Meaning of the American Civil War

Civil War Ruins of Charleston, South Carolina

Watch video of the Feb. 2, 2011 Thinking Out of the Lunch Box event, "What Is the Meaning of the American Civil War on Its 150th Anniversary?" featuring Michael Kreyling, Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Professor of English, and Richard Blackett, Andrew Jackson Professor of History.

Robert Penn Warren wrote his book The Legacy of the Civil War on the War's centennial in 1961. This discussion looks at what has changed in the perception of the war in the 50 years that follow: the personality and stature of Warren as writer and critic of American culture; whether the War was about slavery or states' rights; what is the use of remembering the War in our hard economic times; how the War belongs differently to Yankees and Rebels, men and women, African Americans and whites; why some people refer to it as the defining experience of American identity; and what is the optimal way to commemorate the War on its sesquicentennial.


"What Is the Meaning of the American Civil War on Its 150th Anniversary?"