Historian James McPherson (Princeton University) didn’t set
out to be a Civil War expert. Presenting his talk “Why the Civil War Still
Matters” at the Boston Public Library as part of the Lowell Lectures series,
Prof. McPherson explained that upon entering graduate school at Johns Hopkins
in the late 1950s, he had an interest in studying southern history, which as a Midwesterner,
he found “exotic and mysterious.”
It was the Civil Rights movement of his era that brought him
to study the Civil War and Reconstruction. In the midst of forced school
desegregation, McPherson wanted to learn more about how the 13th-15th
amendments that were called on came to be, and how they hadn’t been properly
implemented for almost 100 years.
With this introduction, McPherson spoke for just over a half
hour about the legacy and significance of the Civil War in the modern world.
Citing the conflict as the most popular history subject among Americans due to
its closeness to them, its drama and death toll, and its larger-than-life
characters, he touched on a greater, more subtle significance: The Civil War
was a fight over two different kinds of liberties.
Read more after the jump
Read more after the jump
