June 11, 2015 Ed Ayers to Discuss "The Shape of the Civil War," June 24

Edward L. Ayers, noted historian and president of the University of Richmond, will deliver a lecture titled “The Shape of the Civil War” on Wednesday, June 24 at 4 p.m.

Hosted by the John W. Kluge Center, the event will occur in room 119 on the first floor of the Library’s Thomas Jefferson Building, 10 First St. S.E., Washington, D.C. The event is free and open to the public. Tickets are not needed.

Ayers is the author of 10 books on American history. He is the recipient of numerous honors and awards, including the National Medal for the Humanities, awarded by President Obama at the White House in the summer of 2013. He has been president of the University of Richmond since 2007.

“Today, the American Civil War seems settled, even inevitable,” says Ayers. “But a remarkable vision (document) from 1897, held in the Library of Congress, challenges the way we usually think of the war and offers a bridge to our own digital era. This lecture will explore that vision and examine the possibilities of seeing the war from a different vantage point.”

Ayers has also won the Bancroft Prize for distinguished writing in American History and the Beveridge Prize for the best book in English on the history of the Americas since 1492 as well being named a finalist for both the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize. Ayers’ digital archive project, “The Valley of the Shadow: Two Communities in the American Civil War,” has been used in thousands of classrooms around the world, and he works closely with the Digital Scholarship Lab at the University of Richmond. Ayers is a co-host of “BackStory,” a nationally syndicated radio show that ties history to the present day. Ayers is an accomplished teacher. In 2003 he was named the National Professor of the Year by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.

Through a generous endowment from John W. Kluge, the Library of Congress established the Kluge Center in 2000 to bring together the world's best thinkers to stimulate and energize one another, to distill wisdom from the Library's rich resources, and to interact with policymakers in Washington. For more information about the Kluge Center visit www.loc.gov/kluge/.

The Library of Congress, the nation’s oldest federal cultural institution and the largest library in the world, holds more than 160 million items in various languages, disciplines and formats. The Library serves the U.S. Congress and the nation, both on-site in its reading rooms on Capitol Hill and through its award-winning website at www.loc.gov.