"Civil War Alabama" by Chris McIlwain

The views and opinions expressed in this presentation do not necessarily reflect those of the Alabama Department of Archives and History.
In his presentation, McIlwain discussed the experiences of Alabamians during the Civil War, based on decades of exhaustive research that draws on a vast trove of primary sources such as letters, newspapers, and personal journals. He summarized many of his controversial findings and offered compelling new explanations for how Alabama’s white citizens came to take up arms against the federal government.
Chris McIlwain grew up in Huntsville, Alabama, where his father worked as an aerospace engineer at NASA. After graduating from Grissom High School in 1973, he attended the University of Alabama, graduating from its law school in 1980. Since then he has practiced law in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, primarily as a litigator. He is the author of Civil War Alabama, which has recently been published by the University of Alabama Press. This landmark book sheds invigorating new light on the causes, the course, and the outcomes in Alabama of the nation’s greatest drama and trauma.
Food for Thought is made possible by the Friends of the Alabama Archives and a grant from the Alabama Humanities Foundation, a state program of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Admission to Food for Thought is always FREE.
The Alabama Department of Archives and History is located in downtown Montgomery, directly across the street from the State Capitol. It is the state’s government records repository, special collections library and research facility, and is home to the Museum of Alabama, the state history museum. The Archives and Museum are open Monday through Saturday, 8:30 to 4:30. To learn more, visit www.archives.alabama.gov or call [phone].