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In honor of the sesquicentennial of the American Civil War our library
proudly presents a Vermont Humanities Council Reading and Discussion series
that looks at the Civil War years through fiction, non-fiction and primary
source material such as diaries, memoirs and letters in a program developed
by the American Library Association and the National Endowment for the
Humanities.
In an essay about the series, University of Richmond President,
Edward L. Ayers states, “Stories about the American Civil War have been told
in many forms. The readings selected give us a glimpse of the vast sweep and
profound breadth of American’s war among and against themselves. Each kind of story carries its own power
and its own limits. “
The discussion series will take place at the Grafton Public Library.
It is free, open to the public and accessible to people with disabilities.
All books listed are available on loan
at the library. Come to one session or come to all!
Imagining
War
The series begins in February as we enter the fictional world of
Pulitzer-prize winning author Geraldine Brook’s March.
She gives us a compelling, complex view of war through the voice of a
character in another novel: Little
Women. The war years of Mr. March, absent father in much of Little
Women, come vividly to life.
At the same time, in the anthology America’s
War, we read from the journal of Louisa May Alcott, the author of
Little
Women, as she describes her experiences as a nurse for the Union.
Choosing
Sides
We continue in February with selections from the anthology, America’s
War, allowing us to experience the world that Brooks imagines in
her novel, March,
but this time through the voices of people who lived during the war
years. We hear from Frederick
Douglass, Henry David Thoreau, Abraham Lincoln, Robert E. Lee, Mark Twain and
others representing both secessionist and unionist views.
Making
Sense of Shiloh
In our first session in March, we look at the Battle of Shiloh, to
understand what it meant to people of the time and what it still means to us.
Ambrose Bierce, Ulysses S. Grant, Shelby Foote, Bobbie Ann Mason and General
Braxton Bragg all speak to the horror of Shiloh in America’s
War anthology.
The
Shape of the War
Our second session in March examines Antietam
through historian James McPherson’s book Crossroads
of Freedom. As the title implies, McPherson believes this battle
was a turning point in the war. A counterview is provided with a reading from
historian Gary Gallagher in America’s
War. Then Drew Gilpin Faust ties it all together with a focus on
what death in war meant to communities and families in an excerpt from This
Republic of Suffering.
War
and Freedom
Our final session, in April, brings to life the great struggles and
complex nature of the sudden emancipation of four million people who had been
enslaved for more than two centuries. In selections from America’s
War, we read of Lincoln’s
early attempt to colonize freed blacks elsewhere and his later endorsement of
emancipation, of an escaped slave’s journey toward freedom in the midst of
war, of African American soldiers’ war experiences, and of tales of the coming of freedom and its impact.
Contact the library for more
information.
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