Katherine Aiken, Dean, College of Letters, Arts and
Social Sciences, and professor of history at the University of Idaho, will lead
the first discussion, “ Imagining War,” focusing primarily on “March,” a
Pulitzer Prize-winning historical novel by Geraldine
Brooks. Aiken is also chair of the Idaho Humanities Council, sponsor of the
free five-part series with support from the National Endowment for the
Humanities and the American Library Association.
All
discussions in the series are open to the public regardless of whether
participants have read the books.
All
discussions will be on Thursdays at 7 p.m. and include: Nov. 15, “Choosing
Sides,” Robert Singletary, regional historian; Nov. 29, “Making Sense of Shiloh,”
Singletary; Dec. 13, “The Shape of War,” James Jewell, North Idaho College
professor; and Dec. 20: “War & Freedom,” Aiken.
Additional Readings in the
series include:
¢ “America’s War,” edited by historian Edward L.
Ayers, is mostly a collection of writings by people who had to decide for
themselves before and during the war where justice, honor, duty, and loyalty
lay, including selections written by Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln, Mark
Twain, Henry David Thoreau, and many others. ¢ “Crossroads of Freedom: Antietam,” by historian James McPherson, explores the battle in the fall of 1862 that changed the course of the Civil War.
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