Home - ALA’s Let’s Talk About It: Making Sense of the American Civil War

Upcoming Events

Book Discussions
All sessions in King Library
Room 320 - 4:00 to 5:30 pm

War and Freedom
Thursday March 15th

Film Showing

Glory (with brief discussion to follow)

Thursday April 19th

Room 320 - 6:00 to 8:30 pm

Book Discussion Flyers

Parking

We realize that parking on campus can sometimes be difficult, so we want to mention several options. There is 10 hour metered parking spots on Walnut Street (block south of High Street), 2 hour metered parking on Campus Ave and free parking (if you can find a spot) on Collins across from the drive behind the library. You can also park in the Campus Avenue Garage. It is located on South Campus Avenue between the Campus Avenue Building and the Recreational Sports Center. The hourly rate is $1.00 for the first hour and $.50 for each additional hour. You can find a map of available parking lots (with their permit information) here.

If you have a disability and need special parking accommodations, please contact Arianne Hartsell-Gundy at hartsea@muohio.edu or 513-529-8494.

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Video Report

Here is a video report we made highlighting our programs this year:

http://digital.lib.muohio.edu/civilwar/files/CW-video-report.mov

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Part Five: War and Freedom on March 15th

Our fifth book discussion for the Let's Talk About It: Making Sense of the Civil War book discussion series will be selections from the America's War: Talking About the Civil War and Emancipation on their 150th Anniversaries edited by Edward L. Ayers. We will be reading Part Five: War and Freedom from this anthology. We will discuss this section on Thursday March 15th at 4:00pm in King Library 320. If you would like to join the discussion, please contact Arianne Hartsell-Gundy (hartsea@muohio.edu or 513-529-8494) or Kim Tully (tullykk@muohio.edu or 513-529-2024). They will register you for the discussion and arrange for you to get a free copy of the book.

If you are interested in thinking more about some of the issues that we'll be discussing, you may want to check out some relevant resources:

Emancipation Proclamation from the National Archives

Library of Congress: From Slavery to Civil Rights: A Timeline of African American History

Lincoln and the Emancipation Proclamation

Frederick Douglass National Historic Site

After you read the excerpts in Part Five, you may be interested in reading other speeches and writings by these authors. Here are some of the titles that we have at King Library:

The Oxford Frederick Douglass Reader. King Library (2nd floor) | E449 .D749 1996

Lincoln on Race & Slavery. King Library (2nd floor) | E457.2 .L744 2009

Jubilee by Margaret Walker. King Library (2nd floor) | PS3545.A517 J82 1966

Been in the Storm So Long by Leon F. Litwack. King Library (2nd floor) | E185.2 .L57 1979

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About the American Civil War program

The Miami University Libraries will commemorate the sesquicentennial of the American Civil War during the 2011-2012 academic year with a series of programs. This series will support the libraries' goal of facilitating meaningful discussions about the significance and legacy of the Civil War in the United States in the past and present, as well as here in Oxford.

We hope hosting this program at Miami University will engage both the university community and the Oxford community. Our target audience includes students, faculty, staff, and community members. We want to provide opportunities for conversations between groups that often do not have the chance to exchange ideas.

Reading Selections for Upcoming Books

Part Five: War and Freedom (March 15th)
Selections from the anthology America's War edited by Ed Ayers:
• Abraham Lincoln, address on colonization [1862];
• John M. Washington, "Memorys [sic] of the Past" [1873];
• Abraham Lincoln, Emancipation Proclamation [1863];
• Frederick Douglass, "Men of Color, To Arms!" [March 1863];
• Abraham Lincoln, letters to James C. Conkling [1863] and Albert G. Hodges [1864];
• Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg Address [1863];
• James S. Brisbin, report on U.S. Colored Cavalry in Virginia [Oct. 2, 1864];
• Colored Citizens of Nashville, Tennessee, Petition to the Union Convention of Tennessee Assembled in the Capitol at Nashville [January 9, 1865];
• Margaret Walker, excerpt from Jubilee [1966];
• Leon Litwack, excerpt from Been in the Storm So Long [1979]; and
• Abraham Lincoln, Second Inaugural Address, 1865.

If you are interested in finding out how all of these works tie together, you may want to read the essay written by Ed Ayers, our national scholar.