Stephen Ash: “William G. Brownlow, Saint or Sinner? A Fresh Look at one of Tennessee’s Most Controversial Civil War Figures”

Watch video of Stephen Ash discussing “William G. Brownlow, Saint or Sinner? A Fresh Look at one of Tennessee’s Most Controversial Civil War Figures” April 21.

Ash, professor of history at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, is author of The Black Experience in the Civil War South and Firebrand of Liberty: The Story of Two Black Regiments That Changed the Course of the Civil War. Ash’s research primarily focuses on the U.S. Civil War and Reconstruction, Southern history and Tennessee history.

U.S. Civil War scholars from across the nation will speak at Vanderbilt University this spring on a variety of themes, including the war’s impact on Nashville, during a series of public lectures. The talks, sponsored by the university’s College of Arts and Science, take place during the 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War and the presidential inauguration of Abraham Lincoln. The lectures are in conjunction with an interdisciplinary undergraduate course on the Civil War co-taught by Richard Blackett, the Andrew Jackson Professor of History, and Michael Kreyling, the Gertrude Conway Vanderbilt Professor of English.