Professor James McPherson, the nation’s leading Civil War Historian will give the keynote lecture at the College of Charleston’s “Civil War—Global Conflict” conference. The lecture is part of a three-day (March 3-5, 2011) conference that considers the war in a global context, and is the academic kickoff for a series of commemorative events marking the 150th anniversary of the Civil War. McPherson’s lecture entitled “Two Irreconcilable peoples? Ethnic Nationalism in the Confederacy” is free and open to the public on Friday March 4th, 2011 at 6:30 p.m. in the Stern Center Ballroom.
In addition to Professor McPherson, the conference also features three other free public keynote lectures in the Stern Student Center Ballroom. On March 3, 2011 at 12:00 p.m., Yale University Professor E.B. Rugemer will present “Some International Dimensions to the Coming of the Civil War.” Vanderbilt University Professor Richard Blackett will lecture on “A Duet with John Bull: African Americans and the Contest for British Support during the War” on Thursday March 3 at 7:00 p.m.. Ohio State University’s Joan Cashin, who recently published her biography of Varina Davis, will present “Southern History in Global Perspective: The Willingness to Forget” on Saturday March 5th at 1:30 p.m.
“The conference concludes with an event that promises to be of great local interest,” says Simon Lewis, associate director of CLAW (Carolina Lowcountry and the Atlantic World) at the College of Charleston. “Recent international media attention to the ‘Secession Ball’ indicates how fractious memory of the Civil War remains—especially in the South. We have convened an outstanding panel of experts in order to consider not just what we remember about the war, but what, why, and how we should remember.”
The panel will be chaired by CLAW director Vernon Burton, and will feature the following speakers: College of Charleston historians E. Lee Drago and Theodore (Ted) Rosengarten; National Trust for Historic Preservation program officer Joseph McGill; National Park Service Gullah/Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor coordinator Michael Allen; Duke University African and African-American Studies professor Thavolia Glymph; and the award-winning British historian and biographer Amanda Foreman. More information on each of these panelists.
Attending the full conference requires registration and a fee of $130. For more information about the conference, contact Simon Lewis at 843.953.1920 or lewiss@cofc.edu.
