REGISTRATION UPDATE! Please note that online registration will close at 6:50pm EDT on February 18.
The program will be recorded and made available on our YouTube channel in the upcoming days.

On Thursday, March 18, 2021, historian Bruce Levine will join LancasterHistory virtually for a discussion on his latest book, Thaddeus Stevens: Civil War Revolutionary, a definitive biography of one of the most visionary statesmen of the 19th century and a forgotten champion for racial justice in America.

Thaddeus Stevens was among the first to see the Civil War as an opportunity for a second American revolution—a chance to remake the country as a true multiracial democracy. One of the foremost abolitionists in Congress in the years leading up to the war, he was a leader of the young Republican Party’s radical wing, fighting for anti-slavery and anti-racist policies long before party colleagues like Abraham Lincoln endorsed them. It was he, for instance, who urged Lincoln early on to free those enslaved throughout the US and to welcome black men into the Union’s armies.

During the Reconstruction era following the Civil War, Stevens demanded equal civil and political rights for black Americans, rights eventually embodied in the 14th and 15th amendments. But while Stevens in many ways pushed his party—and America—towards equality, he also championed ideas too radical for his fellow Congressmen ever to support, such as confiscating large slaveholders’ estates and dividing the land among those who had been enslaved.

Bruce Levine, Ph.D. is the bestselling author of five books on the Civil War era, including The Fall of the House of Dixie and Confederate Emancipation, which received the Peter Seaborg Award for Civil War Scholarship and was named one of the top ten works of nonfiction of its year by The Washington Post. He is a professor emeritus of history at the University of Illinois. His most recent book, Thaddeus Stevens: Civil War Revolutionary, will be published on March 2, 2021.

EVENT DETAILS & HOW TO REGISTER

This event will take place online via Zoom on March 18, 2021 at 7pm Eastern. This is NOT an in-person event.

The program is free and open to the public but requires advance registration. Register online by clicking “Get Tickets” below or by calling (717) 392-4633. Your link to the Zoom event will be emailed to you upon successful registration. If you are unfamiliar with Zoom, we highly recommend reading our Virtual Event Guide & FAQ in advance the of the event.

Want all the lectures? Add each to your cart online before checking out! You will receive an individual email receipt for each lecture with its unique weblink so that you can join the lecture on its specific day. Be sure to save those emails! (Need some more help? Watch our step-by-step video tutorial.)

Membership Makes History Happen! Your membership enables us to bring dynamic speakers to LancasterHistory for our lecture series throughout the year, and gives you other exciting benefits! Learn more about becoming a member of LancasterHistory or renewing your membership today.