James McPherson, a noted American Civil War historian who won the Pulitzer Prize for Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era, will deliver a public lecture at Vanderbilt University on May 2.
McPherson’s talk, which will be at 4:30 p.m. in Ingram Hall, is titled “When Will This Cruel War Be Over? The Failure of Peace Negotiations, 1864-1865.” He will discuss the inability to negotiate a peaceful end to the Civil War during its final months. He contends that the war aims of each side were non-negotiable, so the conflict only ended with an unqualified victory by one of the opposing sides.
Gary Gerstle, the James Stahlman Professor of History at Vanderbilt and a co-author with McPherson of the U.S. history textbook Liberty, Equality, Power, calls McPherson “a national treasure who knows more and understands more about the Civil War and its legacy than anyone else living in the United States today.” Gerstle also said that McPherson is that rare historian whose work has been widely read and celebrated both by university scholars and the general reading public.
McPherson is the George Henry Davis ’86 Professor Emeritus of United States History at Princeton University. In 2000 he was named the Jefferson Lecturer in the Humanities by the National Endowment for the Humanities. His other books include The Abolitionist Legacy, From Reconstruction to the NAACP; Abraham Lincoln and the Second American Revolution; and The Struggle for Equality, which received the Anisfield-Wolf Award from the Cleveland Foundation for its contributions to society’s understanding of racism and the appreciation of diversity of cultures. In 2003 he served as president of the American Historical Association.
Battle Cry of Freedom is credited with helping generate a national resurgence of interest in the Civil War, and McPherson believes that some of the issues that caused the war remain timely today, such as regionalism and the proper role of the federal government in people’s lives. Copies of Battle Cry of Freedom will be available for purchase in Ingram Hall prior to McPherson’s lecture. There will be a book-signing and reception at 5:30 p.m. in the Ingram Hall lobby.
McPherson’s talk, which is free and open to the public, is sponsored by the Jean and Alexander Heard Library through the Harris D. Riley Jr. Civil War Heritage Endowment.
Riley, who received his bachelor’s and medical degrees from Vanderbilt, is a professor of pediatrics, emeritus. He has a long-time interest in the chronicles of the Civil War and his family recently established an endowed library fund in his honor. The fund is dedicated to encouraging study of the American Civil War. Riley, a former Vanderbilt Board of Trust member and past president of the Alumni Association, has donated more than 600 books and magazines about the Civil War to Special Collections, including an 1868 copy of The Campaign of Lt. Gen. N.B. Forrest and the 71-volume Official Records of Union and Confederates Armies and Navies.
In connection with McPherson’s lecture, Vanderbilt University Special Collections will exhibit Civil War materials from a number of its holdings. Diaries written by soldiers, books on the Civil War, original maps, Confederate orders and telegrams and items such as tent stakes, sword and Colt .45 pistol are included.
Collections from which items will be displayed include those of Riley, Mary Margaret and John L. Farringer Jr., Stanley F. Horn and also the James G. Stahlman Papers.
For more information on the lecture and exhibit, call Special Collections at 615-322-2807.
Media Contact: Ann Marie Deer Owens, 615-322-NEWS
annmarie.owens@vanderbilt.edu