The title of this month's program is taken from the new book project of the same name by our speaker, William Deverell.

The book is an exploration of the ways in which Americans, having come through the trials of the Civil War, looked (and migrated) to the American West in search of healing, convalescence, and redemption. The West contributed significantly to the coming of the Civil War, due to the profound and eventually violent disagreements between North and South over the territorial expansion of slavery. How did the region contribute to the peace, and to the re-making of post-war America along new lines of nationalism and national identity? Bill will speak about this and the on-going research for his new book.

William Deverell is Director of the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West and Professor of History at USC. He earned his undergraduate degree in American Studies from Stanford and his M.A. and Ph.D. in American history from Princeton, where he was a student of James M. McPherson. Prior to coming to USC, Professor Deverell taught at the California Institute of Technology and the University of California, San Diego.

Professor Deverell is the author, co-author and co-editor of numerous studies on the 19th and 20th century American West, as well as the co-author of an 8th grade United States history text. He lives in Pasadena with his wife Jennifer Watts, the curator of photography at the Huntington, and their two children Helen and John.

Please join us as we learn more about the Civil War veterans and the reasons for their migration west.

Janet Whaley
Program Chair

 

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