James McPherson delivered at Lowell Lectures

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 13^th-15^th 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.

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Invoking the concept of “positive vs. negative liberty,”  McPherson quoted Lincoln: “The world has never had a good definition of liberty,” the late president said, “and the American people, just now, are much in want of one. We all declare for liberty; but in using the same word we do not all mean the same thing.” The historian then explained that the South believed they had fought the American Revolution to self-govern, and that their liberty was to not be prohibited from doing what they wanted to do by others. This, he explained, was a negative liberty. This was in line with the American heritage embodied in the Bill of Rights, which declared people free from government control. The North, on the other hand, advocated for positive liberty – the right to things. Specifically, the right of slaves to have access to education and rights, which would allow them to reach their potential, and the right of businesses to compete in a market where everyone pays their people fairly, and so don’t have unfair advantages. This concept of liberty is best embodied in post-Civil War amendments to the US Constitution, particularly the 13^th-15^th.

McPherson used this example to highlight disputes in the modern era. Pointing to libertarian-minded small government activists like the TEA Party and much of the modern RepublicanParty as examples of negative liberty advocates, he pointed to liberalism and the Democrats, who advocate equality in education and funding for social programs as harbingers of positive liberty. Despite the connotations of the terms, the professor did not directly suggest that one kind of liberty was better than the other, but rather that they were not the same, and likely incompatible. “This,” he stated, “is why the Civil War still matters.”

There were a handful of positions and theories thrown out to the audience throughout the talk. McPherson pointed out that, no matter how hot things had gotten since the Civil War, nobody had seriously attempted to succeed from the Union since the war’s end. He took this opportunity to take a rather humorous dig at Rick Perry’s suggestion to lead Texas in succession, closely followed by his presidential candidacy to lead the nation he proposed to succeed from. In another well-received moment, he said “white, as well as black southerners are probably better off now having lost [the Civil War] than they would have been had they won it.” Clearly speculating, he was standing on solid ground given modern economic realities. He added with a laugh, “some of them might even admit it!”

Professor McPherson delivered a clear, concise, and interesting talk on the modern implications and significance of the Civil War, to a room packed with listeners. In doing so, he maintained the tradition of the Lowell Lecture Series, and did a service to all those in attendance. 

Check out James McPherson's books here.

(image above: Prof. McPherson signing books after lecture)