Writing the Civil War as History and Fiction
803 views · Published 27 March 2014 · 46:29 · Indexed 22 September 2026
Channel: GBH Forum Network · 2014 · Education
Richard Slotkin, historian and cultural critic, explores the retelling of the story of the Civil War. "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," he argues. Slotkin, professor of English and American Studies at Wesleyan University and a frequent consultant and on-air commentator about the Civil War, talks about his own fascination with the subject, and "how Americans choose to remember or forget the war defines us." He also discusses his book The Crater: A Novel of the Civil War. This event is presented as part of the Lowell Humanities Lecture Series.
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