Alumni, friends and colleagues have created the Dr. William Blair Leadership Fund to honor William Blair, outgoing director of the Richards Civil War Era Center at Penn State.
How everyone from advertisers to politicians use, represent and abuse the American Revolution is the topic of a presentation at 7 p.m. April 5 at Penn State New Kensington. Author and scholar Andrew M. Schocket will talk about “Muscle Cars, Lattés, and Rooftop Grilling: How We Sell the Founders, and Why It Matters.” The event is free to the public.
Carol Reardon, the 2015-16 Penn State laureate and George Winfree Professor of American History at Penn State, will speak at Penn State Shenango Oct. 19. The title of her presentation is “History Versus Heritage: The View from Gettysburg.” The event is free and open to the public.
Carol Reardon, professor of history, Civil War scholar, and Penn State laureate, discussed veterans issues while visiting Penn State Abington Oct. 8 and explained the importance of context in examining history.
Penn State laureate Carol Reardon, the George Winfree Professor of American History, will deliver a talk Oct. 29 titled “Why Study War?” for Penn State Lehigh Valley students and members of the campus community.
The U.S. Constitution defines treason as levying war against the government and aiding and abetting its enemies. By that definition, every Confederate soldier in the Civil War -- as well as every political leader -- was a traitor, according to William A. Blair, College of the Liberal Arts Research Professor of History at Penn State. Yet no one was executed for treason, and Confederate President Jefferson Davis was not even tried for the crime.
The rustic beauty of Pennsylvania's farmhouses, barns and outbuildings often strikes motorists traveling the highways that crisscross the rural heartland of the state, but few people realize the stories these buildings can tell us about the past -- and maybe the future -- of agriculture.
A number of historical “Turning Points” will be highlighted in the latest Behrend Concert Band performance, which will be held at 8 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 12, in McGarvey Commons at Penn State Erie, The Behrend College.
Penn State Lehigh Valley Continuing Education will launch a new learning opportunity for the community in October. The Six @ Seven series will feature in-depth lectures presented by a campus faculty member at 7 p.m. for six consecutive weeks. The first lecture takes place Oct. 17 at the Lehigh Valley campus and is open to the community. The cost of the series is $100.
Lincoln sought to make sense of the Battle of Gettysburg with his address, which succeeded in galvanizing the North's resolve to see the war through. Bill Blair, director of the George and Ann Richards Civil War Center and professor of history at Penn State, puts these events in perspective and shows how the effects of this battle would resonate for years to come.
In 2011 the Richards Civil War Era Center launched the Journal of the Civil War Era, a peer-reviewed periodical of 19th century American history. According to associate editor Anthony Kaye, the new journal is playing a substantive role in revitalizing the field.
When Anthony Kaye, associate professor of history, began looking into the Nat Turner slave rebellion, he says, "I started out thinking this would be a quick, small book. But the more I learned, the longer it got."
From its original mission of interpreting and reflecting on the transformative experience of the Civil War itself, Penn State's Richards Civil War Era Center and its scholarship now encompass themes spanning Atlantic World slavery, emancipation, constitutionalism, the expansion of democracy, religion and social movements, women's rights, immigration, western expansionism, war and society, and the struggles of labor. In addition to fostering this forum, the Center is training scholars who are making significant contributions in the field.
Lacking firm ideas on how to fight and win the Civil War, Northern military commanders and politicians struggled to find a viable strategy, resulting in a long and horrendously costly conflict, according to a Penn State historian. This experience influenced how the U.S. Army thought about the art and science of war and how they selected leaders to design and execute military strategy in future conflicts.
If you could solve a single mystery in your field, what would it be?
Why the public has such a difficult time understanding slavery as a cause of the Civil War.
When you're not on campus working, where can you most often be found?
On the tennis courts
Where is the most interesting place you've traveled?
Paris
