STARKVILLE, Miss.--A Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and prolific author discusses factors that brought about the Civil War during a Thursday [Nov. 20] public program at Mississippi State.
"The 'Pretense' of 19th Century America and Origins of the Civil War" is the topic of Walter A. McDougall's presentation to begin at 4:30 p.m. in the university's McCool Hall atrium. A reception and book signing follow in the same location.
McDougall, the Alloy-Ansin Professor of International Relations at the University of Pennsylvania, is the latest featured guest for the Institute for the Humanities' 2008-09 Distinguished Lecture Series.
The institute is part of the College of Arts and Sciences.
A Vietnam War veteran and University of Chicago doctoral graduate, McDougall directs Penn's international relations program. He is the author of numerous books, the most recent being "Freedom Just Around the Corner: A New American History, 1585-1828" (HarperCollins).
In 1986, he was awarded the Pulitzer for "The Heavens and the Earth: A Political History of the Space Age." (Lightning Source Inc.).
In collaboration with his academic duties, McDougall is a senior fellow at the Philadelphia, Pa.-based Foreign Policy Research Institute and was the former editor of Orbis, the journal of world affairs.
For additional information, contact William A. Hay of the MSU history department at 662-325-3604 or wilhay6248@aol.com.
For more information about Mississippi State University, see http://www.msstate.edu/.
