"American Civil Wars: Canadian Dimensions" by Alan Taylor
During the 1860s, the American Civil War rebuilt the United States, but it also accelerated the creation of Canada as another transcontinental nation in North America. American reconstruction and the Canadian emergence were closely related. For it was the fear of the growing military power and political ambitions of a triumphant United States that pushed Canadians to seek security through their own, new confederation. But to achieve that, Canadians had to overcome the invasion of Irish radicals and internal tensions between French and English speakers.
April 8, 6pm, Honors College Events Hall.
About the Distinguished Annual Lecture
The Department of History’s Distinguished Annual Lecture celebrates the 1996 establishment of the UMass/Five College Graduate Program in History. Combining the faculty and resources of the University of Massachusetts Amherst with those of four of the nation’s leading liberal arts colleges—Amherst, Hampshire, Mount Holyoke, and Smith Colleges—this collaboration provides graduate students with an extraordinary depth of intellectual resources. Offered every academic year for more than 20 years, the program’s signature annual lecture has been delivered by some of the nation’s foremost historians.