Kevin Levin’s blog, Civil War Memory, carried this posting — I stole it wholesale — plugging a conference on the Civil War hosted at Kennesaw State University in Kennesaw, Georgia:
Civil War Conference at Kennesaw State University
The Third Annual Interpretations of the American Civil War Symposium will be held on May 4 and 5 at Kennesaw State University. The title of this conference is “The Struggle Within: The Confederate Home Front.” Speakers include the following:
- Professor George Rable (Keynote Address): “Blended History: New Approaches to Studying the Confederate Home Front”
- Professor Victoria Bynum: “Guerrilla Wars: Plain Folk Resistance to the Confederacy”
- Professor Kenneth Noe: “The Origins of Guerrilla War in West Virginia”
- Professor LeeAnn Whites: “‘Corresponding to the Enemy:’ The Home Front as a Relational Field of Battle”
All four of the speakers are top-notch scholars. This promises to be a very exciting and educational conference. For more information click here.
[End of stolen announcement.]
It’s a conference where it’s pretty well guaranteed that no one will bellyache from the podium about the No Child Left Behind Act. Plus, this gives me a chance to plug Civil War Memory, and Another History Blog, both of which deserve your attention and can help you out.
For a transplanted Yankee, I’ve been struck with the oddity that Texas kids don’t know much about the Civil War. Certainly they don’t know what the state wants them to know, and what the state wants is substantially less than any Southerner ought to know about the historic events that still push attitudes and actions in the 13 rebellious states and national politics. Texas history teachers could use a few seminars on the Civil War.
Millard Fillmore's Bathtub 
I like how the kiddies and adults, even the teachers, in the north don’t know much about slavery in the north and the murderous invasion of the 13 southern states seeking their own nation. Levin’s blog is a social engineering muckraking instrument designed to denigrate majority southern history and memory. I didn’t know historians could be on par Michael Moore-like tactics, but hey good luck fitting in down South.
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Don’t get me going about the Dust Bowl, either.
Hmmmm. That would be a good symposium for high school teachers, with Timothy Egan.
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Ed, You and Kevin are the best! Thanks for posting this. My colleague John Fowler has done a fantastic job putting these symposia together, and this one promises to be the best yet.
Students in Georgia sound about like those in Texas, sad to say.
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