Please join us for the Let’s Talk About It: Making Sense of the American Civil War book club. Books for this program are available to checkout at the Fayetteville Public Library Checkout Desk. This series of reading and discussion programs will take place monthly and each session will focus on a different facet of the Civil War experience, using one or more common texts as a foundation and touchstone. The texts include works of historical fiction and interpretation, speeches, diaries, memoirs, biographies, short stories and nonfiction.

Complete list of Civil War Commemoration programs

This website provides additional information about the American Civil War intended to supplement our discussions.

Book Discussion Events:
Monday, November 7, 6:30pm-7:30pm – Imaging War
Sunday, December 11, 2pm-3pm – Choosing Sides Book Discussion
Sunday, January 15, 2pm-3pm – Making Sense of Shiloh
Sunday, February 19, 2pm-3pm – The Shape of War
Sunday, March 18, 2pm-3pm – War and Freedom
Sunday, April 15, 2pm-3pm – A Savage Conflict / End of War

Books for the Discussion Series:

• March by Geraldine Brooks
• America’s War: Talking About the Civil War and Emancipation on their 150th Anniversaries, a new anthology edited by Edward L. Ayers and published by the NEH and ALA
• Crossroads of Freedom: Antietam by James McPherson
• A Savage Conflict: the Decisive Role of Guerrillas in the American Civil War by Daniel E. Sutherland.

Recommended Fiction Reading

• Civil War Fiction Favorites
• More Civil War Fiction
• Even More Civil War Fiction

Recommended Nonfiction Reading

• Civil War Nonfiction

Additional Online Resources Arkansas

Civil War Sesquicentennial Commission
The Arkansas Civil War Sesquicentennial Commission commemorates the 150th anniversary of the Civil War in Arkansas by sanctioning events, encouraging research and education programs related to Civil War Arkansas, and preserving the sites that witnessed the Civil War in Arkansas. The Civil War Sesquicentennial will be celebrated between 2011 and 2015. http://www.arkansascivilwar150.com/

New York Times – Opinionator’s “Disunion” series
Exclusive online commentary revisiting and reconsidering America's most perilous period -- using contemporary accounts, diaries, images and historical assessments to follow the Civil War as it unfolded. http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/category/disunion/

National Park Service
The Civil War: 150 Years (National Park Service Sesquicentennial Commemoration) Features include: Nationwide calendar of CW150 events, information about Civil War Parks, access to database of Civil War Soldiers, more in-depth information about the War http://www.nps.gov/civilwar150/

Pioneering Digital History Resources
Valley of the Shadow Edward L. Ayers / The Valley Project details life in two American communities, one Northern and one Southern, from the time of John Brown's Raid through the era of Reconstruction. In this digital archive you may explore thousands of primary sources telling the forgotten stories of life during this era. http://valley.lib.virginia.edu/

Hidden Patterns of the Civil War
Digital Scholarship Lab, University of Richmond This website collects a number of interrelated projects on the sectional crisis, slavery, and emancipation during the Civil War era. Grouped as "texts" and "maps," these projects use digital tools and digital media to uncover and represent patterns that are not easy to find when we look at particular pieces of evidence in isolation and only become evident when we visualize a wealth of evidence in graphs, maps, and models. Revealing patterns in text and across time and space, many of these visualizations are intriguing and surprising, offering us new insights into this dramatic era of intense social, political, and military conflict. http://dsl.richmond.edu/civilwar/

Online Exhibitions

• Library of Congress - From Slavery to Civil Rights: A Timeline of African American History
• Library of Congress - Variety of collections on: Civil War and Reconstruction, 1861-1877
• Virginia Historical Society - An American Turning Point: The Civil War in Virginia
• National Underground Railroad Freedom Center - Online exhibit of Frederick Douglass’ documents
• Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History - Online Exhibition: John Brown the Abolitionist and His Legacy
• Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History - Slideshow: Lincoln and the Emancipation Proclamation
• National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) - America’s Historical Documents: The Emancipation Proclamation
• Frederick Douglass National Historic Site - Virtual Museum Exhibit
• Boston College - First-Hand: Civil War Era Drawings from the Becker Collection

General Information – To Learn More

• EdSITEment - The American Civil War
• EdSITEment - Literature of the Civil War
• EdSITEment - K-12 lesson plans on Slavery, the Crisis of the Union, the Civil War and Reconstruction
• Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History -History by Era: The Civil War Era
• Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History - Civil War 150th