Every year on November 19, the anniversary of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, Gettysburg College presents the Robert Fortenbaugh Memorial Lecture. This year the topic was “The Past, Present, and Future of the Civil War.” The panel was excellent with three speakers: Drew Gilpin Faust, former President of Harvard University, Pulitzer Prize-winning David Blight, and Stephanie McCurry of Columbia University. Prof. Jim Downs and Prof. Scott Hancock were the moderators. I was happy enough to travel to Gettysburg to listen to this. If you want to go next year, you just need to call the Majestic Theater and reserve a free ticket. They serve very good cakes afterwards for everyone!
The discussion ranged from the continued importance of the Gettysburg Address, during which Abraham Lincoln never used the word “I”, to the integration of the Civil War and Reconstruction Era. The excellent seminar discusses political, social, and military history of the period from the 1850s to the 1870s that you will enjoy. Below is the video.
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