Two Lecturers Give Narrative Accounts of Life During the Civil War

One hundred fifty years ago, the American Civil War was just beginning. But the contradictions of its motivations, North and South, continue to this day.

A couple of prominent speakers will address the contradictions and motivations of the Civil War March 2 and 3 at . These programs are a collaboration of the library and St. Mary’s College, .

At 2 p.m. Wednesday, March 2, Gerald Henig, an emeritus professor of history at Cal State East Bay, will lecture. He is the author of papers and books, including A Nation Transformed: How the Civil War Changed America Forever.

At 1 p.m. Thursday, March 3, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Geraldine Brooks will lecture. She won the 2005 Pulitzer in Fiction for her novel, March: A Novel. In it. an idealistic Union chaplain, Mr. March, finds himself assigned as teacher on a cotton plantation that employs freed slaves. His narrative begins with cheerful letters home, but March reveals to the reader what he does not to his family: the cruelty of Northern and Southern soldiers, the violence and suffering he is powerless to prevent, and his reunion with Grace, a beautiful, educated slave whom he met years earlier as a Connecticut peddler to the plantations. Many copies of March: A Novel are available through the county library system.