Deschutes Public Library

“A hundred and fifty years after the pivotal event in our nation’s history, we are still discovering its meanings,” says Civil War historian and author Edward L. Ayers.

In 2012 we commemorated the 150th year anniversary of that horrible time in our history, when one in four men were lost, families were torn apart, and the courage of our new nation was tested.


Deschutes Public Library invites you to join in the discussion during Let’s Talk About It: Making Sense of the American Civil War, a series of five conversations exploring different facets of the Civil War experience. The discussions are informed by reading the words written or uttered by powerful voices from the past and present, including Fredrick Douglas, Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, James M. McPherson, and Shelby Foote.

The series focuses on three books: March by Geraldine Brooks, Crossroads of Freedom: Antietam by James McPherson, and America’s War: Talking About the Civil War and Emancipation on Their 150th Anniversaries, edited by Edward L. Ayers. Series materials will be available for participants. Annemarie Hamlin, an assistant professor at Central Oregon Community College will lead the discussions.

Sign up for the series online, and then explore the links to the left for more Civil War resources.

Photographs from the Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Online Catalog
http://www.loc.gov/pictures/