The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga's 25th annual Symposium on the 19th Century Press, the Civil War and Free Expression opens today, Nov. 2, at the Marriott and continues Friday and Saturday, Nov. 3-4 at the UTC University Center.
The symposium will feature 35 speakers from across the nation, including prominent scholars such as Donald Shaw, the creator of the agenda-setting theory of the press; Brian Gabrial, author of "The Press and Slavery in America, 1791–1859"; James E. Mueller, author of "Shooting Arrows and Slinging Mud: Custer, the Press, and the Little Bighorn" and Gregory A. Borchard and David W. Bulla, authors of "Lincoln Mediated: The President and the Press through Nineteenth-Century Media."
"Our conference boasts many fine historians, and we are proud to celebrate the 25th symposium this year," says David B. Sachsman, director of the conference and holder of the UTC West Chair of Excellence.
The purpose of the conference is to share current research and develop a series of monographs on the 19th-century press, the Civil War and 19th-century concepts of free expression.
All paper sessions are free and open to the public.
DAILY PRESENTATIONS
Thursday
» "Editorials of Border States During the Secession Period" by Melony Shemberger of Murray State University, followed by a panel entitled "From the Arctic to the Orient: Adventure Journalism of the Gilded Age." It includes presentations and discussion by Sandra Davidson of the University of Missouri, freelance writer Bill Book, Lee Jolliffe of Drake University, James Mueller of the University of North Texas, Jennifer Moore of the University of Minnesota and Crompton B. Burton of the University of Maine.
» "Eyewitnesses to General William T. Sherman's Campaign in the Civil War" by Pat McNeely of the University of South Carolina,
» "Marry, This is the Short and the Long of It: Agenda Setting and the Antebellum Press" by Donald L. Shaw of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Thomas C. Terry of Utah State University
» "Press Coverage of the Secession Movement as a Cause of the Civil War" by Debra Van Tuyll of Augusta University.
» "'The negro occupies the whole time, and there is no time left for white men': Slavery, whiteness and the Union in the St. Louis press during the election of 1860" by Stuart MacKay of Carleton University
» "Manhood without Soldiering: Northern Illustrated Newspapers and Civilian Men in the American Civil War" by Zachary Arms of Lehigh University
» "'Grant Abroad': Around the World with the General and the Journalist" by Crompton B. Burton of the University of Maine.
Friday
» "A Strong Impulse: The Transatlantic Slave Trade through American Newspapers, 1808–1844" by Donald L. Shaw of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Thomas C. Terry of Utah State University
» "Disunion or Submission? Southern Editors and the Nullification Crisis, 1830–1832" by Erika Pribanic-Smith of the University of Texas at Arlington
» "'The blood of John Hampden Pleasants shall cry from the ground': Newspaper Coverage of the Ritchie-Pleasants Duel of 1846" by James Scythes of West Chester University
» "An Editorial House Divided: Texas Editors and the Compromise of 1850" by Mary M. Cronin of New Mexico State University
» "Press Responses to Republicans and Romanism in the 1856 Election: 'Free Men, Free Speech, Free Press, Free Territory, and Frémont'" by Gregory A. Borchard of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas
» "'More than a Skirmish': Press Coverage of the Lincoln-Douglas Debates" by David W. Bulla of Augusta University
» "The Fire-Eating Charleston Mercury: Stoking the Flames of Secession and Civil War" by Debra Van Tuyll of Augusta University
» "Loyalty and Liberty: The Struggle for Union in Upcountry South Carolina, 1828–1835" by Brian Neumann of the University of Virginia
» "The Dred Scott Tragedy: How the Press was Complicit" by Joe Mathewson of Northwestern University
» "Race, a Slave, the Court, and the Looming War" by Bill Huntzicker of St. Cloud State University
» "Abolitionism, the Kansas-Nebraska Act, and the End of Compromise" by Dianne Bragg of the University of Alabama
» "Fanning the Flames: Extremist Rhetoric in the Antebellum Press, and the Road to Secession" by Phillip A. Lingle of New Mexico State University.
» The afternoon session will conclude with five paper presentations.
Saturday
The final session will begin at 9 a.m. and include five paper presentations. The symposium will conclude with a discussion of Civil War monuments by James Ogden of the Chickamauga & Chattanooga National Military Park and Moccasin Bend National Archeological District, who will lead a tour of Chattanooga's historic Civil War sites and monuments that afternoon.
For further information, contact David B. Sachsman, 423-425-4219, david-sachsman@utc.edu.