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JOIN US ON TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 2025 AT 7:15 P.M. (Pacific Time)
FOR A PRESENTATION ON:
"LINCOLN AND HIS GENERALS: LEADERSHIP IN THE GREATEST AMERICAN CRISIS"
WITH Dr. Gary Gallagher and Dr. Joan Waugh, Authors and Historians
Abraham Lincoln, oil on canvas by George Healy, 1887;
in the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
No other U.S. president has faced a set of challenges comparable to those that tested Abraham Lincoln’s leadership--including George Washington, who shepherded an infant republic through its fraught first decade, and Franklin D. Roosevelt, who occupied the White House during the Great depression and World War II. Our presentation has three parts. The first consists of framing observations that convey the scale and complexity of the task that Lincoln confronted and the structure of the government within which he functioned. The second focuses on Lincoln’s style of leadership as commander in chief. And we will finish with analysis of Lincoln’s relationships with four of his most important generals--Winfield Scott, George B. McClellan, Joseph Hooker, and Ulysses S. Grant--using each of them to illustrate key elements of his presidential leadership. All but Hooker served as general-in-chief, the highest position in U.S. military forces in the 19th Century, and Hooker commanded the republic’s preeminent field army for a critical period in 1863.
Gary W. Gallagher received his B.A. from Adams State College of Colorado and his M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin. He began his academic career in 1986 at Penn State University, where he taught for twelve years. In 1998, he joined the faculty of the University of Virginia and held the John L. Nau III Professorship in the History of the American Civil War and served as the founding Director of the John L. Nau III Center for Civil War History. He is the author or editor of more than fifty books, including The Confederate War (1997), Causes Won, Lost, and Forgotten: How Hollywood and Popular Art Shape What We Know About the Civil War (2008), The Union War (2011), The Enduring Civil War: Reflections on the Great American Crisis (2020), and The American War: A History of the Civil War Era (co-authored with Joan Waugh; 3rd ed., 2023).
He presented a 48-lecture course on the Civil War for The Teaching Company and has participated in more than five dozen television projects in the field. He held the Cavaliers’ Distinguished Teaching Professorship in 2010-2012 (the highest teaching award conveyed by the University of Virginia) and won the Philip Merrill Award for Outstanding Contributions to Liberal Arts Education from the American Council of Trustees and Alumni in 2013. Active in the field of historic preservation, he was president from 1987 to mid-1994 of the Association for the Preservation of Civil War Sites, the forerunner of The Civil War Trust (now the American Battlefield Trust).
 Professor Emerita Joan Waugh of the UCLA History Department researches writes and teaches about nineteenth-century America, specializing in the Civil War, Reconstruction, and Gilded Age eras. Dr. Waugh has published numerous essays and books on Civil War and Reconstruction topics, single authored, co-authored and edited, including the prize-winning U. S. Grant: American Hero, American Myth, (2009). Her most recent work (with Gary W. Gallagher), is entitled The American War: A History of the Civil War Era (2015, 2nd edition, 2019, 3rd edition, 2023). Other books include Unsentimental Reformer: The Life of Josephine Shaw Lowell (1998); Civil War and Reconstruction, 1856 to 1859 (2003, 2nd edition, 2010); The Memory of the Civil War in American Culture, 2004), and Wars Within A War: Controversy and Conflict Over the American Civil War 2009).
At UCLA, Professor Waugh has been honored with three teaching prizes, including the university’s prestigious Distinguished Teaching Award. Her dedication to teaching extends beyond the campus classroom. She has also participated in local, statewide and national teaching workshops for elementary, middle school and high school teachers that included battlefield tours. She developed and designed a summer travel-study program for UCLA students featuring a two-week immersion in Civil War history featuring on-site visits to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, Antietam, Maryland, Richmond, Virginia, and Washington, D.C.
President of the Society of Civil War Historians from 2020-2023, Dr. Waugh has been interviewed for many documentaries, including the PBS series, “American Experience” on Ulysses S. Grant and the History Channel’s production of “Lee and Grant.” Waugh is also a Director on the U.S. Grant Advisory Board. She has been the recipient of Huntington Library, NEH and Gilder-Lehrman fellowships, and in 2021-2022 she served as a Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholar. Waugh’s current project is an exploration of the nature of U.S. Grant’s surrender policy during the Civil War.
This month's meeting is a rare opportunity to hear two nationally-known and respected historians present a joint program. It is certainly a meeting you will not want to miss!
We have a "Book Buying Partnership" with our local, Pasadena treasure, Vroman's Bookstore. If you would like to pre-order Dr. Gallagher's and/or Dr. Waugh's books using this link, it will be available for you at the September 23 meeting where our speakers can sign them for you. And there are no shipping charges to pay!
Please be sure to follow all instructions on the order page so that your book will be ready for you at the meeting.
Orders must be placed no later than March 15, 2025.
VROMAN'S PURCHASE LINK
Southern California's Oldest & Largest Independent Bookstore
Vroman’s Bookstore is the official supplier of speakers’ books for the Pasadena Civil War Round Table.
Thanks to the volunteer efforts and expertise of our Pasadena CWRT members, Tina Miller and Monika Skerbelis, we are now able to record our monthly meetings and post the videos to our YouTube Channel for your enjoyment and edification if you are unable to join us for our live meetings. We invite you to check out the videos from our two years of virtual meetings, as well as our most recent presentations, at our YouTube Channel:
CLICK HERE
We are indebted to Tina and Monika for helping us to bring this wonderful added benefit to allow our non-local members and guests to enjoy the presentations of our distinguished roster of speakers.
PLEASE JOIN US FOR OUR IN-PERSON MEETING:
Pasadena CWRT - TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 2025 - 7:15 PM (Pacific Time)
The Blinn House - 160 North Oakland Avenue - Pasadena
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