The Council of Independent Colleges (CIC) and the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History selected Dr. Roger Chapman to participate in a special American history seminar on “The American Civil War: Origins and Consequences.”
Chapman is one of only 18 academics from across the nation who will participate in the seminar Aug. 1–5 in Charlottesville, Virginia. This will be the second CIC/Gilder Lehrman seminar for Chapman, who participated in one on the 20th Century Presidency, led by acclaimed author Robert Dallek, in 2017.
In announcing the selection of participants, CIC President Richard Ekman said, “Strengthening the teaching of American history at colleges and universities is of critical importance to maintaining informed citizen participation in a democracy. The Civil War has been used — and misused — to bolster contemporary arguments about conflict resolution, race and the role of America in the world. Participants in the seminar will be better prepared to teach a new generation of students how to understand major social and political issues of today in light of history, the different perspectives in different eras and recent debates over Civil War monuments and symbols. We believe that Dr. Chapman will play a strong role in the seminar.”
The seminar will be led by Dr. Gary W. Gallagher, John L. Nau III Professor in the History of the American Civil War Emeritus at the University of Virginia. Gallagher also is director of the John L. Nau Center for Civil War History. He authored numerous volumes on the Civil War, including Becoming Confederates: Paths to a New National Loyalty and The Union War, which received the Tom Watson Brown Book Award, the Dan and Marilyn Laney Prize and the Eugene Feit Award in Civil War Studies. Gallagher was founder and first president of the Association for the Preservation of Civil War Sites and has served on the board of directors of The Civil War Trust.
Seminar participants will assess the issues that divided the nation during the Civil War era and that continue to resonate today. This seminar will focus on the drama and tragedy of this tumultuous period, particularly the central role of slavery in precipitating sectional tensions and secession, the ways in which military and civilian affairs intersected and influenced one another, what the war left unresolved and how Americans have remembered the conflict.
The seminar is funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
