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CW to Co-Host Conference on Road to Civil WarSaturday, February 12, 2011 In recognition of the 150th anniversary of the Civil War and to celebrate President’s Day, Colonial Williamsburg will be co-hosting a two-day conference next week titled, “Storm on the Horizon: Slavery, Disunion and the Roots of the Civil War.” The Chautauqua Institution and the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture partnered with Colonial Williamsburg to plan the event which will focus on the Civil War’s roots in the American Revolution. A highlight of the conference will be talks by two historians, Gordon S. Wood and Alan Brinkley.Wood taught at Harvard University and the University of Michigan before joining the faculty at Brown in 1969. He is the author of many works, including “The Creation of the American Republic, 1776-1787,” which won the Bancroft Prize and the John H. Dunning Prize in 1970, and “The Radicalism of the American Revolution,” which won the Pulitzer Prize for History and the Ralph Waldo Emerson Prize in 1993. His volume in the Oxford History of the United States titled “Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789-1815” won the Association of American Publishers Award for History and Biography in 2009, the American History Book Prize by the New-York Historical Society Prize for 2010, and the Society of the Cincinnati History Prize in 2010. It was also a 2010 finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in History and for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in History. Wood, who is senior trustee of The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Board of Trustees, will open the conference with a talk titled “The Revolutionary Origins of the Civil War,” which will look at the emerging sectional split from the Revolution to about 1820. Brinkley was university provost from 2003 to 2009 and before that chair of the Department of History at Columbia University. In 1998 through 1999, he was the Harmsworth Professor of American History at Oxford University. His published works include “Voices of Protest: Huey Long, Father Coughlin, and the Great Depression,” which won the 1983 National Book Award, “The Unfinished Nation: A Concise History of the American People,” “The End of Reform: New Deal Liberalism in Recession and War,” and “Liberalism “Franklin Delano Roosevelt.” Brinkley was the recipient of the Joseph R. Levenson Memorial Teaching Prize at Harvard and the Great Teacher Award at Columbia. He is chairman of the board of trustees of the Century Foundation, a trustee of Oxford University Press, a trustee of the National Humanities Center, and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He taught previously at M.I.T., Harvard, Princeton and the City University of New York Graduate School. During his talk “How Do Presidents Succeed—and Fail?”, Brinkley will discuss presidential power and how presidents use it, as well as how much they rely on principles and contingencies. There will be several interpretive programs over the weekend, too, including “Promises of Freedom: From Dunmore’s Proclamation to the Emancipation Proclamation,” three vignettes done by Colonial Williamsburg’s African American interpretive team that reflect on Dunmore’s Proclamation held at Kimball Theatre. “Storm on the Horizon: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison and the Question of the Union,” will feature three of the early presidents who will reflect on the future of the Republic, the blessings of Union, and the threats of Disunion. “George Washington’s Farewell Address to the Nation” will focus on Washington as he is preparing to leave the presidency. Having refused the opportunity to be elected to a third term, the first president warns against the growing destructive influences of factionalism and sectionalism on American politics. He asserts that these tendencies pose a real potential threat to the continuation of the Union. To see the full schedule and to register, visit Colonial Williamsburg’s website. The conference will be held February 18 and 19. Cost for the program is $150, which includes admission to the Historic Area and a walking tour, “The Civil War in Williamsburg.” Advance registration and payment are required. Register online, by phone by calling 800-603-0948, or by fax (757) 565-8921. |
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