Heres how the structure is going to work. Im going to give very brief introductions for the poor people who are sitting here at the table with me, and i will do all of them at once. And then im going to go in the order in which the images are going to appear and have each of our Panel Members talk about why they decided to be part of this project and why they selected the image that they selected. And they will talk for a little while about the image and then well see where the conversation goes after that and at the end, youre going to be able to have some questions. Very briefly, let me introduce everybody up. I will start with Carol Reardon was a professor of American History at penn State University. We tossed together for a long time. Shes the author of one of the first important books on civil war memory, especially the military side of it in many ways. Hand, therd in one problem of military thought in the civil war north. And she is a coauthor with tom mosler of two field guideb
This is a panel on the book civil war places. We have a couple copies up here that people will be thumbing through. And were going to have something very unusual for me, were going to have a screen behind us. He is smiling because i dont do anything this venturesome. To have actual images of when i give a talk. This is something of a departure for me. Heres how the structure is going to work. Im going give very brief introductions for the four people who are sitting here at the table with me and ill do all of them at once. And then im going to go in the order in which these images are going to appear and have each of our Panel Members talk about why they decided to be part of this project. And why they selected the image that they selected. Theyll talk for a little while about the image and then well see where the conversation goes after that. Youll be able to have questions. Let me introduce everybody up here. Ill start with carol riordan, the professor of American History at penn sta
Here we are, finally at the end, where were going to focus on memory for our last class. Theres no better event in United States history to talk about how powerful contending memories of something that happened in the past can be. Theres simply nothing remotely equal to it i think in the civil war, passions get up quickly when people remember the civil war, and then watching that in charlottesville in the last year and a half in the debates over the equestrian statue of r. E. Lee. Well talk at the end when i get to the war today about some of the resonances of the war in our current american situation and the ways in which the different streams of memory put in places by the wartime generation, either do or do not remain with us now. My real focus today is going to be on how the wartime generation remembered the war. And im going to focus on four great interpretive traditions that came out of the wartime generation, thrived for many decades thereafter, and in differing degrees continue
Coming up next, a conference on the end of the civil war. Historians discussed the postwar political and cultural environment in the north. The virginia secretary organized this event. Our topic is the union cause in the war and in the framework of how americans remembered it from the wartime generation and later. Everybody is awake. Matt, john, and joan are our panel this time around. The first question i want us to talk about is what union meant to the loyal citizenry during the war. About is what union meant to the loyal citizenry during the war. To begin, i would like all of you to discuss what loyal mea nt within the context of the u. S. Effort during the war. Joan i will start. One of the members of the audience came up to me and asked me to make sure there were more jokes in the session. [laughter] i will try. I think at a very basic level, i think these concepts are very tied together, Union Loyalty and sacrifice, patriotism, nationalism. It meant loyalty or country, loyal to t
Immediate post war era to today. This is about one hour and 15 minutes. Here we are for the last class this semester. Were going to move into the aftermath of the war, as you know. We spent all semester looking at various aspects of this conflict. Right from the beginning i alerted you one of the themes in this class was going to be the tension between history and memory. We talked about it on the first day of class. Have reiterated as weve gone along. Here we are finally at the end where were going to focus on memory for our last class. Theres no better event in the United States history to talk about how powerful contending memories of something that happened in the pass can be. Theres simply nothing remotely equal to it, i think, than the civil war. Passions get up quickly when people remember the civil war. Been watching that in charlottesville over the last year and a half in the debates over the statute the r. E. Lee downtown. Ill talk at the end, when i get to the war today, abo