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University News
Pulitzer Prize-Winning Historian Alan Taylor to Deliver Graduate Program in History Distinguished Annual Lecture April 8
Alan Taylor, historian of early America, two-time Pulitzer Prize recipient and 2025 Writer-in-Residence in the UMass Amherst/Five College Graduate Program in History, will deliver the program’s Distinguished Annual Lecture, “American Civil Wars: Canadian Dimensions,” on Tuesday, April 8 from 6-7:30 p.m. in the Commonwealth Honors College Events Hall.
In his lecture, Taylor will discuss how the United States’ Civil War and Reconstruction periods affected the formation of the Canadian nation, a topic about which he wrote most recently in his 2024 book, “American Civil Wars: A Continental History, 1850-1873.” Professor emeritus at the University of Virginia, where he held the Thomas Jefferson Foundation Chair in History, Taylor has published 10 other books that have received multiple awards.
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The Distinguished Annual Lecture, which is free and open to the public, is co-sponsored by the Five College Consortium and the UMass Amherst Department of History. Copies of Taylor’s books will be available for purchase from Amherst Books at the event.
Organized by the UMass/Five College Graduate Program in History, the Writer-in-Residence Program facilitates sustained conversation with widely read authors whose historical work engages broad public audiences. Each year, the history department brings a writer of national prominence to campus for a week-long residency, during which they visit courses and seminars, meet with students and faculty over coffee, lunches and dinners, and deliver a public lecture. As part of this residency, Taylor will be on the UMass Amherst campus from April 6-11.
The Department of History’s Distinguished Annual Lecture celebrates the 1996 establishment of the UMass/Five College Graduate Program in History, and has featured addresses by the nation’s most preeminent historians. It is presented by the UMass/Five College Graduate Program in History with support from the UMass Amherst history department and Five Colleges, Inc.
For more information, visit the College of Humanities and Fine Arts history department website or contact Alice Nash at anash@history.umass.edu.