Civil War Seminar Series

1:30 PM - 2:20 PM
Danbury Library
Farioly Program Room

Event Details

Embark on a jaunt to the past through this video seminar series created through Open Yale Courses (OYC). The seminars are conducted by historian, author and Yale University Professor David W. Blight. If you like history, we think you’ll love this well-researched, 27-part program series that explores in great depth the Civil War period. Programs will alternate between the Danbury Library and the Danbury Museum. This series explores the causes, course, and consequences of the American Civil War, from the 1840s to 1877. Four broad themes are closely examined: the crisis of union and disunion in an expanding republic; slavery, race, and emancipation as national problem, personal experience, and social process; the experience of modern, total war for individuals and society; and the political and social challenges of Reconstruction. David W. Blight is the Class of 1954 Professor of American History at Yale University. This Yale College course, taught on campus twice per week for 50 minutes, was recorded for Open Yale Courses in Spring 2008. Syllabus and suggested reading available at http://oyc.yale.edu/history/hist-119#syllabus Program Dates: Sept. 23 (Danbury Library) 1. Introductions: Why Does the Civil War Era Have a Hold on American Historical Imagination? Oct. 01 (Danbury Museum) 2. Southern Society: Slavery, King Cotton, and Antebellum America's "Peculiar" Region Oct. 07 (Danbury Library) 3. A Southern World View: The Old South and Proslavery Ideology Oct. 15 (Danbury Museum) 4. A Northern World View: Yankee Society, Antislavery Ideology and the Abolition Movement Oct. 21 (Danbury Library) 5. Telling a Free Story: Fugitive Slaves and the Underground Railroad in Myth and Reality Oct. 29 (Danbury Museum) 6. Expansion and Slavery: Legacies of the Mexican War and the Compromise of 1850 Nov. 04 (Danbury Library) 7. "A Hell of a Storm": The Kansas-Nebraska Act and the Birth of the Republican Party, 1854-55 Nov. 12 (Danbury Museum) 8. Dred Scott, Bleeding Kansas, and the Impending Crisis of the Union, 1855-58 Nov. 18 (Danbury Library) 9. John Brown's Holy War: Terrorist or Heroic Revolutionary? Nov. 26 NO PROGRAM - THANKSGIVING Dec. 02 (Danbury Library) 10. The Election of 1860 and the Secession Crisis Dec. 10 (Danbury Museum) 11. Slavery and State Rights, Economies and Ways of Life: What Caused the Civil War? Dec. 16 (Danbury Library) 13. Terrible Swift Sword: The Period of Confederate Ascendency, 1861-1862 Dec. 24 NO PROGRAM - CHRISTMAS Dec. 30 NO PROGRAM - NEW YEAR'S EVE Jan. 07 (Danbury Museum) 14. Never Call Retreat: Military and Political Turning Points in 1863 Jan. 13 (Danbury Library) 15. Lincoln, Leadership, and Race: Emancipation as Policy Jan. 21 (Danbury Museum) 16. Days of Jubilee: The Meanings of Emancipation and Total War Jan. 27 (Danbury Library) 17. Homefronts and Battlefronts: "Hard War" and the Social Impact of the Civil War Feb. 04 (Danbury Museum) 18. "War So Terrible": Why the Union Won and the Confederacy Lost at Home and Abroad Feb. 10 (Danbury Library) 19. To Appomattox and Beyond: The End of the War and a Search for Meanings Feb. 18 (Danbury Museum) 20. Wartime Reconstruction: Imagining the Aftermath and a Second American Republic Feb. 24 (Danbury Library) 21. Andrew Johnson and the Radicals: A Contest over the Meaning of Reconstruction March 04 (Danbury Museum) 22. Constitutional Crisis and Impeachment of a President March 10 (Danbury Library) 23. Black Reconstruction in the South: The Freedpeople and the Economics of Land and Labor March 18 (Danbury Museum) 24. Retreat from Reconstruction: The Grant Era and Paths to "Southern Redemption" March 24 (Danbury Library) 25. The "End" of Reconstruction: Disputed Election of 1876, and the "Compromise of 1877" April 01 (Danbury Museum)
Event Type(s): Adults
Age Group(s): Adult