Thursday, June 2, 2011

Countdown to the Civil War Institute Conference

Greetings Cosmic Americans!

If you don't know already, between Jun 25th and July 1st, Gettysburg College and the Civil War Institute will be holding their annual conference. Yours truly will be on hand to provide up to the minute reports. Yes - I will be broadcasting on Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and right here at Cosmic America. I might even try to pull off a few Ustream live broadcasts. We'll have to see how it goes.

At any rate, This year's theme - in the spirit of the start of the sesquicentennial - is "Mobilizing for War and the Battle of First Bull Run/Manassas."  There will be an all-star cast of participants including Peter Carmichael, Joseph Glatthaar, and Gary Gallagher as well as a host of others. I even hear there will be a battlefield tour with Wayne Motts somewhere in the mix. I have been on his tours before - it is worth the price of admission.

My mission: do what I do best...talk about the Civil War - and I will get to interview some of the biggest names in the field. Some of the topics I will be discussing include - the cultural relevance of the sesquicentennial, why the Civil War is so compelling to 21st century Americans, what the war accomplished and left unfinished - and why that has a bearing on Americans today, sectionalism then and now - have things really changed that much? And of course - social media as a teaching platform.

So if you have any questions for anyone (the schedule of events can be found here) just let me know. I will ask them for you. I'll keep you posted with updates as the date draws near!

Peace,

Keith

3 comments:

  1. You scared the crap out of me. It's just under FOUR weeks until my tour on Wednesday the 29th (if you're taking a tour with Wayne, I assume you are not joining us at Manassas). With a magazine article due on June 13th and a new program to write for July 2nd I'm panicked enough as it is - don't tell me I have one week less to prepare!

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  2. Sorry bro - didn't mean to cause any panic! It's funny how things always manage to get done no matter how crazy it gets. See you in Gettysburg.

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  3. Oh and by the way - I believe that I will be joining your tour in Manassas. I have been hopelessly lost there twice. Yes...twice. I could use a little expert guidance on that field!

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