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 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. 

Program of Activities

Lectures will begin each morning on the campus of American University at 9:00 a.m., following breakfast. At noon, the class will break for lunch (box lunches are provided), after which students will be transported by air-conditioned bus to the day's sites. Students will return to campus each day by approximately 6:00 p.m. On Thursday, the bus will leave campus at 8:00 a.m. for a full-day tour of Richmond, Virginia, returning by 7:00 pm.

2013 Dates: June 23 to June 28

For further information or to sign up, contact:

AU Registrar: http://www.american.edu/american/registrar/