​Wednesday, 11 August, 2021

The Civil Warriors Civil War Round Table
will hold its next meeting of 2021 at 7PM
PDT on Wednesday, August 11, via Zoom.
We will be hosting an online presentation by
Professor Edward Blum who will talk about
“All is Hell.”

​During his first inaugural address, Lincoln
expressed hope that the “better angels of our
nature” would prevail. He was wrong. The
better angels did not, but for many, the evil
ones did. “All is Hell” peers into the world of
devils, demons, Satan, and hell during the era
of the American Civil War. It shows how
African Americans and abolitionists
compared slavery to hell, how Unionists
rendered Confederate secession illegal by
linking it to Satan, and how many Civil War
soldiers saw themselves as living in hellish
circumstances. It examines how many
Americans used evil to advance their own
agendas. Sometimes literally, oftentimes
figuratively, the agents of hell and hell itself
became central means for many to
understand themselves and those around
them, to legitimize their viewpoints and
actions, and to challenge those of others.
Many opposing emancipation cast Lincoln as
the devil incarnate. Those pursuing harsher
war measures encouraged their soldiers to
“fight like devils.” A combination of religious,
political, cultural, and military history,
Professor Blum will illuminate why one of its
leading generals described it as “all hell.”

Dr. Edward J. Blum is a professor in the
History Department at San Diego State
University. He received his B.A. from the
University of Michigan and his M.A. and
Ph.D. from the University of Kentucky. He is
the author and co-author of several books on
religion and race throughout United States
history, including "Reforging the White
Republic: Race, Religion, and American
Nationalism, 1865-1898" (2005; reissued
2015), "The Color of Christ: The Son of God
and the Saga of Race in America" (2012), and
most recently "War is All Hell: Evil and the
Shaping of the Civil War". Blum is the winner
of numerous awards including the Peter
Seaborg Award for Civil War Scholarship,
the Gustave O. Arlt Award in the
Humanities, and the John T. Hubbell Prize
for best article published in Civil War
History in 2015.

We will be meeting via the Zoom meeting
app. We will send out the meeting on-line
connection information shortly before our
meeting day (8/11/21). Please plan on
beginning your hookup a few minutes before
the 7PM PDT meeting time. If you are a first
time visitor to the Civil Warriors, please
contact us at cwrtsfv@gmail.com for
information regarding the hookup. Guests,
new members and returning members are
always welcome to join us for this and future
meetings! If you can’t make this meeting,
please consider one of our exciting upcoming
meetings noted in our Future Presentations
section.

Our Round Table ordinarily meets at Weilers