Slavery and its Popular Depictions in the Age of Obama
This post originally appeared on the blog of the Irish Humanities Alliance
The year 2015 has a particular significance for the United States, since it commemorates 150 years (the so-called Sesquicentennial) from the end of the American Civil War, the 1861–65 conflict between the Union and the Confederacy that tore apart the American nation, caused the death of more than 700,000 men, and led to the emancipation of almost 4 million slaves. Since 2011, commemorations of the Civil War have affected the lives of ordinary American citizens, as museums, city and state governments, and universities across the country have organized events related to the Sesquicentennial with the full support of the Federal Government and President Barack Obama.
Enrico Dal Lago
Enrico Dal Lago is Professor of American History at the National University of Ireland Galway. He researches on slavery and the American Civil War in comparative and transnational perspective and he is the author of several books, the latest of which is Civil War and Agrarian Unrest: The Confederate South and Southern Italy (2018).