EVENT DETAILS

How do wars end? A century-and-a-half ago, Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox and set the standard for the “gentlemanly” stacking of arms. But did Grant actually give up too much in return for peace on April 9, 1865? Were too many Confederate leaders spared and the plight of African-American refugees ignored? Or, conversely, did Grant’s relentless and bloody fighting that month destroy a generation of Southern white men? For the sesquicentennial of the end of the Civil War, historians assess both the high cost of war and the debatable cost of peace.

William C. Davis is the author or editor of more than 50 books in the fields of Civil War and Southern history as well as numerous documentary screenplays. James M. McPherson is George Henry Davis 1886 Professor of American History Emeritus at Princeton University and the author of numerous books on the Civil War, including, most recently, The War That Forged a Nation: Why the Civil War Still Matters. Harold Holzer (moderator) has written and edited more than 40 books on Lincoln and the Civil War era. His most recent book is President Lincoln Assassinated!!: The Firsthand Story of the Murder, Manhunt, Trial, and Mourning.

LOCATION

The Robert H. Smith Auditorium at the New-York Historical Society, 170 Central Park West, New York, NY 10024

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