2007 Peter Seaborg Prize to be Awarded

At 7:00 p.m. on Saturday, February 23, 2008, The George Tyler Moore Center for the Study of the Civil War at Shepherd University will sponsor a presentation by the winner of the 2007 Peter Seaborg Award for Civil War Scholarship, Dr. Bruce Levine, J.G. Randall Professor of History at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Levine received the award for his book entitled Confederate Emancipation: Southern Plans to Free and Arm Slaves during the Civil War. Published by Oxford University Press, Levine’s work looks closely at the 1864 proposal to arm and free slaves of the South after the disastrous results at the Battle of Chattanooga. Throughout the book, Levine captures the voices of the various factions across the South and sheds light on such controversial topics as what the Confederacy was fighting for, whether black southerners were willing to fight in large numbers in defense of the South, and what this episode foretold about life and politics in the post-war South.

Levine will offer an overview of the book in the Visitors Center of the Antietam National Battlefield, located in Sharpsburg, Maryland. The family of Peter Seaborg will present Levine with a commemorative plaque and a $5,000 award for his accomplishment. Copies of the book will be available for sale at the event, and the author will be on hand for questions and autographs. The event is open to the public at no charge. A reception and book signing will follow.

In addition to Confederate Emancipation, Levine is the author of Half Slave and Half Free: The Roots of Civil War and The Spirit of 1848: German Immigrants, Labor Conflict, and the Coming of Civil War, and is co-author of Who Built America: Working People and the Nation’s Economy, Politics, Culture, and Society.  

The family of Peter Seaborg will present Levine with a commemorative plaque and a $5,000 award for his accomplishment.

Other finalists for the award were:  Civil War Petersburg: Confederate City in the Crucible of War by A. Wilson Greene and published by University of Virginia Press; Color-Blind Justice: Albion Tourgee and the Quest for Racial Equality from the Civil War to Plessy v. Ferguson by Mark Elliott and published by Oxford University Press; John M. Schofield and the Politics of Generalship by Donald B. Connelly and published by University of North Carolina Press; No Party Now: Politics in the Civil War North by Adam I.P. Smith and published by Oxford University Press.

Titles that received honorable mention are: Dissonance: The Turbulent Days Between Fort Sumter and Bull Run by David Detzer and published by Harcourt Press; From Home Guards to Heroes: The 87th Pennsylvania and Its Civil War Community by Dennis W. Brandt and published by University of Missouri Press; The Gettysburg Gospel: The Lincoln Speech that Nobody Knows by Gabor Boritt; and Gettysburg Requiem: The Life and Lost Causes of Confederate Colonel William C. Oates by Glenn W. LaFantasie and published by Oxford University Press.

Previous Seaborg Award Winners > >