History Faculty Attend Princeton Conference

Members of Blair’s history department traveled to Princeton on Friday, December 1, for an annual conference hosted by The New Jersey Council for History Education. The morning’s lecturers focused on “New Perspectives on the Civil War and Reconstruction,” while the afternoon featured talks on “New Views of China.”

In the morning, former Princeton professor and Pulitzer Prize-winning author James McPherson spoke on the failure of peace negotiations during the Civil War. In particular, he argued that the key issues of the Civil War – union and slavery – were non-negotiable to President Lincoln and Jefferson Davis and, therefore, the peace negotiations were largely superficial and hopeless.

Professor Eric Foner of Columbia University followed McPherson and spoke about Reconstruction and the Constitution. He argued that the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments fundamentally changed the Constitution and the nature of federal power. Foner spoke to students here at Blair on a related topic in October 1999.

Journalist and author Nicholas Lemann concluded the morning session with some comments about his recent book, Redemption: The Last Battle of the Civil War.

In the afternoon sessions, Princeton professors Benjamin Elman and Susan Naquin spoke about the evolving interpretations of China and Japan at the turn of the 20th century and the history of Chinese religion, respectively.

Left to right: Panos Voulgaris ’00, Andrew Pearce ’02, Mike Eckert, Jason Beck, Stacey Gorski Spring and Marty Miller. Also in attendance, not pictured, acting department chair Ryan Spring.

Posted 12/05/06

> Return to 2006-2007 Table of Contents

return to top