort of thing. what i think meant the most to field, woman in the brush it off they will figure it , out or they won't, that i know what i'm talking about. what really stuck with me was leading an education group. these are third or fourth grade kids. i don't lead a lot of groups, it is not my specialty, but occasionally. we are walking down the road and , i'm getting these questions. i realized that each of them was from a small female child. i suddenly looked down, and i am ringed by these young girls. everywhere. that is not what anybody expects to see on the battlefield, a female ranger leading a battle walk with six girls all around her. leaving their boy comrades in the dost. that to me was it. we have more a more every year more and more female interns. starting and they are to move into the ranks permanent. i still see a lot of feelings persisting that we don't know what we are talking about and we only study women, and it hurts. i want to those little girls to think that what they think is true, that anybody can do this. i've got a place up there. so representation matters. there's a lot of us out there. just look for us. peter: i remember -- john: now it is pete's turn to freeze up. he will come back. there he is. peter: she said, i come here for my son. i said, you know, should come for your daughter, as well. it is not just for boys. beth: we can also be interested. i think that's why i think it is always important, whether you are doing facebook live or a conference or a battlefield tour. make sure women and people of color are involved. the more young people and the more old people that can see that we are out there that , realize, hey, i can be competent, too. john: some of the coolest civil war historians right now are women anyway. there's a lot of great women authors out there, and that's, -- we are overlooking many of the women are in the field literally. we can look at the top down and see that women are making a big impact on the field. for me personally, i can't wait for the day where i the only am white male on a panel. that will be the norm. peter: i'm going to be hopelessly naive, and i can't wait for the day that that stuff doesn't matter so much. i'm hoping for the day we judge a historian for what they have to say. one could say that is hopelessly naive. i am guilty as charged. there are more women in the field of public history than men. again with ourng intern program replace nearly 30 students. i would say more than 50% are women. we just have to reach out to everyone. we can't forget poor people. i don't care what their color is or what their gender is. i care about the people in central pa who live 30 miles from here and never get to this battlefield. i care about the latino population in adams county that never gets to the battlefield. i care about the people in baltimore. there's one thing that unites them. they are poor. i'm hoping our field will get more sensitive to the class realities. there are a lot of people making up the ranks. they go to research one schools, they are almost ivy league and , that is where the privilege resides. it is the ivy league schools. that is where it resides. i just want to say including thing about beth. how i feel being a part of her intellectual, educational life any book i will ever write, period, to know that beth is going to be out there, and already she's working with my students, it makes me feel old as hell. that you are a teacher to my students just doesn't feel right to me. -- other thing i want to see say is beth gives some great talks. she does a fantastic talk on stonewall jackson. beth: if you are bringing up the famous last map, my argument is entirely that it was done late on april 30 or early may 1. peter: i was listening. i just didn't buy your argument. beth: bring it. we can talk about how awesome female historians are. let's battle royale. peter: hey, it's such a pleasure to have you here. thank you for all you are doing, especially during this time of the pandemic and getting appomattox ready for the summer season. i am excited that my students are going to be down there in some form still working with the american people. john: i'm looking forward to my first day at appomattox, too. and to meet you in person. beth: absolutely. just let us know when you are coming. we will roll out the red carpet. john: you don't have to do that. beth: we can do the red and green checkered carpet. how's that? john: that is fine. that is good. we will do that. thank you for being on. it's been awesome. i'm glad to hear all the interpretation is going well, and i've always said a great site is run by a great chief of interpretation. beth: thank you so much. you are watching american history tv all weekend every weekend on c-span three. to join the conversation, like us on facebook at c-span history . >> thomas brown is the author of "civil war monuments and the militarization of america." up next, he discusses his book with the coeditors of the journal of the civil war era. they examined the artistic, social, and political movements that influence civil war monument designs especially the , desire to celebrate the experience and sacrifice of the common soldier. the journal of the civil war era hosted this event and provided the video. gregory: thank you all for coming. we have been delighted about this and particularly delighted by our guest today, dr. thomas brown, a professor at the university of south carolina and member of the history faculty there. and the author of three standalone works, dorothea dix reformer, and most recently, "civil war monuments and the militarization of america," which won the book award from

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