CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – James M. McPherson, widely regarded as the greatest living historian of the U.S. Civil War, will deliver the Lincoln Bicentennial Lecture at the University of Illinois.
His lecture, titled “Tried by War: Abraham Lincoln as Commander-in-Chief,” will begin at 3:30 p.m. on March 12 in the auditorium of the Alice Campbell Alumni Center, 601 S. Lincoln Ave., Urbana.
The talk is sponsored by the history department and is free and open to the public.
The event inaugurates the history department’s yearlong celebration of the Lincoln bicentennial, which will include a series of distinguished speakers, specialized undergraduate courses and outreach workshops for area teachers.
McPherson is the George Henry Davis 1886 Professor Emeritus of American History at Princeton University.
He is the author of a dozen books, including the Pulitzer Prize-winning work, “Battle Cry of Freedom: the Civil War Era,” and of “For Cause and Comrades: Why Men Fought in the Civil War,” “Abraham Lincoln and the Second American Revolution,” “Crossroads of Freedom: Antietam” and “Hallowed Ground: A Walk at Gettysburg.”
McPherson is a past president of the American Historical Association.
The talk is supported by the Center for Advanced Study, the Chancellor’s Office, the history department, and by a gift in honor of U. of I. alumnus Timothy Garmager on the occasion of his retirement. Garmager earned a bachelor’s degree in history at Illinois in 1973.
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