Let's Talk About It: Making Sense of the American Civil War reading and discussion series

Join Middletown Free Library as it hosts a free five-part reading and discussion series called “Let’s Talk About It: Making Sense of the American Civil War.” The library is one of 65 public libraries nationwide receiving grants to host the series developed by the American Library Association and the National Endowment for the Humanities, as well as the only one in Pennsylvania. Local support for the series is provided by the Middletown Township Historical Society.

Each session will focus on a different facet of the Civil War experience using different texts including works of historical fiction and interpretation, essays, speeches, diaries, memoirs, biographies, and short stories. Group discussion events will be held once per month at the library on the following works:

• “March” by Geraldine Brooks
• “Crossroads of Freedom: Antietam” by James McPherson

• “America’s War: Talking About the  Civil War and Emancipation on Their 150^th Anniversaries,” a forthcoming anthology of historical fiction, speeches, diaries, memoirs, biography, and short stories, edited by national project scholar Edward L. Ayers and co-published by NEH and ALA.
  
  

Professor Andrew Miller of Neumann University will lead a discussion of the book/readings at each session. The program will take place on the second Saturday of each month starting in December from 1-2:30 PM. The dates and themes are as follow:

December 10—Imagining War

January 14—Choosing Sides

February 11—Making Sense of Shiloh

March 10—The Shape of War

April 14—War and Freedom

All books and program materials will be available to pick up starting on November 5^th. That day Professor Andrew Miller will be giving a lecture on the 124^th Pennsylvania Regiment (the local regiment) as an intro to the Let’s Talk About It: Making Sense of the American Civil War program. If you are unable to come to the lecture on Saturday, November 5^th to obtain copies of all program materials, please contact Laura Kuchmay at the library at 610-566-7828 or email mireference@delcolibraries.org.

All programs will be held at Middletown Free Library, 21 N. Pennell Rd. Lima, PA.