The Chattanooga Public Library will host a free five-part reading and discussion series called “Making Sense of the American Civil War” beginning Sept. 18. The program continues every other Tuesday through Nov. 13, from 6:30–8 p.m. All discussions will be held at the Downtown Library. Linda Moss Mines, head of the History Department at Girls Preparatory School and Hamilton County Historian, will lead each session.
The following books have been selected and will be available for loan to the first 35 registered participants: March by Geraldine Brooks, Crossroads of Freedom: Antietam by James McPherson, and America’s War: Talking About the Civil War and Emancipation on Their 150th Anniversaries, an anthology of historical fiction, speeches, diaries, memoirs, biography, and short stories, edited by national project scholar Edward L. Ayers.
To register and obtain copies of program materials, please call 423 757-5317 or visit the Downtown Library’s Local History and Genealogy Department. For more program information contact Jennifer Rydell at rydell_j@lib.chattanooga.gov. This program was developed by American Library Association and the National Endowment for the Humanities, with additional support provided by Humanities Tennessee.