J. Harvie Wilkinson, Jr. Lecture - On Great Fields, Wednesday, October 18, 2023 5:30PM

Item details

Date

Wednesday, October 18, 2023 5:30PM

Name

J. Harvie Wilkinson, Jr. Lecture - On Great Fields

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Description

Before 1862, Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain had rarely left his home state of Maine, where he was a trained minister and mild-mannered professor at Bowdoin College. On the second day at Gettysburg, after running out of ammunition at Little Round Top, he ordered his men to wield their bayonets in a desperate charge down a rocky slope that routed the Confederate attackers. Despite being seriously wounded at Petersburg, Chamberlain survived the war, going on to be elected governor of Maine four times and serve as president of Bowdoin College. How did a stuttering young boy come to be fluent in nine languages and even teach speech and rhetoric? How did a trained minister find his way to the battlefield? Award-winning historian Ronald C. White delves into these contradictions in this cradle-to-grave biography of Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain.

Ronald C. White is the New York Times bestselling author of biographies A. Lincoln: A Biography and American Ulysses: A Life of Ulysses S. Grant, as well as three other books on Lincoln, most recently Lincoln in Private: What His Most Personal Reflections Tell Us about Our Greatest President. White earned his Ph.D. at Princeton, has lectured at the White House, and has spoken about Lincoln across the world. He is a senior fellow of The Trinity Forum in Washington, D.C. His most recent book is On Great Fields: The Life and Unlikely Heroism of Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain.

For more information on Ronald C. White, please visit PRH Speakers.

The content and opinions expressed in this presentation are solely those of the speaker and not necessarily of the Virginia Museum of History & Culture.

Pricing:

• 1831 Society members - complimentary
• Weddell Society* members - complimentary
• Patron members - $18
• All other members - $28
• Non-member guests - $38

*Weddell Society members, please contact the Advancement department at 804.342.9678 to reserve your complimentary tickets.

Program Notes:

• This lecture is for VMHC members only. Not a member? Join today.
• This lecture will not be livestreamed or recorded. Tickets are required for in-person admission.
• Members, please login above to reserve your paid or complimentary tickets. 
• In-person attendees are invited to meet the speaker immediately following the lecture.
• A limited number of copies of the book will be available for purchase at the event. Due to publishing dates, this book is not available for pre-order online. 

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