Most historians agree with the title of this post. So do many Americans. But there are others who still claim that the Civil War was about something other than slavery. Watch: Yesterday I showed this video to my Civil War...
Twitter is reporting that Donald Trump and Rudy Giuliani will be in Gettysburg later today. Here is more from Jeremy Diamond of CNN. Nothing I can say here can top Yoni Appelbaum’s tweet: Or Paul’ Harvey’s tweet: UPDATE (11:22 EST):...
As we noted yesterday, Trump may accept the GOP nomination for president at Gettysburg battlefield. Manisha Sinha, a historian who is no stranger to followers of The Way of Improvement Leads Home blog and podcast, shares her thoughts at CNN....
Here is Nolan Simmons at Penn Live: Panels will soon be installed near each of 12 Confederate state monuments at Gettysburg National Military Park to offer visitors more context to understand when and under what circumstances they were erected. The...
Civil War historians get ready. Here is Lauren Gambino at The Guardian: Donald Trump said on Monday that he is considering accepting the Republican presidential nomination later this month with a speech at the civil war battlefield of Gettysburg, one of...
Some of you may recall my post last week about a friend of friends who visited the Gettysburg National Military Park on July 4, 2020 and encountered overt racism. You can read it here. We now have a video of...
At his July 3, 2020 speech at Mount Rushmore, Donald Trump said: [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=alEE-5Pk5DQ&w=560&h=315] More here. And here is the text of the executive order: By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws...
Jimmy, a friend of friends who works in a local ministry to drug and alcohol abusers, was in Gettysburg this weekend. Here, in his own words, is what happened: Over the last 2.5 years, I have been in a...
Some of you have listened to Episode 70 of The Way of Improvement Leads Home Podcast featuring Gettysburg University historian Scott Hancock. In that episode, I talked with Scott about racial injustice in the wake of the George Floyd killing....
The York (PA) Daily Record is running an op-ed from Les Fowler, president of the Association of Licensed Battlefield Guides. Here is a taste of his piece: We are grateful that the National Park Service has made strong statements in support...
Confederate statues are coming down all over the United States. But what should we do about these monuments at Civil War battlefields like Gettysburg National Military Park? Nolan Simmons of PennLive (Harrisburg Patriot-News) talked with some local historians, including two...
According to this article at Penn Live, the 2020 reenactment at the Battle of Gettysburg has been canceled because Glenn Beck is hosting an event called “Restoring the Covenant on the Sacred Land of Gettysburg.” Beck’s event will “reflect on...
Here is a taste of Priscilla Liguori‘s article at ABC 27 News (Harrisburg): The future of Gettysburg battle reenactments is uncertain. The committee that has put together the event for 25 years says it isn’t happening next year. Organizers say...
For the past decade I have been teaching a course on Pennsylvania History at Messiah College. The class meets several requirements. Some history majors take it for a 300-level American history elective. Other history majors take it as part of...
It is a beautiful today in south-central Pennsylvania–a perfect day to spend some time on the Gettysburg battlefield. This morning we took ten students from my Pennsylvania history class to Gettysburg. We have been reading Jim Weeks’s book Gettysburg: Memory, Market,...
Scott Hancock, a professor of history and African American studies at Gettysburg College, reflects on “unity” in the wake of the Civil War, “unity” as memorialized at the newest designated space on the Gettysburg battlefield, and “unity” in the age of...
The Fourth of July holiday is a time for historians to take to twitter! Since Saturday AM we have been wrestling historically with the question “Was America Founded as a Christian Nation?” Get a tweet every 30 minutes at #ChristianAmerica?...
Next weekend marks the 154th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg. It looks like Gettysburg will once again be a battleground, but this time the “war” is a cultural one, focused on modern debates about free speech, the Trump presidency,...
It is freshman orientation time at colleges and universities across the country. Most schools have become very good at planning events and information sessions for first-year students. Some colleges have games and picnics. Other schools send freshmen into the streets...
We were talking about Gettysburg the other day in my Pennsylvania History course and I found myself referencing the infamous “copse of trees.” Any Civil War buff knows what I mean by this phrase. The copse was the focal point...
