2025 Distinguished Annual Lecture in History
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.
This event is free and open to the public and is co-sponsored by the Five College Consortium and the UMass Amherst Department of History.
Copies of Dr. Taylor's books will be available for purchase from Amherst Books.
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. It is presented by the UMass/Five College Graduate Program in History with support from the UMass Amherst history department and Five Colleges, Inc.
About the Writer In Residence
Each year, with major funding from Five Colleges, Inc., the history department brings a writer of national prominence to campus for a week-long residency, in order to facilitate sustained conversation with widely-read authors whose historical work engages broad public audiences. Alan Taylor is the history department's 2025 Writer-in-Residence.
Alan Taylor is Professor Emeritus at the University of Virginia, where he was the Thomas Jefferson Professor of History. Taylor has published eleven books and is a two-time recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for History.