LITERATURE + LECTURES

Brazos presents an Author Appearance: David Goldfield. Join us for a reading and signing with David Goldfield on Tuesday, June 21 at 6:00 PM in celebration of his new book, America Aflame: How the Civil War Created a Nation.

Examining the origins of the war, the conflict itself, and its aftermath, America Aflame enables readers to view the War from a new perspective. The political system could not contain the passions stoked by the infusion of evangelical Christianity into the political process. War was not inevitable. But the prevailing political culture made it difficult to solve issues peaceably.

The war did liberate four million slaves and created an indivisible nation. Could those results have been achieved through political means as in most other slaveholding countries? The war also established the North as synonymous with America, a process begun in the antebellum era. Evangelical religion no longer functioned as the final arbiter of political issues. Science would inform public policy. No more civil wars, no more ideologies.

About the author: David Goldfield is the Robert Lee Bailey Professor of History at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte.