Join the Tennessee State Library & Archives Friends for its Annual Digital Meeting, featuring historian Dr. Aaron Astor, the Robert C. Fluhrer Professor of Civil War Studies at Gettysburg College.
In his presentation, “Why Tennessee Matters in the America 250 Story,” Astor will explore the important role Tennessee and its people played in the founding and early development of the United States. From the Chickamauga Wars and the Watauga settlements to the Battle of Kings Mountain, he will examine how the region that became the 16th state admitted to the Union helped shape the political, military and cultural development of the young nation.
Astor previously served as a professor of history at Maryville College in Maryville, Tennessee. He is the author of Rebels on the Border: Civil War, Emancipation and the Reconstruction of Kentucky and Missouri, 1860-1872 and The Civil War Along Tennessee’s Cumberland Plateau. He also co-edited Slavery: Interpreting American History and contributed 11 articles to The New York Times’ award-winning Disunion series.
His scholarship has examined guerrilla warfare, military campaigns in the Western Theater, popular politics, emancipation and race and regional identity in the Appalachian South. He is currently working on a book that explores the 1860 presidential election as a grassroots political phenomenon through the experiences of four distinct American communities.
Astor earned his doctorate in history from Northwestern University and his bachelor’s degree from Hamilton College.
The Annual Digital Meeting is free and open to everyone. RSVP to receive the link to join the meeting.
