Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory.(Review) (book review)

Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory, by David W. Blight. Harvard University Press, 512 pages, $29.95.

In the summer of 1913, President Woodrow Wilson was planning to vacation in New England and skip Civil War reunion festivities scheduled at Gettysburg, an event marking 50 years since the end of the war. Stern warnings by congressional advisers convinced him he had better put in an appearance at what was being called the Peace Jubilee. So Wilson arrived to find the small Pennsylvania town brimming with nearly 50,000 veterans. The soft-spoken president, who as a ...

Read the rest of this article with a Free Trial at HighBeam Research.