The war that defines us: Writing the Civil War as history and fiction
“The Civil War is the American Passover,” according to historian and cultural critic Richard Slotkin. “Every generation since 1865 retells the tale as a way of placing itself in relation to what is perhaps the defining moment in the development of America as a nation-state. ” Slotkin, the Olin Professor of English and American Studies (emeritus) at Wesleyan University and a frequent consultant and on-air commentator about the Civil War, talks about his own “obsession” with the subject, and his conviction that “how Americans choose to remember of forget the war defines us.” He discusses his book The Crater: A Novel of the Civil War
Format: Lecture
Length: 46
Presenter(s): Richard Slotkin
Date: January 25, 2011
Location: Yawkey Center, Murray Function Room
Sponsor(s): Lowell Humanities Lecture Series
URL: http://frontrow.bc.edu/program/slotkin/
The information on this page is accurate as of January 2011