Civil War Archives - Public Seminar

Uncategorized

Wounds That Don’t Heal

A new movie about the Iraq war reminds us that soldiers have always been left to cope with the visible and invisible toll of war

April 15, 2021 • by Dillon J. Carroll

_____ On Friday March 12, Anthony and Joe Russo’s film Cherry was released on Apple TV+. Adapted from Nico Walker’s mostly autobiographical novel of the same name, it stars Tom Holland as Cherry, a Cleveland native who enlists in the Army and deploys to Iraq. There, he is traumatized by the ...

Democracy

The Foiled Confederate Coup of 1861

An interview with historian Ted Widmer about his new book, “Lincoln on the Verge”

October 8, 2020 • by Claire Potter and Ted Widmer

_____ As Americans anxiously count down the days to November 3, 2020, President Donald Trump has been evasive about whether, should he lose, he would accept the results of the election. Commentators have rightly deplored this, arguing that the peaceful transfer of power has always been a cornerstone of American democracy. But ...

Activism

Toppling Andrew Jackson From His Pedestal

A racist who championed ethnic cleansing

July 2, 2020 • by Mark R. Cheathem

In today’s moment of Black Lives Matter and peaceful protests over racial injustice, more Americans than ever are tearing down statues across the country: Confederate heroes, dismantled; icons of Jim Crow, removed. Now, even former presidents aren’t immune. Consider Andrew Jackson -- one of President Trump’s personal models, who is also ...

Toppling Andrew Jackson From His Pedestal

Activism

Protestors Aren’t Destroying History, They Are Recasting It

When monuments to racism, slavery, and empire come down, new possibilities rise up

June 25, 2020 • by Durba Ghosh and Kelly King-O’Brien

In the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder at the hands of police, the movement to remove Confederate monuments has accelerated rapidly as part of a new wave of Black Lives Matter demonstrations. Protestors argue these monuments represent institutional racism and should be removed immediately. Many governors and local politicians readily ...

Protestors Aren’t Destroying History, They Are Recasting It

From the Editors

The Last Monday in May

There are no parades, no baseball games, no parties, and we stay home all the time anyway: why should we care that it is Memorial Day?

May 22, 2020 • by Claire Potter

As Joan Rivers would say, “Oh, grow up!” First of all, let’s be clear: Memorial Day is not about you. It’s about honoring the dead, which would make you think it would be a more sober holiday than it usually is nowadays. And initially, it was. Memorial Day sprang from the practice ...

Feature

A Letter from the Valley of the Fallen

Spain wrestles with its Franquista past

September 25, 2018 • by Anna Oakes

In June, the center-left administration of Pedro Sánchez, Spain’s newly appointed prime minister, announced the government’s intention to exhume Francisco Franco’s body and move it to an as-yet-undecided location. Since the announcement, a renewed national debate has broken out in Spain over Franco’s legacy. The Franco family have made clear their intentions ...

Feature

Monuments to Men

An Interview and Epilogue to Birthright Citizens: A History of Race and Rights in Antebellum America

August 29, 2018 • by Martha S. Jones

Martha S. Jones (MSJ): My first inspiration was the years I spent as a public interest lawyer. I represented poor people of color in lower Manhattan’s trial courts and rarely did those cases reach high courts or turn on constitutional questions. Still, I knew that my clients were fighting for fundamental ...

Feature

Book Presentation: Fire and Blood

April 29, 2016 • by Zeyno Ustun

Enzo Traverso presents his latest book, Fire and Blood: The European Civil War 1914-1945. with comments by professors Cinzia Arruzza, Federico Finchelstein, Andreas Kalyvas, and Eli Zaretsky. Fire and Blood (Verso Books) looks at the European crisis of the two world wars as a single historical sequence: the age of the European Civil War (1914–1945). Its ...

Race

Slaves: The Capital that Made Capitalism

A re-post

August 20, 2015 • by Julia Ott

This post, adapted from a lecture in the team-taught course "Rethinking Capitalism" at The New School for Social Research and first published last year, is being reposted today to provide critical insight into today's headlines. Slavery was central to the development of the American political economy. Ott reviews the recent ...

Race

Actually Essential Reading About the Confederacy

Understanding the historical context of the massacre in Charleston and the debate about the Confederate battle flag

June 29, 2015 • by Joshua D. Rothman

The massacre at the Emanuel AME Church in Charleston and the subsequent debate about the Confederate battle flag have sent Americans scrambling for historical context. The shortlist of introductory readings on the Confederacy recommended by John Williams in the New York Times ArtsBeat, however, is an embarrassing ...

Race

Slaves

The capital that made capitalism

April 9, 2014 • by Julia Ott

Racialized chattel slaves were the capital that made capitalism. While most theories of capitalism set slavery apart, as something utterly distinct, because under slavery, workers do not labor for a wage, new historical research reveals that for centuries, a single economic system encompassed both the plantation ...

Civil War

Wounds That Don’t Heal

A new movie about the Iraq war reminds us that soldiers have always been left to cope with the visible and invisible toll of war

The Foiled Confederate Coup of 1861

An interview with historian Ted Widmer about his new book, “Lincoln on the Verge”

Toppling Andrew Jackson From His Pedestal

A racist who championed ethnic cleansing

Protestors Aren’t Destroying History, They Are Recasting It

When monuments to racism, slavery, and empire come down, new possibilities rise up

The Last Monday in May

There are no parades, no baseball games, no parties, and we stay home all the time anyway: why should we care that it is Memorial Day?

A Letter from the Valley of the Fallen

Spain wrestles with its Franquista past

Monuments to Men

An Interview and Epilogue to Birthright Citizens: A History of Race and Rights in Antebellum America

Book Presentation: Fire and Blood

Slaves: The Capital that Made Capitalism

A re-post

Actually Essential Reading About the Confederacy

Understanding the historical context of the massacre in Charleston and the debate about the Confederate battle flag

Slaves

The capital that made capitalism

Newsletter

Connect With Us