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View the Civil War
Institute Brochure (pdf)
The Civil War is the single most significant
event in all of U.S. history, and Americans continue to struggle to come to
terms with the Civil War's relationship to American politics, nationhood, and
race relations. Well over 65,000 books have been written on the subject
and new ones appear every year. There are Civil War Societies throughout
the world. Battlefield reenactments draw participants from many countries as
far away as Germany and Japan. The venerable statesman Sir Winston Churchill
wrote, "The American Civil War has given me my only two heroes: Abraham
Lincoln and Robert E. Lee." From 1861 through 1865, the Potomac
River divided the United Stated into two nations at war, making Virginia and
the Washington, D.C., area the center of the storm that ravaged and remade the
nation.
The Civil War Institute is a week-long special summer program designed to introduce
you to the key causes and consequences of the Civil War by exploring the remnants
and remembrances of the era that remain in the nation's capital. The institute
combines morning lectures with afternoon thematic study tours to important historical
sites in the D.C. area, providing students with a sense of history as it was
lived. Institute Co-Directors Alan Kraut, professor, Department of History,
and Ed Smith, professor of anthropology and Director of American Studies, in
the College of Arts and Sciences at American University, will lecture, lead
discussions, and guide thematic tours of local sites.
| Sunday, June 22 Opening Banquet and Orientation |
Monday, June 23 Morning Lecture: "Why the War Was Fought: States' Rights vs. Slavery" Afternoon Study Tour: A visit to Antietam Battlefield, the site of the single bloodiest day (September 17, 1862) in all of American history. |
| Tuesday, June 24 Morning Lecture: "Portraits of Political Strategy: Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis" Afternoon Study Tour: A tour of Arlington National Cemetery, the former home of Robert E. Lee, a site which became a cemetery for Union dead in 1864 for the most punitive of reasons...revenge. Students will visit the Lee Mansion and Museum and the grave sites of many Civil War soldiers and generals. |
Wednesday, June 25 Morning Lecture: "The Army of the Potomac vs. the Army of Northern Virginia" Afternoon Study Tour: Visits to memorials for Generals Grant, Sherman, Meade, and Hancock. Students will also visit Ford's Theatre; the Summer White House on the grounds of Old Soldiers' Home; Rock Creek Cemetery; Confederate Memorial Hall; and Fort Stevens, the location of the only Civil War battle fought inside the city's boundaries. |
| Thursday, June 26 Full Day Thematic Study Tour: Capital of the Confederate States of America, Richmond, Virginia. This tour of Richmond will include visits to the world famous Monument Avenue. The group will also visit the Confederate Museum and the White House, the State Capitol, St. Paul's Church, the Valentine Museum, the Jefferson Hotel, and Hollywood Cemetery, where many famous Confederates were buried. |
Friday, June 27 Morning Lecture: "Frederick Douglass's Influence on the President's War Strategy and the Crucible of 1864" Afternoon Study Tour: Participants will visit Mr. Douglass's Capitol Hill Home a few blocks from the Supreme Court; 'Cedar Hill,' his magnificent home in Anacostia; and the Emancipation Proclamation Memorial in Lincoln Park. The group will also visit Douglass Hall on the campus of Howard University; the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church; the Charles Sumner School; and Metropolitan AME Zion Church, where Mr. Douglass's funeral was held in 1895. Friday's events will be followed by a Farewell Banquet. |
For further information or to sign up, contact:
Department of History
American University
4400 Massachusetts Ave., N.W.
Washington, DC 20016
(202) 885-2401
(202) 885-6166 (FAX)
E-mail: history@american.edu