HISTORY

In recognition of the sesquicentennial of the American Civil War, Broward County Main Library presents a traveling exhibition; an exhibition of Civil War artifacts from collector Bob Matis; and a discussion and reading series with Civil War Historian Dr. Stephen Engle. Additional Main Library programs will enrich the discussion of the American Civil War, the deadliest war in American history. Professor Engle will explore the complex interplay between locality and loyalty that prompted the crisis, the changing nature of the Republic as a consequence of the war, and the enduring legacy of the Civil War on the generations that participated in the conflict and endured the Reconstruction that followed.

In collaboration with the traveling exhibition, the Broward County Main Library is hosting a five part reading and discussion series titled Let’s Talk about It: Making Sense of the American Civil War with Dr. Stephen Engle, Professor of History at Florida Atlantic University. Dr. Engle has written more than a dozen books on the history of the American Civil War. Let’s Talk about It: Making Sense of the American Civil War is made possible by a grant from the American Library Association (ALA) and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH).

The books that will be discussed in the series are:

March by Geraldine Brooks (Penguin, 2006)
Crossroads of Freedom: Antietam by James McPherson (Oxford University Press, 2002)
America’s War: Talking About the Civil War and Emancipation on Their 150th Anniversaries, an anthology of historical fiction, speeches, diaries, memoirs, biography, and short stories edited by national project scholar Edward L. Ayers and co-published by NEH and ALA.
 

The books may be borrowed from Broward County Library locations. Register for the series at 954-357-7443.

The program is designed as a series of five conversations that will be led by Civil War Historian Dr. Stephen Engle of Florida Atlantic University. The discussions will explore different facets of the Civil War experience, informed by reading the words written or uttered by powerful voices from the past and present.

“After 150 years noted poet and author Walt Whitman would be flattered that we are still trying to make sense of ‘"the real" Civil War that he argued,‘ "would never get in the books," ’said Dr. Engle.

Dates and topics for the program series are:

Wednesday, March 28 - 6 to 7:30 p.m. Imagining War Geraldine Brooks, March [2005]
Wednesday, April 4 - 6 to 7:30 p.m. Choosing Sides

Selections from the anthology:

Frederick Douglass, "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?" [1852];
Henry David Thoreau, "A Plea for Captain John Brown" [1859];
Abraham Lincoln, First Inaugural Address [March 4, 1861];
Alexander H. Stephens, "Cornerstone" speech [March 21, 1861];
Robert Montague, Secessionist speech at Virginia secession convention [April 1-2, 1861];
Chapman Stuart, Unionist speech at Virginia secession convention [April 5, 1861];
Elizabeth Brown Pryor, excerpt from Reading the Man: A Portrait of Robert E. Lee Through his Private Letters [2007];
Mark Twain, "The Private History of a Campaign That Failed" [1885]; and
Sarah Morgan, excerpt from The Diary of a Southern Woman [May 9, May 17, 1862]
Wednesday, April 11 – 6 to 7:30 p.m. Making Sense of Shiloh

Selections from the anthology:

Ambrose Bierce, "What I Saw of Shiloh" [1881];
Ulysses Grant, excerpt from the Memoirs [1885];
Shelby Foote, excerpt from Shiloh [1952];
Bobbie Ann Mason, "Shiloh" [1982]; and
General Braxton Bragg, speech to the Army of the Mississippi [May 3, 1862].
Ambrose Bierce, "What I Saw of Shiloh" [1881];
Ulysses Grant, excerpt from the Memoirs [1885];
Shelby Foote, excerpt from Shiloh [1952];
Bobbie Ann Mason, "Shiloh" [1982]; and
General Braxton Bragg, speech to the Army of the Mississippi [May 3, 1862].
Wednesday, April 18 – 6 to 7:30 p.m. The Shape of War

James M. McPherson, Crossroad of Freedom: Antietam [2002]

Wednesday, April 25 – 6 to 7:30 p.m. War and Freedom

Selections from the anthology:

Abraham Lincoln, address on colonization [1862];
John M. Washington, "Memory’s [sic] of the Past" [1873];
Frederick Douglass, "Men of Color, To Arms!" [March 1863];
Abraham Lincoln, letters to James C. Conkling [1863] and Albert G. Hodges [1864];
Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg Address [1863];
James S. Brisbin, report on U.S. Colored Cavalry in Virginia [Oct. 2, 1864];
Colored Citizens of Nashville, Tennessee, Petition to the Union Convention of Tennessee Assembled in the Capitol at Nashville [January 9, 1865];
Margaret Walker, excerpt from Jubilee [1966];
Leon Litwack, excerpt from Been in the Storm So Long [1979]; and
Abraham Lincoln, Second Inaugural Address, 1865.