Hazel and Fulton Chauncey Lecture - "Lee at Appomattox" by Elizabeth R. Varon

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"Let Us Have Peace" by Jean Leon Gerome Ferris Robert E. Lee's surrender to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House evokes a highly gratifying image in the popular mind—it was, many believe, a moment that transcended politics, a moment of healing, a moment of patriotism untainted by ideology. But as Elizabeth Varon reveals in her latest book, this rosy image conceals a seething debate over precisely what the surrender meant and what kind of nation would emerge from war. In Appomattox, she deftly captures the events swirling around that well remembered—but not well understood—moment when the Civil War ended. Did America's best days lie in the past or in the future? For Lee, it was the past, the era of the founding generation. For Grant, it was the future, represented by northern moral and material progress. They held, in the end, two opposite views of the direction of the country—and of the meaning of the war that had changed the country forever.

Pre-order your signed copy of Appomattox: Victory, Defeat, and Freedom at the End of the Civil War.

Elizabeth R. Varon is the Langbourne M. Williams Professor of American History at the University of Virginia. She is the author of several books, including Disunion!: The Coming of the American Civil War, 1789­–1859; Southern Lady, Yankee Spy: The True Story of  Elizabeth Van Lew, A Union Agent  in the Heart of the Confederacy; and Appomattox: Victory, Defeat and Freedom at the End of the Civil War.

A light reception and book signing will take place at the Virginia Historical Society following the lecture.  Dr. Varon will be signing books after the lecture for a very limited time. Pre-order your signed copy of Appomattox: Victory, Defeat, and Freedom at the End of the Civil War. Visit our online shop or call 804.342.9671 for more information. Reservations are required. Seating is limited.