Thirteen CIC faculty members (selected from nearly 40 nominations) participated in a week-long seminar this summer on “The Civil War in Global Context” cosponsored by the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History and CIC. This sixth seminar in the series was held at New York University on June 25–29 and was led by Thomas Bender, professor of history and director of the International Center for Advanced Studies at New York University. He is the author of A Nation Among Nations: America’s Place in World History (2006) and The Unfinished City: New York and the Metropolitan Idea (2002), among other titles.

Designed to provide an opportunity for faculty members in history and related fields to strengthen their teaching and recharge their intellectual batteries, the seminar also provided participants the opportunity to examine documents pertaining to the Civil War and Reconstruction at the New-York Historical Society and to explore “African American Greenwich Village” during a walking tour. Thomas Kinney, assistant professor of history at Bluefield College (VA), said the seminar was “exceedingly useful, not only in the extensive readings and day-long sessions, but also in the form of its participants. The high level of interest and enthusiasm displayed by my fellow attendees added an important dimension to the experience. Not only did I come away with a much deeper understanding of a pivotal event in U.S. history, I also discovered a major resource in the Gilder Lehrman Institute, which promises to continue to enhance my teaching.”

In addition to discussing assigned readings with Bender, guest lecturers included historians Alice Fahs of the University of California, Irvine, who discussed literature and the Civil War; Martha Hodes of New York University, who focused on issues of race and gender from a transnational perspective; Mark Elliott, Wagner College (NY), who addressed the legacy of Reconstruction and the Imperialist Debate of 1898; David Quigley of Boston College, who explored the roles of Presidents Grant and Lincoln in the war; and Barbara Krauthamer, also of New York University, who discussed Native Americans and African Americans in the era of Reconstruction.

Founded in 1994, the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History promotes the study and love of American history, serving teachers, students, scholars, and the general public. The Institute maintains a website (www.gilderlehrman.org) that serves as a portal for American history on the internet in order to offer online high-quality educational material for teachers and history scholars.